United States: In a significant development, the United States has identified its inaugural instance of H5N9 avian influenza within a Californian duck farm, as reported by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) on Monday.
Alongside this rare H5N9 strain, authorities also uncovered the more prevalent H5N1 variant within the same establishment located in Merced County, California. According to a detailed submission to the Paris-based WOAH, nearly 119,000 ducks housed on the affected farm were culled by December 2 as a preventive measure, according to the reports by Reuters.
The highly virulent avian influenza, colloquially referred to as bird flu, has proliferated extensively across global poultry populations in recent years. This outbreak has necessitated the extermination of hundreds of millions of birds and has also made incursions into numerous mammalian species, such as dairy cattle, in the US. Alarmingly, the virus was responsible for a human fatality in Louisiana.
Of the various strains that have emerged, H5N1 has wrought the most widespread devastation. By contrast, H5N9 remains an anomaly, with this incident marking its first documented occurrence within US poultry stocks, as noted by Reuters.
“This constitutes the inaugural confirmed case of HPAI H5N9 in American poultry,” declared the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in its official communique to WOAH.
The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), in coordination with state-level animal health and wildlife authorities, is conducting an exhaustive epidemiological probe. Enhanced surveillance efforts have also been initiated to address these highly pathogenic avian influenza incidents comprehensively.