The Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) has confirmed the positive results for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) or bird flu.

A DAERA spokesperson said: "HPAI has now also been detected in two fox cubs along with wild birds in the Portrush area. While this is the first time mammals have been confirmed as having influenza of an avian strain in Northern Ireland, it is not unexpected. There have been findings of AI in mammals over recent months across Europe, Great Britain, and the Republic of Ireland."

Avian influenza has been identified in a New York City live bird market, the nation’s first outbreak in domestic poultry since May.

Some 660 birds were at the Brooklyn market, according to USDA.

All 12 species at the market, including guineas, Muscovy ducks, silkies and red fowl, tested positive for avian influenza. Chukars did not have an H5 strain of the pathogen, the Pennsylvania Ag Department told industry stakeholders.

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This spring, Runstadler and colleagues published a study in Emerging Infectious Diseases reporting H5N1 virus spillover into New England harbor and gray seals found stranded off the coast of Maine in June and July of 2022. The data did not support seal-to-seal transmission as the main route of infection, and Runstadler and his coauthors concluded that the seals were likely infected “through environmental transmission of shed virus.”

More recently, Peru reported nearly 3500 dead sea lions affected by avian influenza off the country’s coast this March. And in May, Chile reported the deaths of 9420 marine mammals infected with the virus, including more than 8000 sea lions and more than 1000 Humboldt penguins.

“For the most part, I think this is still bird to mammal [transmission], but it is very difficult to discern in the short-term,” Runstadler wrote in his email. “The number of different marine mammal infections is cause for concern,” he added, “and certainly if we detected sustained die-off or transmission in these hosts, it would be of greater concern.”

Finland's Food Authority today reported H5N1 on two more fur farms, both housing foxes, as Norway and Germany reported virus detections in mammals.

The two new fur farm outbreaks occurred in earlier-affected areas and raise the number of outbreaks to 14. One of the new detections was at a facility that raises blue foxes, and the other was as a farm housing blue fox and cross fox, a variant of red fox that has a black stripe running down the back.

Elsewhere, Norway reported the virus in a red fox pup found dead in late June under a house in the city of Tromso in the northern part of the country, according to a notification from the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH).

In Germany, government officials from Schleswig-Holstein state today reported said tests on a seal found dead at a seal station in the Wadden Sea were positive for H5N1, according to a statement translated and posted by Avian Flu Diary, an infectious disease news blog. The testing was conducted by the Friedrich Loeffler Institute. Schleswig-Holstein state is located in far northern Germany.

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July 2023 (PAHO/WHO)—In January this year, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warned about outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in birds in countries of the Americas. For the first time, a human case of avian influenza A (H5N1) was also confirmed in a Latin American country. Since then, 16 countries have reported cases in birds and other animals and, until the first week of July 2023, two countries have confirmed human infections.

A cat shelter in South Korea has been put under quarantine after two of the felines tested positive for H5N1 bird flu in the capital city of Seoul.

The South Korean Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said in a statement on Tuesday that this was the first time that this bird flu had been detected in cats in the country since 2016, as reported by Reuters.

The positive-testing cats were two of 38 cats that had recently died at the same shelter. Workers at the shelter are being monitored, although none are exhibiting symptoms of the condition.

Outbreaks of H5N1 influenza among cats and farmed mink are stoking fears about a human pandemic. But scientists increasingly understand what a pandemic flu virus might look like, aiding efforts to keep us safe.

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It has been confirmed that 38 cats have been killed in a group due to bird influenza in Korea.

It is the first time in Korea that a cat has been collectively decommissioned by avian influenza, and it is the second time in the world.

40 cats were being protected at a private cat shelter in Seoul, and from the 24th of last month, 38 cats began to die from high fever and anorexia, and 38 cats died in a month.

Professor Dae-seop Song's research team from the Department of Investigating at Seoul National University investigated and it was confirmed to be H5N1 avian influenza.

Millions of wild birds may have died from bird flu globally in the latest outbreak, researchers have said, as the viral disease ravages South America, with 200,000 deaths recorded in Peru alone.

The highly infectious variant of H5N1, which gained momentum in the winter of 2021, caused Europe’s worst bird flu outbreak before spreading globally. The disease reached South America in November 2022, and has now been reported on every continent except Oceania and Antarctica.

...As recently as October 2022, there were disturbing reports of sustained transmission of the panzootic, highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) at a Spanish mink farm (11). At least one mammalian adaptation in the virus polymerase emerged in the mink during this outbreak; in all likelihood, we narrowly escaped a larger disaster, as the incident appears to have been contained.

It took a while, but it's back and flourishing. 😍 I'll give it another year or so and then start working on ramification and creating a canopy. I traded a cactus nursery a bunch of seeds from my euphorbia obesa pair for it in Feb '21 and it's grown so much!

https://i.imgur.com/aRVsEk0.jpg

In the last two years, more than half a billion birds have died globally. The cause isn’t deforestation or climate change or the destruction of grasslands — all of which are contributing to the precipitous decline of wild birds — but avian influenza, i.e., bird flu.

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Now, hundreds more sea birds thought to have been infected with avian flu have been found washed up on British beaches as the virus continues to sweep through Europe.

Our chief correspondent Alex Thomson has been to Coquet Island, off Northumberland and a warning, his report contains images of dead and dying birds.

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£1.5 million government funding will support research into avian influenza outbreaks

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus continues to circulate extensively among seabirds in Europe causing high mortality, while the overall situation in poultry has eased. Epidemiological investigations of an outbreak in cats in Poland are ongoing. The risk to the general public remains low, according to the latest report on avian influenza by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), and the EU reference laboratory (EURL).

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The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is working with the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the public health agencies of the 4 nations to monitor the risk to human health of avian influenza (influenza A H5N1) in England. This briefing is produced to share data useful to other public health investigators and academic partners undertaking related work. It includes early evidence and preliminary analyses which may be subject to change.

BirdWatch Ireland staff have been dealing with alarming and unprecedented outbreaks of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza, or bird ‘flu, at some of Ireland’s most important seabird colonies. Over the past few weeks, the carcasses of hundreds of dead seabirds, both adults and chicks, have been recovered for disposal, in an effort to try to prevent further spread of this highly contagious viral disease. There are fears for the long-term devastating consequences this outbreak may have on Ireland’s seabird populations, which are of international importance.

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Two more poultry workers in England have tested positive for avian influenza, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has confirmed.

The two cases of bird flu have been detected at different premises in England through UKHSA’s surveillance programme of asymptomatic workers who have come into contact with birds.

See also: Avian influenza prevention zone lifted, but risk remains

This means four workers have tested positive for avian flu since the programme was launched in March.

In May, there were two positive cases in England and those workers have since tested negative.

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The Finnish Food Authority (FFA) today reported an H5N1 avian flu outbreak in blue foxes at a fur farm in Kausti, located in the west central part of the country. The agency said the virus is the same one that caused recent mass deaths in wild birds.

Also, officials said influenza has been detected at four other fur farms and subtyping tests are still under way. They added that the viruses were found in samples sent by breeders to determine the cause of illness. The source of the virus is still under investigation, but the foxes likely contracted the virus from wild birds.

The farm is the first fur facility in the country to be hit with an H5N1 outbreak. Finland had previously reported H5N1 in two wild foxes.

The FFA said avian flu has been found in large numbers of wild birds this summer and that it is examining samples from several mass deaths of seagulls from different parts of Finland.

In a notification to the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), Finnish officials said the farm also housed 1,500 raccoon dogs as well as 3,500 foxes. Three fatal infections were reported in the foxes. Officials said several black-headed gulls were seen near the farm. So far, no control measures are in place, because highly pathogenic avian flu isn't a listed disease for fur farms. However, veterinary officials are working closely with public health partners and are encouraging fur farms to step-up their biosecurity and use of personal protective equipment.

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July 12 (Reuters) - Three UN agencies on Wednesday warned that an ongoing rise in avian flu outbreaks globally raised concerns that the virus might adapt to infect humans more easily, and urged countries to strengthen disease surveillance and improve hygiene at poultry farms.

Earlier this year, a new H5N1 strain of bird flu that is highly contagious among wild birds explosively spread to new geographical regions, infecting and killing a variety of mammal species and raising fears of a pandemic among humans.