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Avian Influenza in 2006
Further geographical spread of H5N1 in 2006
Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus spread even further in 2006, to Western Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Hong Kong. Low pathogenic strains were also reported in the United Kingdom and in several states of America.
The most severely affected country in 2006 was Indonesia. It now has the highest human case and death toll in the world from avian influenza H5N1 infection - overtaking Vietnam which reported no human cases or deaths in 2006.
Other countries that had major outbreaks in poultry were Sudan, Nigeria, Egypt, Thailand and China.
Avian influenza infections were also reported in cats and some wild carnivores that had eaten raw infected birds
Global avian influenza map at 27 December 2006
Timeline
Below is a chronological timeline of its most notable movement and impact on human life as well as poultry and other animals.
January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December
December
31 December: A scaly-breasted munia bird found dead in a Hong Kong shopping district tested positive for avian influenza H5N1. It's believed the bird had been in contact with migratory birds that are currently flying south.
31 December: The World Bank has granted $10 million to 13 countries to help them fight avian influenza. Some of the countries include Vietnam, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Tajikistan as well as Middle Eastern and Latin American countries.
24 December: A 30 year old woman has died from avian influenza H5N1. The woman was part of an extended family of 33, living in the one house. A brother, 26, and a sister, 15 have also tested positive to the virus. The woman had at first denied having contact with birds but it was later found that they had slaughtered their flock of ducks after a number of them got sick and died.
24 December: Another avian influenza outbreak has occurred in South Korea, this time in Asan. Quarantine officials culled 4,177 pigs within a 500 metre radius of the infected property, and within a 3 kilometre radius, culled 21,000 ducks and nearly 3,000 chickens were culled to stop the spread.
20 December: A Russian zoo has closed down for a day after two geese died. An official has claimed that the birds were vaccinated and test results were negative for avian influenza. A separate report said that one was an older bird who died of an abscess and the other, younger bird had a tumour.
20 December: France has ruled out avian influenza as the cause of death of around 3,500 chickens. It is now believed poor ventilation and extreme heat led to the birds suffocating. See initial report.
19 December: Scientists in Kazakhstan have created their first national avian influenza vaccine. The vaccine is claimed to be the most epidemiologically relevant because it is based on the H5N1 pathogen.
19 December: Vietnam has reported two new cases of avian influenza H5N1. On 6 December the disease broke out in Ca Mau's Tran Van Thoi district killing 2,520 chicks and ducklings. The following day 3,500 ducklings died in the Haq Binh district. It is claimed that the dead birds were not vaccinated because they'd been hatched illegally. There is now a threat of the disease spreading further because the carcases were dumped before the outbreak came to light. Cooler conditions in the area may allow the disease to spread.
18 December: France is carrying out tests on chickens after 3,500 died on a north-east farm over the weekend. Initial investigations are not pointing towards avian influenza as the cause. The surviving flock on the farm appears healthy.
15 December: English zoos are now allowed to apply for vaccination permits for their birds because of their role in global conservation. Scotland and Wales have decided not to allow their zoos to vaccinate because of the current low level of risk.
15 December: Initial tests on the mallard ducks found dead in Idaho indicate the birds died of an infection caused by eating mouldy grain. The condition called 'aspergillosis' occurs when the birds feed on waste grain or in silage pits during bad weather. A similar incident occurred in Iowa in 2005.
14 December: Wildlife experts in Idaho are investigating the deaths of around 2,000 mallard ducks near Burley on the Utah border. A hunter alerted state conservation officials to his find. Signs have been posted in the area warning hunters not to touch or eat the birds until a cause of death is identified.
13 December: New Zealand has passed a Law Reform (Epidemic Preparedness) Bill that, during a pandemic disease outbreak, will allow authorities to ban public gatherings; requisition buildings, vehicles and medicines, and will allow police to detain people for medical tests. The Bill also allows for the quarantine of people suspected of having avian influenza or other pandemic diseases.
12 December: Korea will expand its radius for eradication of poultry following its third avian influenza H5N1 outbreak. The radius will be expanded from 500 metres to 3 kilometres from the infected property. It is expected that around 365,000 birds will be culled.
11 December: An Indonesian study by TNS research and UNICEF has shown that only 31 per cent of 500 respondents knew about the dangers of avian influenza. Only 27 per cent of people who raised chickens and other birds as a hobby were concerned about the disease. They believe that while their birds are only a hobby, they wouldn't directly be affected economically. The survey was done in November in Bogor, Tangerang, Bekasi and Garut.
11 December: An American virologist, Robert Webster, has told Reuters that his laboratory recently infected sparrows, starlings and pigeons with a strain of H5N1 virus isolated from Vietnam, Thailand and Hong Kong. His team confirmed the birds shed the virus in their faeces. He said the sparrows died, the starlings didn't die but shed the virus, and the pigeons replicated the virus but not as much as the starlings. All three species did not transmit the virus to their own kind but the fact that the starlings and pigeons did not succumb to the virus meant they could be dangerous to poultry.
11 December: A third outbreak of avian influenza H5N1 has occurred in Korea on a quail farm. The farm is 18 kilometres away from the site of original outbreak, that was discovered last month. Around 1,000 quails died within a four-day period. To contain and eradicate the disease, 70,000 birds within a 500 metre radius of the farm will be culled, and movement controls are in place for all poultry products and eggs within a 10km radius.
8 December: 600 Nigerian animal health officers have been trained and equipped with protective clothing to carry out tests in poultry farms and villages across the country in the coming weeks. Avian influenza has been reported in 14 of 36 states this year, and as a result nearly 1 million birds have been culled.
3 December: Britain will hold an exercise to test its response to human to human influenza. Operation 'Winter Willow' will involve emergency services, town hall officials, and government ministers. The exercise will take place in two stages starting on 30 January and then 19 & 20 February 2007.
November
28 November: The 35 year old woman that was reported on this page on 13 November, has died of avian influenza H5N1 infection. It was reported that she had contact with infected eggs and dead chickens before falling ill.
26 November: Avian influenza H5N1 has killed 6,000 birds at a poultry farm in Korea's poultry hub, North Cholla province. Korea's Agricultural Ministry has ordered the culling of 236,000 chickens and ducks at six farms within a 500 metre radius of the outbreak property. The Korea Times reported that 300 pigs and 577 dogs would also be culled. Surveillance has been extended to a 10km radius from the site of the outbreak and further culling may take place based on test results.
24 November: Low-pathogenic avian influenza has been discovered on a chicken farm south of Seoul in Korea after 200 birds died over three days. The remaining chickens will not be slaughtered as it is expected they will recover.
24 November: Avian influenza H5N1 has been discovered in turkeys at a livestock camp on the outskirts of Abidjan, on Africa's Ivory Coast. Health and sanitary measures are in place and people exposed to the birds are under medical supervision.
20 November: A US lead team is using satellite data to predict the spread of avian influenza and provide an accurate early warning system. The University of New Hampshire will develop quantitative analysis and modelling capacity for better understanding the relationship between man-made environmental change and transmission of infectious agents.
20 November: Russia has opened one of the world's biggest diagnostic laboratories at the Vetkor state scientific centre of virology and biotechnologies. Specialists will test for avian influenza biological samples supplied from Russian regions, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Negotiations are also underway to provide China with avian influenza identification testing.
20 November: Thousands of domestic poultry have been destroyed in and around the southern Sudanese capital of Juba in an attempt to eradicate an avian influenza outbreak that was reported several months ago. Officials have been visiting houses to check poultry and destroy suspected birds. The poultry owners are being compensated for the birds they lose.
14 November: China's Ministry of Health believes China is in a 'high season for respiratory disease' and has urged local governments to be on the alert for SARS and human cases of avian influenza.
13 November: Two new cases of avian influenza H5N1 were reported in Indonesia, with one being fatal. The 2 year old boy who died was hospitalised on 5 November and died on the 10th. Investigations found that poultry deaths occurred near his house in the West Java province only days before he fell ill. The other case has occurred in a 35 year old woman in the Banten province. She became ill on 7 Nov and was hospitalised on the 10th. Officials are investigating how she was exposed to the virus.
9 November: The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has launched a campaign to raise awareness of avian influenza in Vietnam. Messages are going out through TV, radio broadcasts and leaflets. The campaign will run until December 2007.
9 November: Norfolk County Council in England has released a report about its response to the H7N3 outbreak in March. The report raises issues about communication between government authorities, correct wording on signs and protective clothing for poultry workers as well as police. One poultry worker contracted the H7 strain in the form of conjunctivitis.
8 November: The Nigerian government has asked poultry producers to stop vaccinating their birds against avian influenza because it is against the government's policy and could jeopardise the health of the poultry and poultry products. Nigeria's 140 million poultry contributes to 9 per cent of the country's gross domestic product.
8 November: Turkey has launched a $55 million initiative to combat avian influenza over the next 4 years. Funding for the initiative has come from the World Bank, the European Union, the US, and the Turkish government and private sector will contribute $7 million. The initiative will involve advertising and studies between 2006 and 2010.
7 November: A 17 year old Indonesian boy has died of suspected avian influenza infection, a day after being admitted to a Central Java hospital. His family reported that he had contact with sick birds one month before falling ill with high fever, breathing difficulties, and other avian influenza type symptoms. Tests are being conducted to determine the cause of death.
7 November: Scientists in China have pinpointed the gene that causes avian influenza to spread rapidly among chickens. The scientists hope to use the discovery to shed light on why H5N1 fiercely spreads between and kills some chickens, and in other instances leaves infected birds unscathed.
7 November: According to the Bangkok Post around 60,000 US citizens in Hong Kong have been advised to build a three-month stockpile of food and medicine. The stockpile would include non-perishable foods, soap, alcohol-based hand wash, medicines, vitamins, flashlights, a portable radio and newspaper. In addition, around 4.5 litres of water per person per day should be stored, along with water purifying equipment in the event of complete infrastructure breakdown.
6 November: The US government has approved the use of firefighting foam to quickly kill chickens in an avian influenza outbreak. The water-based foam is an alternative to carbon dioxide and is more humane and effective than gas. It also exposes fewer workers to infected birds.
6 November: China has refuted claims of a new avian influenza variant called Fujian but admitted a new variant had been discovered earlier this year. It said the variant is weak and is being controlled with a new vaccine.
2 November: Researchers have concluded that migratory birds were responsible for spreading avian influenza H5N1 from Russia to Romania, Turkey and the Ukraine in autumn 2005. Mallard ducks were the chief spreaders of the virus.
1 November: Low-pathogenic avian influenza has been found in mallard ducks in the coastal Tuscan area of Maremma, Italy. Local health officials have culled 10,000 ducks to contain the virus.
1 November: British scientists have compiled an avian influenza map that is expected to be an early warning system to predict the arrival of infected migratory birds in Britain. Data for the map was provided by the British Trust for Ornithology which has some 650,000 movements on its database, of birds ringed by hundreds of volunteers.
October
31 October: The FAO and WHO have announced the emergence of a new variant of H5N1 called Fujian. The variant poses no higher or lower risk to humans but could pose challenges for containing H5N1 in China - where it emerged - as current vaccines may not protect domestic birds against the new variant.
30 October: The 39 year old Egyptian woman who was hospitalised on 4 October has died from avian influenza H5N1. She was moved to a Cairo hospital on 12 October and received tamiflu. People with whom she had contact with have tested negative to the H5N1 virus. She is Egypt's 7th avian influenza victim.
20 October: The Queensland Government has released its Action Plan for Pandemic Influenza, which will be used if a human to human avian influenza incursion takes place in Australia. The plan addresses the use of personal protection equipment, social distancing and home quarantine.
20 October: Indonesian authorities are intending to bar city residents from keeping chickens and other poultry in their backyards but no timeline has been given for this to occur.
19 October: The WHO Director General, Bernard Vallat said an international fund to compensate farmers in poor countries for bird culls was urgently needed to ensure that the deadly virus is reported.
18 October: Kenyan authorities have tested birds and people in South Sudan for avian influenza, but all test results were negative. Authorities have asked people to be vigilant to any signs of an outbreak. Kenya has set up 11 centres in public hospitals to carry out surveillance on people who have flu-like illnesses. It has also banned the import of poultry products from Sudan and other infected countries.
16 October: Colorado State University has been awarded $2.6 million from the Center for Disease Control in the USA, to study how the interaction between humans and birds may lead to more widespread transmission of avian influenza.
16 October: A 27 year old Indonesian woman who became ill on 8 October, and was hospitalised on 12 October, has died from H5N1 infection. The WHO is investigating how she contracted the virus.
16 October: A 67 year old Indonesian woman has died from H5N1 infection after being hospitalised for a week. The virus also affected her kidneys. She is Indonesia's 54th avian influenza victim.
16 October: Exercise Cumpstom 06' was held between 16-19 October and tested Australia's human health management plan. The Exercise was run by the Australian Government Department of Health & Ageing and involved over 1,000 participants.
15 October: A 11 year old Indonesian boy has died from H5N1 infection after having contracted the virus from a neighbour's dead chicken. He is Indonesia's 53rd victim.
15 October: Northern pintail ducks have tested positive for low-pathogenic avian influenza in Ottawa County, Ohio, USA. This adds to recent cases in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Michigan.
11 October: A 39 year old Egyptian woman from the Nile Delta is in hospital with pneumonia and suspected avian influenza H5N1. It's believed she killed and plucked sick chickens days before being admitted to hospital.
7 October: The wild pintail ducks discovered with low-pathogenic avian influenza in Michigan, USA, in September, are confirmed as having H5N3. Initial tests indicated low-pathogenic H5N1.
6 October: Seven children have been admitted to a hospital in Makassar, Indonesia with avian influenza type symptoms, but their blood tests were negative for H5N1. Other specimens have been sent to Jakarta for further tests.
6 October: The latest test results from sequencing tests on virus isolates indicate that avian influenza is not mutating towards a more virulent strain that will attack humans or trigger a pandemic. The tests were carried out by the WHO/FAO reference laboratory in Australia, for the Indonesian government.
4 October: The National Government in Papua New Guinea has allocated 5 million Kina for avian influenza surveillance (PNG Kina: 1US$=K3.10). The money will be used to raise public awareness in high-risk areas, and for preparedness activities. K2 million has been put aside specifically for a response to an outbreak - if or when required.
4 October: Another avian influenza H5N1 outbreak has occurred in China. Around 1,000 chickens died from the virus and 73,000 were culled to contain the virus in the Yinchuan district.
3 October: the Agri-food Veterinary Authority in Singapore is conducting an exercise this week to test its response to an avian influenza outbreak in birds. The exercise will involve external cullers from poultry slaughter houses as well as cleaning and construction companies. Around 540 chickens will be culled during the exercise.
2 October: the National Association of Governors in the USA is launching a Pandemic Preparedness Project. A major part of the project will be a year-long series of regional exercises that will test preparedness and coordination in response to avian influenza and its effects on public health, homeland security, agriculture, education and the private business sector.
September
29 September: A 21 year old Indonesian woman has been diagnosed with avian influenza H5N1 after her 11 year old brother died from the same virus several weeks ago. She is being treated in a Surabaya hospital. It is reported that she also had regular contact with poultry.
29 September: Switzerland has put a ban on free range poultry within 21km of any major lakes or rivers in a bid to prevent avian influenza outbreaks by birds migrating to South Africa. The ban is in place for six months commencing 15 October. Around 5,000 poultry owners will be affected by the ban.
29 September: Wild green-winged teal ducks have tested positive for avian influenza in Illinois, USA. Eleven samples were collected from healthy looking birds in the Rice Lake Conservation area, Fulton County. Five of the samples tested positive for low-pathogenic avian influenza.
28 September: A 20 year old Indonesian man has died from breathing difficulties after testing positive for the H5N1 virus. His elder brother died last week and the boys' 15 year old sister is also in hospital. It has been reported that she has the common flu and is clear of the H5N1 virus.
27 September: Nearly 1,000 chickens and ducks have died suddenly from avian influenza on a poultry farm in China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region. The outbreak has been brought under control.
27 September: avian influenza H5N1 has been confirmed in poultry in Aswan, Egypt. The infected poultry found at the back of a house were culled to contain the spread of the virus. Immediately, Egyptian officials put a ban on the breeding of domestic poultry in urban areas.
26 September: Indonesian health officials are investigating two siblings, aged 15 and 20 who have developed avian influenza type symptoms. Their elder brother, aged 25, died recently but was buried before samples could be taken. They are all believed to have had regular contact with poultry and possibly fed dead chickens to the family dog.
26 September: A 59 year old man who bred and raised fighting cocks in north eastern Thailand, has died after contracting avian influenza H5N1. He became ill on July 14 with fever and aches and died on August 10. Despite a number of birds dying in his flock, he did not report the deaths fearing agriculture officials would cull them.
25 September: The US Department of Agriculture said, under certain conditions, commercial poultry farms would be reimbursed for the cost of controlling low pathogenic H5 and H7 avian influenza outbreaks. The conditions of reimbursement are set out under the National Poultry Improvement Program (NPIP), a voluntary federal, state, and industry program to prevent the spread of poultry diseases.
25 September: The Secretariat of the Pacific Community said it will spend around $3 million over the next four years to conduct avian influenza tests among poultry and wildlife birds in the region.
23 September: The World Bank has approved a $3 million grant to reduce avian influenza threats on poultry in the West Bank and Gaza.
22 September: Viruses containing both H5 and N1 surface proteins have been found in pintail ducks at Benton Lake, west-central Montana. Officials said samples did not contain the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain as found in Asia but further tests are being carried out to determine the level of pathogenicity.
22 September: Indonesia's health ministry reported the country's 50th death (60th case) of avian influenza H5N1. The 11 year old boy died in East Java, two days after being admitted to hospital.
21 September: Around 200 health workers will travel through Nigeria until March 2007, looking for avian influenza cases. The project is being financed by the European Commission.
21 September: It has been estimated that Indonesia's poultry industry has suffered a loss of at least a 13 trillion rupiah (around $1.4 billion US) since its first confirmed outbreak of avian influenza in 2004.
20 September: The Japanese government has provided around $7.7 million to help improve early warning and rapid response systems in: Vietnam; Laois; Cambodia; Myanmar; Indonesia; Malaysia; Thailand and the Philippines.
19 September: A 3 year old Iraqi boy has been added to the WHO's avian influenza registry. He survived a mild avian influenza infection in March this year. Initial tests were inconclusive but subsequent tests showed evidence of avian influenza infection, and investigations revealed exposure to sick birds. He was Iraq's third case of human infection.
18 September: Britain's farm ministry will carry out surveillance and testing for avian influenza on ducks, geese, swans, gulls and waders in areas which have a high number of migrating waterfowl and large poultry populations.
14 September: Around 60 organisations in the city of London's financial services sector will run an avian influenza pandemic exercise between 13 October and 24 November 2006. The exercise will test the financial sector's ability to deal effectively with major operational disruption.
14 September: Danish veterinary authorities have declared Denmark free of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1, and have provided formal notification to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).
13 September: A 5 year old boy who died in March has now been recognised as Indonesia's 49th avian influenza victim. The boy was added to the registry after the World Health Organisation revised its definition of H5N1.
12 September: A team of international scientists are monitoring the migration of wild whooper swans from Mongolia as they cross Eurasia. The swans have been fitted with solar-powered global positioning systems (GPS) that will help the scientists understand their potential involvement in the spread of avian influenza. An information database on international wild bird avian influenza surveillance is available at www.gains.org.
11 September: The Chinese Council of Agriculture has called for chicken and pig farmers to immediately install bird-proof netting, to keep wild birds separate from domestic pigs and chickens.
11 September: An outbreak of avian influenza has been confirmed in domestic poultry in Juba, southern Sudan.
9 September: Vietnam's health ministry has drafted a national action plan to prevent a relapse of avian influenza infection. The government has earmarked US$62 million for facilities to prevent and control the epidemic.
8 September: New outbreaks of avian influenza H5N1 have been detected in Egypt. Infected birds were culled in the southern province of Sohag and the coastal province of Damietta.
7 September: A 14 year old boy from Makassar in Indonesia has died from avian influenza H5N1 infection. It is believed he had contact with poultry before they were recently culled in the area. In addition, it has been confirmed that a 14 year old girl from the same area who died in June, was also infected with the H5N1 virus but tests have only now been confirmed. This brings Indonesia's avian influenza human fatalities to 48.
7 September: Cambodian researchers have tested 351 Cambodian villagers after they had extensive contact with avian influenza infected poultry in 2005. They found no one had antibodies to the H5N1 virus, suggesting it does not spread easily to humans and that mild cases are rare.
6 September: Vietnam is making a decision this week, whether or not it will vaccinate its population of white-winged ducks (mallards). Over 80 per cent of the population has already been vaccinated using the Italian produced H5N9 vaccine.
6 September: Myanmar in south east Asia has declared itself free of avian influenza after a 3 month detection program found no new cases.
6 September: The Indonesian government is planning to use its 60 million imported doses of the H5N2 vaccine on its poultry nationwide. Officials, however, have questioned the effectiveness of the drug.
5 September: Thailand agriculture authorities will carry out a round of avian influenza inspections between September and November to clean up poultry production sites and disinfect provinces most at risk from migratory birds coming down from China and Russia.
5 September: A fresh outbreak of avian influenza has killed 700 ducks in eastern Cambodia. Tests have confirmed H5N1 in both live and dead ducks in the Bateay district of the Kampong Cham province.
4 September: More than 100 ducks have died suddenly in southern Vietnam, with a further 400 culled to stop the spread of a suspected new outbreak of avian influenza. Authorities have requested that the 80,000 ducks still in the province be vaccinated and have given farmers until the end of October to stop breeding more ducks.
3 September: Avian influenza H5N1 has been reported in a domestic poultry farm in the village of Al-Rakakna, in southern Egypt. All poultry on the farm was culled to prevent spread of the virus. This has been the first report of avian influenza since May this year.
1 September: Avian influenza has been registered among migrating birds in West Siberia, Russia. The virus has been detected in 5 out of the 11 southern regions so far this year. Around 1.5 million birds in total have been culled to eradicate the virus.
August
31 August: A dog in Suphan Buri, Thailand has contracted avian influenza after eating infected ducks. No other details have been released at this time but findings will be published in the journal - Emerging Infectious Diseases.
31 August: No avian influenza H5N1 has been found during surveillance of 13,000 wild migratory birds in Alaska. The US Department of Agriculture said around 113 birds tested positive for other types of avian influenza. There were 144 avian influenza subtypes found that pose no threat to domestic poultry or human health. There were no noticeable signs of illness in these birds.
29 August: The mayor of Palu, Indonesia has appealed to bird owners to cull all poultry in the city to prevent the spread of avian influenza after five suspected human cases in the area. The mayor has also confirmed that poultry owners will not be compensated for the loss of their birds.
26 August: Avian influenza has been detected in the southern Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre in Vietnam. The virus was found in one duck but the flock of 45 was culled to contain the virus, despite their healthy appearance.
24 August: Indonesian health authorities have formally reported to the OIE outbreaks of avian influenza H5N1 in the Mimika area of the Papua Province. The four outbreaks occurred last month (July) and it is reported that 144 chickens died from the virus.
24 August: Thailand has unveiled two new mobile molecular laboratories that can test humans for avian influenza in 3 to 4 hours.
24 August: Biotechnology company Imugene Ltd is about to trial two potential avian influenza vaccines on chickens. The technology was developed at the La Trobe University where testing will be undertaken in a secure facility.
22 August: The Dutch Minister for Agriculture has ordered farmers to keep their poultry indoors from 1 September, to protect them from the threat of avian influenza from migrating birds.
20 August: Indonesia has claimed its 46th avian influenza fatality. A 35 year old woman from Cikelet in the West Java province died after being rushed to hospital. A 9 year old girl from the same area also died from avian influenza like symptoms the week prior. There are an additional 12 people from the same area that are under investigation in hospital.
18 August: Two districts in eastern Cambodia have been hit with avian influenza H5N1 outbreaks after a man smuggled infected birds to the region from Vietnam. Around 1,000 ducks were culled to contain the virus. This is the third outbreak in ducks in the area in as many weeks.
17 August: A new type of avian influenza H5N1 has been confirmed in Nakhon Phanom where 300,000 poultry died or were culled as a result of wide spread infection. The strain has a genetic character close to that of the virus found in southern China. There are four types of H5N1 virus in the Asian region, the so-called Thai-Vietnamese type, the Indonesian type and the two types occurring in China. Virologists said that the impact of the new strain on human health was so far no different to that of the Thai-Vietnamese type that was confirmed in Thailand's first outbreak in 2004.
16 August: Korea and Russia have halted chicken imports from the USA following the detection of avian influenza H5N1 in swans at Lake Erie in Michigan.
15 August: More than 210,000 ducks have been culled on a farm in Changsha, in China's Hunan province after 1,805 ducks on the farm tested positive to H5N1 avian influenza.
15 August: Authorities in Tanzania's semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar have incinerated 61,000 eggs in a bid to counter the threat of avian influenza to the community.
14 August: The American government announced that two swans in Michigan tested positive for both the H5 and N1 avian influenza sub-types. Experts are determining whether the birds were infected with two separate avian influenza strains, or it is low pathogenic H5N1.
14 August: India has declared itself free of avian influenza after four months of no reported cases. The last outbreak occurred in April this year. Altogether one million birds were culled to stamp out the virus. During the outbreak India's $7.8 billion poultry industry suffered hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.
14 August: Two young owls have died in a Rotterdam zoo (Holland). A third laboratory test is being conducted to confirm the cause of death as H5N1 avian influenza. The owls were the only birds in the zoo that were not given an avian influenza vaccination.
10 August: Around 54 ducks were culled on two farms in a south Vietnamese province following the detection of the H5 strain of avian influenza. Two weeks earlier, 53 wild storks were culled at a theme park in Ho Chi Minh City after testing positive for the H5 strain.
August 6: Authorities in Thailand have confirmed the death of a 27 year old man from avian influenza infection. It was evident that he had extensive contact with poultry.
August 4: A black Australian swan in Dresden zoo (Germany) tested positive for H5N1 avian influenza virus. It is suspected that the virus was carried in by wild migratory birds last winter. Government permission has been sought to vaccinate the zoos collection of 720 birds, covering 112 species.
2 August: Six family members have been hospitalised in Indonesia with H5N1 symptoms. The family is from the Karo Regency where previously seven members of the one family died from avian influenza infection. Feathers from the poultry eaten by the family tested positive for the H5N1 avian influenza virus.
2 August: Low pathogenic H7 avian influenza has been found on a Dutch poultry farm, housing 25,000 birds. The birds on the farm in the Gederse Vallei region are likely to be culled to eradicate the virus.
1 August: The Thailand government has warned farmers who fail to report avian influenza outbreaks within 12 hours could face a two month jail term and a 4,000 baht ($160) fine. Land borders have also been closed to fowl trade in an attempt to prevent further outbreaks.
July
31 July: H5N1 avian influenza was detected in chickens in Thailand's northeast Nakohn Panon Province. It is suspected the infection was brought in on contaminated egg trays from Laos. Over 300,000 hens on 78 farms were culled to eradicate the virus.
30 July: Up to 300,000 chickens are to be culled in tambon Ban Klang, Thailand (near the Laotian border), after laboratory tests confirmed an outbreak of avian influenza. Around 1,500 health officials have been mobilised to carry out the cull on 70 farms. Residents in the infected areas are being monitored for their health and their houses will be sprayed with disinfectant. There are 80 suspected human cases across 19 provinces.
30 July: India will declare itself avian influenza free on 10 August 2006 because no new cases have been reported in the past three months. India also plans to sell a poultry vaccine for H5N1 after testing is completed in the next few months.
28 July: Hundreds of chickens in the Karo region of Indonesia have been culled by animal husbandry officials after three of the chickens tested positive for avian influenza. Angry bird owners claimed that the military, police and public order officers came after dark and killed all of their chickens without notification or consent.
28 July: H5N1 avian influenza was found in approximately 2,580 chickens in Vientiane, Thailand. All chickens were culled to prevent further spread of the virus. Apparently the outbreaks occurred on the same farms that were infected with avian influenza in 2004.
26 July: South Africa has culled 8,000 ostriches to contain an outbreak of H5N2 in the West Cape province. It was suspected that the virus had spread to the East Cape province but surveillance found no further evidence of the virus. Exports from the two provinces have been banned.
25 July: Two cats found dead in northern Iraq have tested positive to H5N1 avian influenza. The latest reports, following recent cat cases in Austria, Germany, Thailand and Indonesia, reinforce the hypothesis that cats may play a role in the spread of the virus.
24 July: A 17 year old boy from Phichit, Thailand died from an acute lung infection and flu-like symptoms. Tests have confirmed H5N1 avian influenza. Prior to the onset of his symptoms he had buried 20 fowls that had died of unknown causes in his village. It has been reported that he was trying to hide the birds to avoid culling of his flock.
23 July: Three people with suspected avian influenza have been reported in Phichit, one of the provinces listed as a avian influenza red zone. Two were men aged 59 and 86 and the other, a 7 year old boy. The three had reportedly been in contact with dead chickens.
23 July: A rural hunter in Thailand's northern Uttaradit province and a man who feasted on wild fowl with him are in hospital, suspected of contracting avian influenza.
22 July: The Veterinary Record reports that horses have a very low chance of contracting avian influenza. Two subtypes of the virus are known to infect horses: H7N7 and H3N8. Potential routes of infection may be contaminated drinking water (for example dams) or by eating contaminated grass or hay. It is not known whether horses are susceptible to the H5N1 virus.
21 July: a H5N1 avian influenza outbreak has occurred in China's north western region of Xinjiang. Around 3,000 chickens died of the virus on two farms and over 350,000 were culled on another 30 farms to stop the spread of the disease. A sealed radius of 5 kilometres has been set up for quarantine purposes.
21 July: Singapore has conducted a two-day simulation of a flu pandemic. The exercise involved Changi Airport, a border crossing to Malaysia and several hospitals. Over 1,000 health workers and public servants from other agencies took part along with 500 volunteer 'patients'.
20 July: Over 700 chickens and turkeys on three farms have either died or been culled in southern Bulgaria. Preliminary tests have suggested that it is not the H5 or H7 strains but samples have shown the presence of Newcastle Disease.
20 July: The WHO has confirmed the death of a 44 year old man in Jakarta, who died from H5N1 avian influenza. The man's death sees Indonesia tie even with Vietnam for the number human mortalities (42) relating to avian influenza.
20 July: Suphan Buri in central Thailand has been declared as a poultry pandemic zone after a second mass death of chickens. Mass poultry deaths occurred in 50 provinces but most have been ruled out as having avian influenza infections. Test results are yet to be released for the remaining 23 provinces that have experienced mass bird deaths.
14 July: The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced that a new animal disease crisis management centre will begin operating in late July 2006 at the FAO headquarters in Rome. Its initial focus will be on H5N1 avian influenza.
14 July: Authorities have confirmed that H5N1 avian influenza was the cause of death of a 3 year old girl who died near Jakarta in Indonesia on 6 July.
13 July: Thailand's north east is on alert for possible outbreaks of avian influenza after poultry were found dead from unknown causes. Five out of nine provinces have tested negative for avian influenza but lab results are not yet available for nine birds found in Surin and Yasothan.
12 July: Britain's Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has released a report on the epidemiology of the H7N3 avian influenza outbreak in Norfolk in April this year. The report implicates foxes and poor farm biosecurity in the spread of the disease. See the Report 
PDF [348kb]
11 July: the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre will conduct a national survey for avian influenza in migratory birds. The survey will commence on 15 July and hopes to promote the early detection of avian influenza across the country.
11 July: Spain has reported H5N1 avian influenza as being responsible for the death of a single great crested grebe found in the north of the country. Experts said the bird could have spent the winter in part of the Mediterranean affected by avian influenza rather than having migrated from Africa.
10 July: India is close to developing its own vaccine against avian influenza in poultry with final phase trials showing 90 per cent success. The vaccine will target the H5N1 strain. Vietnam is also developing its own vaccine against avian influenza in poultry.
5 July: Nigeria's President has alleged the media has made false reports in regards to a suspected outbreak of avian influenza in Taraba State.
5 July: The H5N2 virus detected on the ostrich farm near Mossel Bay, South Africa has been brought under control. Sixty ostriches were destroyed to contain and eradicate the virus.
5 July: Russia could have its first oral vaccine for birds against the H5N1 strain by the end of the year. The Director of St Petersburg's Veterinary Institute of Poultry Breeding said the vaccine being developed would be administered with food and water rather than intravenously and would save time in vaccinating large flocks.
5 July: The Ministry of Agriculture announced on Tuesday that the bird flu outbreak in Hotan County in north west China had been controlled.
5 July: Testing by Canada's avian influenza reference laboratory in Winnipeg, of birds from a small backyard flock on Prince Edward Island, has been completed with no evidence of H5 avian influenza found in the birds.
5 July: Almost 200 chickens in the northern Thai province of Phicit were culled, disinfected and buried in a bid to prevent the spread of avian influenza. The outbreak was suspected last week when 1,000 domestic poultry died of an unknown cause. A 14 year old girl was hospitalised but later released after testing negative for H5N1.
3 July: WHO test results have confirmed that avian influenza caused the death of a 5 year old boy in East Java last month. This takes the total number of confirmed bird flu fatalities in Indonesia to 40.
3 July: South Africa has culled 60 ostriches after an outbreak of H5N2 avian influenza on a farm near Mossel Bay in the country's west. The farm has been placed under quarantine.
1 July: China's Agricultural Ministry has confirmed an outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza in the Ningxia region in the country's north west.
June
30 June: H5N1 avian influenza has been detected on one commercial poultry farm and in two backyard poultry flocks in the remote Taraba state in East Nigeria. Taraba is the 14th of 36 states to detect the virus.
26 June: Experts have suggested that the deaths of wild birds in Russia's Tuva Republic were not caused by avian influenza, as was previously believed, but by toxic waste. Fifty dead fish were found on the shore of Lake Ubsu-Nur where the dead birds were found.
26 June: An epidemiologist from Zambia's Ministry of Agriculture has announced that the forty dead birds found in Livingston have tested negative for bird flu.
22 June: More than forty dead wild birds that were found in Livingston, the tourist capital of Zambia, have been sent to South Africa to be tested for avian influenza.
21 June: The Canadian Food Inspection Agency have announced that further tests from the poultry flock on Prince Edward Island (see 18 June) have shown no signs of H5N1 or any other form of the avian influenza virus.
20 June: The WHO has confirmed that a 13 year old boy from South Jakarta, Indonesia, died in hospital on 14 June from H5N1 avian influenza after helping his grandfather slaughter chickens one week prior to becoming ill. His grandfather is in good health.
19 June: A WHO medical officer in Jakarta, Indonesia, has announced the detection of a cat infected with H5N1 avian influenza. He suspects that the cat contracted the virus from eating contaminated birds.
19 June: An outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza in north China’s Shanxi Province has been reported by Chinese Agricultural officials after chickens that died in poultry farms in Changzhi City tested positive for the disease.
18 June: The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has reported that a gosling from a poultry farm on Prince Edward Island has tested positive for the H5 strain of avian influenza after four goslings from the flock died last week. The flock of 35 – 40 poultry were culled to contain the virus. A neighbouring backyard poultry flock has been quarantined to prevent the virus spreading and is also being tested for the virus, although all birds remain healthy.
16 June: The WHO has confirmed that a critically ill 31 year-old man from Guangdong province near Hong Kong has tested positive for H5N1 avian influenza. The Hong Kong government has suspended the import of live chickens from mainland China for three weeks because of the case, which indicates a gap in disease surveillance.
16 June: Hungary’s chief veterinarian has reported that samples sent to the UK for testing have confirmed that the outbreak of avian influenza among geese in the country’s south-east (see 9 June) was H5N1; however the June 9 OIE report only confirms H5 infection, not H5N1.
15 June: The WHO has confirmed H5N1 as the cause of death of a 7 year old girl from Pamalung near Jakarta earlier this month (see 2 June). No specimens from her 10 year old brother who died two days earlier were available. All other family members have tested negative for the virus.
14 June: Indonesian local officials have reported that H5N1 is suspected as the cause of death of three children from the same family in the Lampung Province of southern Sumatra, after dead chickens were recently found in their neighbourhood. Samples from the five year old girl are being tested for H5N1 however her 4 year old twin sisters were buried before samples were taken.
12 June: The Emergencies Ministry of the Ukraine has responded to a suspected H5N1 avian influenza outbreak in Pisky, a village in the north-eastern Sumskaya region of the country near the Russian border. Approximately 7,200 chickens will be culled to control the outbreak.
10 June: China’s Ministry of Agriculture confirmed a H5N1 outbreak on a poultry farm in the north-western province of Xinjiang. 17,100 birds have been culled and experts have disinfected the area to successfully contain the outbreak.
9 June: Hungary’s health officials have announced that a H5 strain of avian influenza has been found in a domestic flock of geese in the south-eastern county of Bacs-Kiskun, but are unsure whether it is the deadly H5N1 strain. The flock of 2,300 geese has been culled along with another 300,000 birds, mainly ducks and geese, within a one kilometre radius of the site.
2 June: Indonesian health officials have confirmed that H5N1 infection caused the death of a 7 year old girl from Pamalung near Jakarta. Her 10 year old brother who suffered similar symptoms died two days earlier but was buried before samples were taken. The mother, father and another sibling have flu-like symptoms and have received the Tamiflu anti-viral . A number of dead chickens were found near the family home.
2 June: Ducks and geese from a commercial hatchery on the island of Funen, Denmark, have tested positive for a low pathogenic strain of avian influenza.
May
30 May: A 15 year old boy in Indonesia has died from H5N1 infection, one day after being admitted to hospital. Around 1,600 chickens within a 200 metre radius of the boys' village, Tasikmalaya were culled to remove the source of infection.
29 May: An additional 23 outbreaks of bird flu have occurred in Romania, bringing the total number of outbreaks in birds to 88. Over the past 12 days 500,000 birds have been culled in an attempt to prevent the further spread of the disease in Romania.
29 May: six new cases of bird flu infection have occurred in Indonesia. Three of the six infected people have died with only some of the victims having had contact with birds. Officials are working out how the infection occurred in the others. These new cases have not been associated with the family cluster where 7 people in the one family died in northern Sumatra.
18 May: Denmark has confirmed a H5N1 outbreak on a backyard poultry farm of around 100 birds including hens, ducks, geese and peacocks. The outbreak is in the same area where wild bird outbreaks occurred in March 2006.
17 May: Indonesian officials have confirmed the death of a sixth person from the family cluster of cases in North Sumatra. (See 11 May).
17 May: Two H5N1 outbreaks in poultry have occurred in Russia. The first was in Maximovka village of Tyukalinksy district in the Omsk Region where 86 hens died. A local man, who ignored a hunting ban on wild birds, is being investigated as the cause of the outbreak. The second case has occurred in a household at Kolobrodovo in the Volgograd Region where 50 chickens have reported to have died. Two million poultry in the Volgograd Region were vaccinated in March 2006.
15 May: The small Red Sea country of Djibouti has reported East Africa's first case of H5N1 infection. The infection occurred in a two year old girl (who is in a stable condition in hospital) and 26 chickens that were slaughtered in the village of Bahour near the Somali border. Officials attempted to slaughter poultry in nearby villages to contain the outbreak but were met by angry villagers who refused cooperation and demanded a guarantee of compensation for their chickens. Officials were meeting to discuss how to progress eradication.
15 May: IBM will donate software to assist health authorities share data, track the geographic spread of diseases and predict how the bird flu virus might mutate into a form that is deadlier to people. The work is being carried out at the Almaden Research Centre in San Jose.
15 May: Romanian veterinary authorities have confirmed several H5N1 bird flu outbreaks in the County of Brasov, Transylvania. Infected poultry has been culled.
11 May: Three out of six suspected bird flu victims have died in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Three people were admitted to hospital several days after eating chicken together and died within one day of each other. The three additional people remain in hospital but it has not been confirmed that they are positive for the bird flu virus.
8 May: The WHO has confirmed a H5N1 fatal case in a 30 year old man from Greater Jakarta, Indonesia. The man developed symptoms on 17 April. He lived in the close proximity of animal pens that housed poultry.
8 May: A United Nations crisis management centre in Rome will open within the month to coordinate international efforts against the spread of bird flu. The centre will dispatch response teams to countries where bird flu is detected in animals and will channel aid, experts and equipment to areas where they are most needed. The US has allocated $4.2 million to get the centre going.
6 May: The Ministry of Agriculture in China confirmed that 17 bar-headed geese found dead on a wetland in the Qinghai province died from H5N1. The total number of dead birds found in this province to date is 125, 123 of which were bar-headed geese. There has been no infection detected in domestic poultry in the province.
5 May: A 27 year old woman from Cairo is the fifth person in Egypt to die from the H5N1 infection. She was hospitalised on 1 May with bilateral pneumonia and died on 5 May.
1 May: Authorities have discovered low pathogenic avian influenza in a live bird market in New Jersey, USA. The State's Agriculture Department stated that it was not H5N1 and tests were being carried out to determine the strain. The market owner voluntarily depopulated the existing flock and the market underwent cleaning and disinfection.
1 May: A dead wild goose in the Qinghai province of north-west China has tested positive to H5N1. The area has been quarantined and disinfected.
April
27 April: A H5N1 outbreak has been reported in the Manokwari district of West Papua, Indonesia.
27 April: Around 35,000 chickens were culled at a poultry farm near Norfolk in the UK as a result of the H7N3 bird flu virus. H7N3 was last confirmed in the UK in 1979. Meanwhile, two additional poultry farms in Eastern England have tested positive to bird flu. [See Report on this outbreak, released 12 July 2006].
26 April: The Ivory Coast is the sixth African nation to report H5N1. The virus was found in backyard chickens and ducks in two neighbourhoods in the city of Abidjan.
19 April: Authorities in Sudan announced that H5N1 had been found in chickens and in the owner of the affected farm. The owner has been hospitalised. The WHO has sent in a team to help the impoverished country respond to the outbreak.
12 April: Nine poultry farmers in India have killed themselves and more are facing a grim future after bird flu slashed demand for chicken meat. There are 123,000 poultry farmers in India and it is estimated 70 per cent are now in a dire situation.
6 April: Tests from the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Britain have confirmed that the swan found dead in Fife, Scotland did contain the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu virus.
6 April: A commercial poultry flock has been infected with the H5N1 virus for the first time in Germany. The flock of 8000 turkeys, 5000 geese and 3000 chickens is located near Leipzig in the State of Saxony. The flock was culled to control the outbreak. A consolidated report has stated that 273 wild birds have now been infected with the H5N1 virus in Germany. The birds have been found in 8 states and have come from 11 different bird families.
6 April: 14 new villages in the district of Jalgaon, India have been affected by H5 avian influenza. The presence of H5N1 is expected to be confirmed.
6 April: The Ministry of Health, together with the WHO has confirmed a fatal case of H5N1 infection in an 18 year old girl, from the Minufiyah governate north of Cairo.
6 April: Health officials have reported that the H5N1 virus has been found in the Nigerian city of Lagos. The virus was identified in both backyard poultry as well as in commercial farm poultry. The outbreak is hundreds of miles away from where the virus was first identified. Of the 36 states in Nigeria, 13 have now been affected by highly pathogenic H5N1. Lagos is the largest city in Africa, having 13 million people.
6 April: An H5 virus has been detected in chickens being smuggled from China into northern Vietnam. No human cases of H5N1 infection have been reported in Vietnam since November 2005.
4 April: H5N1 has been detected in poultry in the outskirts of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. It is the fifth West African nation to report the disease.
4 April: A buzzard has tested positive to H5N1 in Berlin, Germany. All movement of bird species has been restricted in the country.
4 April: A H5 infected heron was discovered in Kostrzyn, Poland and is the first European infection in the ardeid species (heron and crane family).
March
31 March: Around 240,000 poultry have been culled in an effort to control H5N1 outbreaks in the Mandalay district of Myanmar since early March, however poultry deaths are still occurring in the township of Kanbalu.
30 March: The district of Bamyan in Afghanistan has a suspected outbreak of avian influenza following the death of chickens, crows and a cat. Scores of dead migratory birds were also found in the area of Ghosak.
30 March: A second 30 year old woman from Qaliubiya in Egypt has died from the H5N1 virus. This is an additional case to that reported on 17 March.
30 March: An eighth outbreak of bird flu has occurred at Kibbutz Ma'aleh Hahamisha, 10 kilometres north of Jerusalem. Around 30,000 chickens will be culled to contain the outbreak.
29 March: An unusual number of crow and kite deaths has been reported in Peshawar, Pakistan. H5N1 was recently confirmed in the area.
29 March: More swans found dead in the Bydgoszcz area in Poland have tested positive to H5N1.
29 March: No H5N1 has been identified in the Papua province of Indonesia - following an incorrect media report.
29 March: New H5N1 outbreaks have occurred in the previously affected districts of Maharashtra state and now in the bordering district of Madhya Pradesh, India.
29 March: H5N1 avian influenza has now been reported in 19 of Egypt's 26 governates. More than 25 million birds have been culled since the first outbreak in poultry in mid February 2006.
29 March: The Czech Republic has confirmed its first case of the H5N1 virus. Two dead swans were found, one in the town of Hluboka which has tested positive. The second dead swan was found in a nearby region and tests have confirmed it was also H5N1 positive. All of the country's neighbours - Austria, Slovakia, Poland and Germany have confirmed cases of the virus.
28 March: A wild mink has contracted the H5 avian influenza strain near Solvesborg, Sweden. It is believed the mink ate an infected dead bird. Dozens of birds have tested positive to H5N1 since Sweden's first reported case, several weeks ago.
24 March: The Ministry of Health in China has confirmed the country’s 16th case of human infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The fatal case occurred in a 29 year old female migrant worker in Shanghai. To date, China has reported 16 cases of H5N1 infection, of which 11 have been fatal.
24 March: The Ministry of Health in Cambodia confirmed the country’s fifth case of human infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The fatal case occurred in a 3 year old girl from Kampong Speu Province, in the southern part of the country.
23 March: A graph displaying the countries and scale of avian influenza H5N1 outbreaks in poultry from the end of 2003 to 23 March 2006, is available on the OIE website.
21 March: Samples from 11 patients under investigation in Azerbaijan for possible H5N1 infection have now been tested at a WHO collaborating laboratory in the United Kingdom. Positive H5N1 results were obtained for seven of these patients. Five cases were fatal. The additional two cases in Salyan involved a 10 year old boy, who has recovered and a 15-year-old girl, who is hospitalized in critical condition. The seventh case occurred in a 21 year old woman from the western rayon of Tarter. She died on 9 March. [Refer to 14 March]
20 March: The Ministry of Health in Egypt has confirmed the country’s first case of human infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The case occurred in a 30 year old woman near Cairo. She developed symptoms in early March following close contact with diseased chickens, ducks and a turkey in the household flock.
17 March: Egypt reports its second human death from the H5N1 avian influenza. The death occurred in a 30 year old woman from Qaliubiya.
14 March: The Ministry of Health in Azerbaijan has reported its first three cases of human infection with the H5 subtype of avian influenza virus. All three cases were fatal. Two of the cases were from the south-eastern rayon of Salyan, but resided in different settlements. The cases occurred in a 17 year old girl and a 20 year old woman, from Daikyand settlement. Poultry deaths have been observed in the settlements in recent weeks. The third case occurred in a 21 year old woman from the central-western province of Tarter.
13 March: The Ministry of Health in Indonesia confirmed the deaths of a 12 year old girl and her 10 year old brother in Boyolali, Central Java from the H5N1 avian influenza virus. Chickens in their household died in the days preceding the onset of their symptoms.
12 March: A wild swan in Bulgaria was confirmed to have died from the H5N1 virus.
12 March: An outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza subtype H5N1 has been reported in poultry at Aung Myae Thar Zan township, in the Mandalay Division. The diagnosis has been made by the Central Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, Yangon & Regional Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Mandalay.
12 March: H5N1 has been found in three domestic duck farms in the Doualare and Diamare provinces of Cameroon. Samples were sent to the OIE Reference Laboratory in Padova, Italy for confirmation.
6 March: A 10 year old boy and his 13 year old sister have died in Moewardi, Central Jarva, Indonesia. Both children had been in contact with sick chickens. Samples have been taken to Java for confirmatory tests.
6 March: A 32 year old man from the Guangdong Province has reportedly died of H5N1.
5 March: H5N1 has been detected in a swan in the Bouches-du-Rhone region and in a duck in Ain. To date, France has had 31 wild birds test positive to H5N1 and 30 have been found in Ain.
5 March: Romanian authorities suspected new bird flu cases in a Danube River village and culled birds as a precaution.
5 March: Poland has detected its first case of H5 bird flu after two swans were found dead on the bank of the River Vistula in the northern city of Torun. Samples were sent to the Community Reference Laboratory in Weybridge, Britain for further tests to determine if it is the deadly H5N1 virus.
5 March: Thousands of birds have died on poultry farms in central and eastern Uganda. Test results are pending.
4 March: H5N1 was found in a wild goose in Germany's Lower Saxony where nearly half of the country's poultry breeding farms are located.
4 March: A health official reported that a family of six people in Azerbaijan were being investigated for bird flu. The family has had two children die in the last month from severe pneumonia. The family own chickens.
3 March: The Iraqi government announced that a woman has died of suspected H5N1 infection near Nassiriya in southern Iraq. Samples have been sent to Baghdad and Cairo for further testing.
2 March: The Austrian Health and Food Safety Agency announced eight new cases of H5N1, confirmed in five ducks, a chicken and two unidentified birds near Graz.
2 March: Greece confirmed three more cases of H5N1 in swans bringing the cumulative total to 19 birds, all which have occurred in the country's north.
1 March: The Ministry of Health in Indonesia has confirmed the death of a 12-year-old girl from the H5N1 virus in Central Java. She developed symptoms (fever) on 19 February, was hospitalized on 23 February, and died on 1 March. Chickens in her household died in the days preceding the onset of her symptoms.
1 March: H5N1 has been reported in poultry in the central and central west regions of Azerbaijan. 300,000 poultry were destroyed to control the outbreaks.
1 March: The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) has been informed that a cat infected with the H5N1 virus was found on the island of R?gen in Germany. The strain was identical to Germany's first bird flu infection in a dead swan in mid February. This is not the first time that felines have been naturally infected with the H5N1 virus. [See more about avian influenza in cats/felines].
1 March: The Animal Health Institute of Hungary has confirmed that H5N1 was responsible for the death of seven wild swans in the south of the country.
1 March: Two wild ducks were found on Sweden's Baltic coast and are suspected of being infected with H5N1. Samples have been sent for confirmatory testing.
1 March: Turkey's 39 outbreaks in 16 provinces has come to an end. Between 15 December 2005 and 1 March 2006 at total of 2,277,220 poultry were culled.
February
28 February: A H5 bird flu virus was detected in six Russian administrative regions. In four of the six regions, domestic poultry were affected.
28 February: 6,000 chickens have died over a two week period on a farm near the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. Samples have been sent to Italy to determine the virus subtype.
28 February: Parts of a zoo in Odessa, Ukraine have been placed under quarantine after the recent deaths of a number of pheasants and parrots. Tests are being carried out to determine the cause of death.
28 February: Bosnia's Veterinary Office head confirmed H5N1 had been found in two swans at Malo Plivsko Jezero lake. Veterinary authorities culled more than a dozen swans at the lake and 4,500 domestic poultry from nearby households.
28 February: A 27 year old man, his mother and brother have died within a span of 15 days in Pakistan. The hospital has not yet released the cause of death.
27 February: Two outbreaks of avian influenza subtype H5 have been reported in Pakistan. The outbreaks occurred in the North West Frontier Province in a layer poultry farm at Charsada and in a breeder farm at Abbottabad. The diagnosis was made by the National Reference Laboratory for avian influenza at Islamabad and samples have also been sent to the OIE Reference Laboratory in Weybridge (United Kingdom) for reconfirmation. There have not been other reports of disease from surrounding areas. No case has been reported at any broiler farm. Epidemiological investigations are underway.
27 February: The Swiss Federal Veterinary Officer confirmed that a wild duck found near Geneva was positive for H5 but the strain is yet to be confirmed. Switzerland is en route for wild birds migrating back from Africa.
27 February: The Ministry of Health in China reported two additional laboratory confirmed cases of H5N1 in humans. The 9 year old girl and 26 year old female farmer are both in critical condition. The H5N1 virus is now considered to be endemic in birds in large parts of China.
27 February: The Ministry of Health in Indonesia has confirmed an additional fatal case of H5N1 infection in a 27 year old woman from West Java Province. She developed symptoms on 13 February and died on 20 February. Investigations carried out by local authorities found reports of chicken deaths in the woman’s neighbourhood four days prior to her onset of symptoms.
24 February: France confirms its first outbreak of H5N1 in domestic birds, at a farm containing 11,000 turkeys. Two previous cases of H5N1 were found in two wild ducks. The ducks and turkeys were located in the same area of France.
20 February: The Chief Veterinary Officer of the Federal Ministry for Health and Women, Vienna confirmed that two dead swans found in Austria tested positive for H5N1.
17 February: The Animal Health Research Institute in Egypt confirmed seven outbreaks of H5N1 in Cairo, Giza, Menia, Quena, Qualiubia, Behera and Dakahlia.
14 February: Two dead swans in northern Germany tested positive for H5N1 shortly after Austria reported two similar cases. The German swans were found on the island of R?gen. Samples from the birds were taken to an EU laboratory in Britain for a definitive test. Poultry found within 3 kilometres of the dead swans were also tested. German agricultural authorities have ordered that all domestic birds be kept indoors to prevent migrating fowl from spreading the virus.
11 February: Greek authorities declared that three swans found dead near the northern city of Thessaloniki in the north of the country had tested positive for H5N1 while Italian authorities confirmed the majority of 17 swans found dead in the southern regions of Puglia, Calabria and Sicily, tested positive for H5N1. Bulgaria confirmed on 10 February that it also had cases of H5N1 in swans.
8 February: It was confirmed that highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza was found in domestic birds in northern Nigeria. The virus has so far been confirmed in poultry in the three northern states of Kaduna, Kano and Plateau. Unconfirmed poultry cases have also been reported in Yobe, Nassarawa and Jigawa states as well as in the Federal Capital Territory – all in the north of Africa.
January
30 January 2006: A fatal human case of H5N1 infection was confirmed in the Erbil and Sulaimaniyah area of northern Iraq. Confirmed outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 in poultry were reported in the area on 2 February.
Information provided on this web page was sourced from various websites and publications including the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the World Health Organisation, Reuters and Australian Government sources.