Wednesday, July 14, 2010

PRRS reported in pig farms in Thailand

[12 July 2010]
Livestock officers in Thailand have inspected pig farms in various provinces following reports of the Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) that has killed a large number of pigs in Nong Khai province. They have visited pig farms in Buriram province to advice farmers on hygiene and farm management and urged them to urgently report any symptoms of illness in pigs. In Nakhon Pranom province, the Livestock Development Department has coordinated with local organizations to expedite inspections in slaughterhouses and meat vendors. Nakhon Phanom is another province where pigs are reported to be struck by PPRS.

Thailand - Pig disease problems

15 Jul 2010
Livestock officers in Buriram province have visited pig farms to advise to farmers on hygiene and farm management. They have also given the farmers disinfectants and urged them to urgently report any symptoms of illness in the pigs to the department, so that officers could inspect and prevent the spread of the disease.
Meanwhile in Nakhon Pranom province, the Livestock Development Department, in coordination with local organizations, has expedited inspections in slaughterhouses and meat vendors. Nakhon Phanom is another province where pigs are reported to be attacked by the PPRS as it neighbors Nong Khai province.

Livestock officers have instructed for meat packing to be conducted in standardised and hygienic slaughterhouses to prevent the spread of the disease. Authorities have also prevented the transport of pork from unapproved areas.

Mystery epidemic taking toll on Syrian military

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

LONDON — Syria's military was said be fighting a mysterious epidemic that has killed several soldiers and delayed programs.

The Syrian opposition asserted that an unknown disease has been raging through Syrian Army barracks, particularly in the north. The opposition said the suspected epidemic has killed several people and delayed a recruitment program.

"The enrollment of new conscripts has been postponed to the beginning of next month rather than this month," the opposition West Kurdistan Society said.

In a statement on July 12, the society, which reports on the Kurdish minority in Syria, said an undetermined number of soldiers have died of the "unknown disease." On July 10, the statement said, 10 Army recruits were rushed to a hospital in the northeastern city of Qamishli and were reported in critical condition.

The Syrian military has not acknowledged the epidemic. But officials have confirmed that Syrian hospitals were treating many people for exhaustion and other illnesses related to the current heat wave in the Levant.

This marked the second report by the Syrian opposition of an epidemic that has struck the Army. The first report said many Syrian soldiers were hospitalized by what appeared to be dysentery. The disease was attributed to a lack of water, food and poor sanitary conditions in Syrian military training camps.

"There has been a lot of speculation about the reasons for this disease, some blaming the vaccines given to new soldiers, which may have been corrupted," the West Kurdistan Society said. "Others attributed the cause to the state of the weather as there is a wave of intense heat and high temperatures. Some attribute it to a bacterial contamination in water and food in the barracks, and so far this is limited to members of the military, not Syrian civilians."

The Kurdish group said Syrian hospitals were overflowing with soldiers and civil servants believed infected by the epidemic. The report said Syrian physicians have failed to reach a diagnosis and were hampered by poor equipment and training.

So far, at least 14 soldiers, all of them new recruits, were said to have died in the epidemic. The Kurdish group cited deaths in military hospitals in Harasta and Teshrin.

"The Syrian government is unable to provide quick solutions to reduce the spread of the disease, which has turned into a nightmare that haunts members of the Army and the Syrian community in general," the statement said.


More than 1,000 exposed to dengue in Florida: CDC

Previously reported here: http://pandemicinformationnews.blogspot.com/2010/05/dengue-hits-key-west.html

WASHINGTON | Tue Jul 13, 2010 5:14pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Five percent of the population of Key West, Florida -- more than 1,000 people -- have been infected at some point with the dengue virus, government researchers reported on Tuesday.

Most probably did not even know it, but the findings show the sometimes deadly infection is making its way north into the United States, the researchers said.

"We're concerned that if dengue gains a foothold in Key West, it will travel to other southern cities where the mosquito that transmits dengue is present, like Miami," said Harold Margolis, chief of the dengue branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"These cases represent the reemergence of dengue fever in Florida and elsewhere in the United States after 75 years," Margolis said in a statement.

"These people had not traveled outside of Florida, so we need to determine if these cases are an isolated occurrence or if dengue has once again become endemic in the continental United States."

Dengue is the most common virus transmitted by mosquitoes, infecting 50 million to 100 million people every year and killing 25,000 of them.

It can cause classic flu-like symptoms but can also take on a hemorrhagic form that causes internal and external bleeding and sudden death. Companies are working on a vaccine but there is not any effective drug to treat it.

Dengue was eradicated in the United States in the 1940s but a few locally acquired U.S. cases have been confirmed along the Texas-Mexico border since the 1980s. More cases have been reported recently in Mexico and the Caribbean.

After 27 cases of dengue were reported in Florida in 2009, scientists from the CDC and the Florida Department of Health took blood samples from 240 randomly chosen Key West residents.

Of these, 5 percent had active dengue infections or antibodies to the virus, showing they had been infected, the researchers told the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases being held in Atlanta.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Egypt: "Animal Health Research" reached a third of the vaccine for "bird flu"

Sunday, July 11th, 2010 - 15:23

Flag of "The Seventh Day" that the Institute of Animal Health Research to reach production of a new local vaccine to combat bird flu h5n1 influenza is endemic in Egypt since he was Egypt in 2006.

Informed sources said the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation to produce the new vaccine will be within two years from now, will be in collaboration with the company, "Biological Products" where the company creates new line for production of a local vaccine against bird flu.

The sources revealed that the General Authority for Veterinary Services refused to file the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University and Harbin Institute of China, local production of a vaccine strain of Egypt after the withdrawal of samples and testing them for non-completion of his papers.

The sources for the "seventh day" that the Commission examine the files Authority requested the Working Group and the Harbin Institute report on the results of the new vaccine in the country of origin "Egypt" which is not available so far, which is also what happened with the vaccine produced by the National Center for Research.

The sources said that unidentified bodies aborted production of a vaccine Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and the Institute of Harbin, for vaccine production Animal Health Research Institute, noted that the vaccine Faculty of Veterinary Medicine has proven its effectiveness and its consequences.

The Animal Health Research Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation is to reach the third to produce a vaccine against bird flu, but after a long struggle with the body and importers halt the production of the vaccine altogether.

With a team of scientists, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University in collaboration with the Institute of "Harbin" Veterinary Research in China to prepare for a new vaccine for the prevention of bird flu.

And Dr Ahmed Abdul Ghani Elsnose Professor of Virology and one of the scientists of the research team that the new vaccine strain was isolated from Egypt in 2009 has been tested and proved a success in the treatment and prevention of disease by 100%.