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Pennsylvania, Maryland clear, Montana birds need more tests
Following recent confirmation that the bird
flu virus strains found in Maryland and Pennsylvania are low pathogenic, the US
Departments of Agriculture and Interior have announced that H5 and N1 avian
influenza subtypes have now been detected in samples from wild ducks in
Montana.
As in the previous cases, initial tests confirm that these samples do not
contain the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain that has spread through birds in Asia,
Europe and Africa. These samples were collected from apparently healthy Northern
pintail ducks and initial test results indicate the presence of low pathogenic
avian
influenza virus, which poses no threat to human health.
Meanwhile,
USDA tests
confirmed over the weekend that the bird flu discovered in wild ducks in
Pennsylvania is a low pathogenic strain. The NVSL confirmed the presence of the
"North American strain" of low pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza through virus
isolation in one of the 15 samples collected from the wild mallards in Crawford
County, Pennsylvania. Initial screening results announced on 2 September
indicated that an H5N1 avian influenza subtype was present in the collected
samples, but further testing was necessary to confirm pathogenicity.
Editor WorldPoultry
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