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AT least 10,000 ducks will have to be destroyed to contain an outbreak of bird flu at two Victorian farms.

The virus found in birds on the two properties is a low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) and not the deadlier form of the virus that spread through Asia, threatening humans and leading to a mass cull of poultry.

Dr Andrew Cameron, the state’s chief veterinary officer, says there is no risk to the community, but authorities had to act quickly to quarantine the two properties run by a company north of Melbourne to remove any chance the virus could spread.

“This is all about making sure that the virus doesn’t one day in the future evolve and mutate into a more serious form,” he said.

The source of the latest outbreak has not been confirmed, but officials believe the virus could have been introduced from wild waterfowl known to harbour influenza viruses.

The Department of Primary Industries will work with the farm owner to dispose of all the ducks and disinfect the farms, he said.

The discovery of the virus came from routine testing that is conducted regularly in the hopes of catching outbreaks before they get out of hand.

Bird flu, also known as avian influenza or AI, is a contagious disease that affects all kinds of poultry.

Dr Cameron said transmission of the virus from birds to humans is very uncommon and this recent outbreak was the first time this particular subtype of the virus had been found in Australian poultry.

“It is a rare event, and we want to absolutely make sure it stays that way,” he said.

Control of the disease is taking place under a nationally agreed framework which involves industry, the Commonwealth and all state and territory governments.

An incident management team has been assembled and is tracking all movements to and from the infected farms and surrounding areas.

The two farms are about 25km apart in an area north of Melbourne, but officials are keeping the exact location private.

Three previous Australian outbreaks of avian influenza in Victoria - the most recent in 1992 - have been successfully eradicated.

(Source: news.com.au)

A man in southern China has died of bird flu a week after being admitted to hospital with a fever, state media reports.

The 39-year-old bus driver from Guangdong province contracted the first human case of bird flu in China in 18 months.

The man from Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong Kong, developed symptoms last week and was admitted to a hospital on Christmas Day because of severe pneumonia, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The report added the man died in the early afternoon on Saturday (local time), after having tested positive for the H5N1 virus.

Guangdong’s official newspaper, the Southern Daily, said 120 people who had contact with the man had developed no signs of sickness.

About 10 days ago Hong Kong culled 17,000 chickens at a wholesale poultry market and suspended all imports of live chickens from mainland China for 21 days after a dead chicken there tested positive for the H5N1 virus.

The virus is normally found in birds but can jump to people who do not have immunity to it.

Researchers worry it could mutate into a form that would spread around the world and kill millions.

In recent years, the virus has become active in various parts of the world, mainly in east Asia, during the cooler months.

Authorities in China are worried about the spread of infectious diseases around this time when millions of Chinese travel in crowded buses and trains across the country to go home to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

The current strain of H5N1 is highly pathogenic, kills most species of birds and up to 60 per cent of the people it infects.

Since 2003, it has infected 573 people around the world, killing 336.

The virus also kills migratory birds but species that manage to survive can carry and disperse the virus to new, uninfected locations.

It transmits less easily between people but there have been clusters of infections in people in Indonesia and Thailand in the past.

Reuters/AFP

(Source: abc.net.au)