UNCLASSIFIED
Avian Influenza Daily Digest
September 23, 2008 14:00 GMT
This digest is produced by the United States Government, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Washington DC, USA. Articles and resource documents in this digest are from open sources and unclassified.
This digest contains raw open source content and is not an evaluated intelligence product. Readers are encouraged to contribute updates and/or clarifications that will be posted in subsequent issues of the digest. Articles may contain copyrighted material, further dissemination outside government channels may be prohibited without permission from the copyright owners.
Please note some links may only work while connected to the Intelink network.
Unsubscribe/Subscribe to the AI Digest
Contact AI Digest Editor/Contribute (U) Information
Contribute (U) Updates/Clarifications to a previously reported article
Contribute (U) Information anonymously
Intelink Avian Influenza Resources:
U.S. Govt. IC: Intelink AI/Pandemic page https://www.intelink.gov/mypage/avianflu
Article Summaries ...
Quid Novi
Mexico: LPAI reported in Benito Juarez
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Iraq: Strategic Plan Adopted for Monitoring Avian Influenza by Next Year
9/23/08 ARGUS--the Ministry of Agriculture, has developed a new strategy for detecting Avian Influenza (AI) in the country. The strategy will involve the private sector in the epidemiological guards with the aim of containing and controlling any probable infection. The source indicated that 197 mobile teams for AI early detection have already been dispatched throughout the country. Each team consists of 6 veterinary doctors. According to the source, the teams will work 24 hours a day in all regions of the country and particularly in Al Ahwar areas where the season for migratory birds has started. The source indicated that epidemiological guards include a network of 5,125 veterinary doctors. The plan for next year will expand the network by involving the veterinary doctors and agricultural engineers from the private sector. The source added that such expansion of the network will expand the detection sources and provide veterinary doctors with the ability to deploy rapidly and take action so as to contain any probable infection.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Togo: Poultry Farmers and Businesses Have Mixed Reactions to H5n1 Flu Confirmation
9/19/08 All Africa--Togo's government has confirmed the H5N1 bird flu virus is responsible for the 10 September outbreak that killed 3,500 birds and led to the culling of an additional 1,500 others on three farms in Agbata, about 10km east of the capital.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
France urges EU-Med partnership on animal disease
9/23/08 Reuters--The European Union might do well to share expertise with non-EU countries bordering the Mediterranean to help fight the spread of animal diseases like bird flu or bluetongue, France's farm minister said on Monday.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Gambia-US ready to combat bird flu
9/23/08 Gambia Observer--An international workshop on Incident Command System (ICS), aimed at combating bird flu is currently underway at the Paradise Suites Hotel in Kololi. The five-day deliberation, which began on Monday and is jointly organized by the Department of Veterinary Services in collaboration with the United States Department of Agriculture?s Animal and Plant Health Inspections Service (USA-APHIS) will seek to address the problem of avian influenza.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Science and Technology
Turning a leaf from cancer-causer to flu-fighter
9/23/08 Globe and Mail--A $16-million boost from cigarette maker Philip Morris will help a small Quebec vaccine-developer use tobacco as a medium One of the world's biggest cigarette companies is teaming up with a tiny Canadian biotechnology firm to try to put one of the world's most deadly carcinogens to a healthy use - creating vaccines from tobacco to prevent people from catching the flu.
Vaccines
Novartis reports good results for bird flu vaccine
9/23/08 Reuters--A vaccine produced by Novartis induces a protective antibody level against diverse strains of bird flu in individuals already vaccinated six years earlier, a study presented on Friday showed.
Vaccines
Pandemic Preparedness
Stockpiling prepandemic influenza vaccines: a new cornerstone of pandemic preparedness plans
9/23/08 The Lancet Infectious Diseases Personal View The history of pandemic influenza, along with the evolving epizootic of the highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) virus and the severity of associated human infections, serve as a warning to the world of the threat of another influenza pandemic. Conservative estimates suggest that up to 350 million people could die and many more would be affected, causing disruption to health-care systems, society, and the world's economy. WHO has encouraged countries to prepare in advance by developing influenza pandemic preparedness plans that involve public-health and pharmaceutical interventions. Vaccination is a cornerstone of these plans; however, a pandemic vaccine cannot be manufactured in advance because the next pandemic virus cannot be predicted. The concepts of vaccine stockpiling and prepandemic vaccination have thus become attractive. Human H5N1 vaccines are currently available and can induce heterotypic immunity. WHO and governments should give urgent consideration to the use of these vaccines for the priming of individuals or communities who would be at greatest risk of infection if an H5N1 influenza pandemic were to emerge.
Pandemic Preparedness, Vaccines
Preparing for the Real Storm during the Calm: a comparison of the crisis preparation strategies for pandemic influenza in China and the U.S.
9/23/08 Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Abstract Humanity is facing the rapid spread of avian flu and the potential severe threat of a future global pandemic flu. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the governments of various countries and regions have proposed plans for managing a pandemic flu. China and the U.S. also issued their own preparation plans in September and November, 2005, respectively.
Pandemic Preparedness
Public AI Blogs
Op/Editorial: Diseases pose big danger to biosecurity
9/23/08 The Australian/by Leigh Dayton, Science WriterFORGET letters laced with anthrax spores and subway gas attacks: the most serious biosecurity threat to Australia comes from economically devastating diseases such as foot and mouth disease and Nipah virus, as well as complacency about diseases such as bird flu.
Public AI Blog Discussions
Full Text of Articles follow ...
Quid Novi
Mexico: LPAI reported in Benito Juarez
9/23/08 ARGUS--The Director General of Animal Health of the national Secretary of Agriculture (SAGARPA) has confirmed 9 foci of low-pathogenic avian influenza in Benito Juárez and Chicontepec municipalities. The National System of Epidemiological Surveillance detected the two foci in Chicontepec and confirmed them by laboratory testing. Seven foci were previously detected in Benito Juárez; an unspecified number of chicken deaths occurred there. The source reports that the Secretary stated that a detailed analysis showed that the outbreaks are low pathogenic subtype ?HS? avian influenza. Specialists have been sent to the area to established animal health standards.
Article URL(s)
http://www.laopinion.com.mx/nota/?seccion=9&id=1
Pandemic Preparedness > Vaccines
Stockpiling prepandemic influenza vaccines: a new cornerstone of pandemic preparedness plans
9/23/08 The Lancet Infectious Diseases Personal View
Dr Lance C Jennings PhD email address a Corresponding Author Information, Prof Arnold S Monto MD b, Prof Paul KS Chan MD c, Prof Thomas D Szucs MD d and Prof Karl G Nicholson MD e
Summary
The history of pandemic influenza, along with the evolving epizootic of the highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) virus and the severity of associated human infections, serve as a warning to the world of the threat of another influenza pandemic. Conservative estimates suggest that up to 350 million people could die and many more would be affected, causing disruption to health-care systems, society, and the world's economy. WHO has encouraged countries to prepare in advance by developing influenza pandemic preparedness plans that involve public-health and pharmaceutical interventions. Vaccination is a cornerstone of these plans; however, a pandemic vaccine cannot be manufactured in advance because the next pandemic virus cannot be predicted. The concepts of vaccine stockpiling and prepandemic vaccination have thus become attractive. Human H5N1 vaccines are currently available and can induce heterotypic immunity. WHO and governments should give urgent consideration to the use of these vaccines for the priming of individuals or communities who would be at greatest risk of infection if an H5N1 influenza pandemic were to emerge.
Affiliations
a. Microbiology Department, Canterbury Health Laboratories, and Department of Pathology, University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand
b. University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
c. Department of Microbiology and Stanley Ho Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong SAR, China
d. Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
e. Department of Infectious Disease and Tropical Medicine, Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester, UK
Pandemic Preparedness
Preparing for the Real Storm during the Calm: a comparison of the crisis preparation strategies for pandemic influenza in China and the U.S.
9/23/08 Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Abstract Humanity is facing the rapid spread of avian flu and the potential severe threat of a future global pandemic flu. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the governments of various countries and regions have proposed plans for managing a pandemic flu. China and the U.S. also issued their own preparation plans in September and November, 2005, respectively.
This article asks whether there are vulnerabilities or shortcomings inherent in either preparation plan, and if so, what measures should be taken to improve them. The article first provides a theoretical analysis of the issues of crisis preparation, chiefly from the perspective of a real crisis. Second, it does some crisis analysis of a pandemic flu and proposes preliminary preparation strategies to deal with it.
More importantly, it compares the United States and China concerning their crisis preparation strategies, including the process of forming strategies, cognition of risks, choices of goals, basic principles, framework, and implementation. Finally, it concludes by making some suggestions for crisis policy formulation regarding a pandemic flu.
Reference: Peng, Zongchao (2008) Preparing for the Real Storm during the Calm: a comparison of the crisis preparation strategies for pandemic influenza in China and the U.S., Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, 5 (1), Article 47 (available online at: http://www.bepress.com/jhsem/vol5/iss1/47).
Vaccines
Turning a leaf from cancer-causer to flu-fighter
9/23/08 Globe and Mail--A $16-million boost from cigarette maker Philip Morris will help a small Quebec vaccine-developer use tobacco as a medium One of the world's biggest cigarette companies is teaming up with a tiny Canadian biotechnology firm to try to put one of the world's most deadly carcinogens to a healthy use - creating vaccines from tobacco to prevent people from catching the flu.
A $16-million investment by Philip Morris International will help Quebec City-based Medicago Inc. develop its early-stage technology that produces vaccines using tobacco leaves as a medium.
Medicago Inc. is at least a couple of years away from having its first vaccine - for avian flu - on the market, but the shot of capital will help propel it to that stage, chief executive officer Andy Sheldon said in an interview yesterday.
The marriage of a multinational tobacco company with an early-stage Canadian biotech firm may seem unusual, but the union makes sense, Mr. Sheldon said.
Print Edition - Section Front
Section B Front Enlarge Image
More Report on Business Stories
* Charges laid against Mount Real insiders
* HBO Canada coming, but with a catch
* Cash-rich Japan makes a move
* Fairfax, Sun Life join rush to size up AIG assets
* Bailout blues: Sobered investors take reality check
* Liberals' trust plan may slow the healing
* Go to the Report on Business section
The Globe and Mail
Medicago's technology, if successful, will make use of substantial amounts of greenhouse-grown tobacco. For its part, PMI is keen on finding new uses for tobacco beyond making health-damaging cigarettes.
"Philip Morris has made a decision that it wants to look at other business opportunities, and of course this one is just a natural," Mr. Sheldon said.
Executives from the two companies met at a biotechnology conference in Vancouver, he said, and both firms realized they could gain from co-operating.
In the deal announced yesterday, PMI will buy shares and warrants that will give it a 49.9-per-cent stake in Medicago.
The Medicago process does not alter the genetic makeup of tobacco, but involves injecting material into the leaf cells, which then secrete a virus-like protein that can be harvested and used as a vaccine to stimulate immunity.
When injected into humans, the vaccine prompts the production of antibodies that protect the individual from the disease.
Tobacco is used because it has very large leaves and grows quickly, making it an ideal plant to generate the vaccine.
It is also fairly easy to "program" tobacco cells using biotechnology techniques, to get them to produce the vaccine protein.
Mr. Sheldon said Medicago's process will allow the production of vaccines much more quickly than current systems, which use eggs as a medium and take up to eight months to generate a usable vaccine.
A large amount of vaccine can be harvested from tobacco in about three weeks, he said, an especially important quality in the case of a fast-moving influenza outbreak.
Philip Morris, which has been conducting its own biotechnology research to try to eliminate some of the carcinogens from tobacco, will likely have expertise that can contribute to Medicago's work, Mr. Sheldon said.
Ironically, Medicago takes its name from the Latin word for alfalfa, the plant the company initially used for its experiments.
It has abandoned alfalfa, however, and now uses only tobacco.
The avian flu vaccine is now in preclinical trials, and could be licensed as early as 2010, once the clinical trials are complete.
Eventually, the company's process could be used to create large volumes of vaccines for other strains of flu, or other infectious diseases.
"Our technology can be used to manufacture just about any vaccine, from malaria to pneumococcal vaccines... [or] HIV, which is an obvious candidate," Mr. Sheldon said.
MEDICAGO INC. (MDG)
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Iraq: Strategic Plan Adopted for Monitoring Avian Influenza by Next Year
9/23/08 ARGUS--the Ministry of Agriculture, has developed a new strategy for detecting Avian Influenza (AI) in the country. The strategy will involve the private sector in the epidemiological guards with the aim of containing and controlling any probable infection. The source indicated that 197 mobile teams for AI early detection have already been dispatched throughout the country. Each team consists of 6 veterinary doctors. According to the source, the teams will work 24 hours a day in all regions of the country and particularly in Al Ahwar areas where the season for migratory birds has started. The source indicated that epidemiological guards include a network of 5,125 veterinary doctors. The plan for next year will expand the network by involving the veterinary doctors and agricultural engineers from the private sector. The source added that such expansion of the network will expand the detection sources and provide veterinary doctors with the ability to deploy rapidly and take action so as to contain any probable infection.
Article URL(s)
http://www.alsabaah.com/paper.php?source=akbar&mlf=interpage&sid=70109
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Togo: Poultry Farmers and Businesses Have Mixed Reactions to H5n1 Flu Confirmation
9/19/08 All Africa--Togo's government has confirmed the H5N1 bird flu virus is responsible for the 10 September outbreak that killed 3,500 birds and led to the culling of an additional 1,500 others on three farms in Agbata, about 10km east of the capital.
Since its reappearance in 2003, the highly contagious virus has led to the death of millions of poultry, as well as about 200 people who were infected with the virus by sick birds, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Mixed reactions
IRIN traveled a dozen kilometres outside Lome to Agbata to meet with poultry farmers on 17 September, one day after the government announced its lab confirmation.
Antoine Megbeto told IRIN he is not worried because officials have killed any remaining birds that might have been infected. Immediately following the outbreak, the country's livestock director, Komla Batasse Batawui, told IRIN that officials had culled the surviving birds on all three farms with sick birds.
"We are not scared," said Megbeto, "We received training starting one year ago [after the country's first H5N1 outbreak] on how to prevent the virus from spreading. Which is why as soon as I discovered the gruesome and sudden poultry deaths on my farm, I quickly alerted authorities."
But another farmer who gave his name as Alphonse is less at ease, "I am scared for my family's health. A team of doctors come around every morning to reassure us everything is well. But my family and I are nevertheless scared to eat poultry, even if they tell us that it is safe as long as it is well-cooked."
The government has promised compensation to farmers who lost birds; the farmers say no one has told them how much they will receive or by when.
Profits plummet with poultry ban
Shortly after the country's first H5N1 outbreak in June 2007, the government, like many of its West African neighbours, banned poultry imports from countries with confirmed cases of bird flu.
But despite the ban being in place for about one year, there is still an underground market of illegal poultry imports from countries on Togo's banned list, according to local consumers.
The first bird flu cases in Togo were discovered on a farm that had received a shipment of birds from Ghana, months before Ghana's government announced a bird flu outbreak and an export ban in May 2007.
Poultry vendor and importer, Fiacre Lodonou, told IRIN his profits have slowly sunk over the past year because of the more stringent rules that have cut off his cheapest supply of poultry.
Relevant Links
West Africa
Food, Agriculture and Rural Issues
Economy, Business and Finance
Health and Medicine
Sustainable Development
Togo
"We only started business 15 years ago. Now, because of this [H5N1] virus, my sales have plummeted by more than 70 percent. I cannot even afford to order new birds now."
The businessman says he fears the flu will not kill only birds, but also his business.
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
Vaccines
Novartis reports good results for bird flu vaccine
9/23/08 Reuters--A vaccine produced by Novartis induces a protective antibody level against diverse strains of bird flu in individuals already vaccinated six years earlier, a study presented on Friday showed.
Novartis said the study conducted by Britain's Leicester University showed that its MF59-adjuvanted booster vaccine triggers an immune response to the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which experts say could trigger a human flu pandemic.
"The immune response was broadly cross reactive and covered all H5N1 clades known to date," Novartis said, adding the data were presented at the European Influenza Conference in Portugal.
Leicester University study investigator Iain Stephenson said: "These results potentially provide a rationale to prevent pandemic influenza by proactively immunizing the public with stockpiled pre-pandemic vaccines containing MF59."
In May, European authorities approved the first pre-pandemic bird flu vaccine, Prepandrix, from GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which hopes the move will spur fresh stockpile orders from governments around the world.
Industry analysts say bird flu vaccines may represent a $1 billion-plus sales opportunity for such companies.
While H5N1 remains mainly a virus affecting birds, scientists say it is the most likely source of the next global flu pandemic in humans, since it may soon mutate into a form that is easily transmitted from person to person.
So far, most human cases can be traced to direct or indirect contact with infected birds. The H5N1 virus has killed around 240 people since 2003. (Reporting by Emma Thomasson; Editing by David Cowell)
Public AI Blog Discussions
Op/Editorial: Diseases pose big danger to biosecurity
9/23/08 The Australian/by Leigh Dayton, Science WriterFORGET letters laced with anthrax spores and subway gas attacks: the most serious biosecurity threat to Australia comes from economically devastating diseases such as foot and mouth disease and Nipah virus, as well as complacency about diseases such as bird flu.
The surprising risk assessment came this week in Sydney as a panel of experts warned of risks to Australia's people, livestock and wildlife from re-emerging and emerging infectious diseases (EIDs), mostly originating in nearby South-East Asia.
"We (Australia) really are encased in a ring of fire to the north," said Peter Daszak, executive director of the New York-based Consortium for Conservation Medicine. "But the difficulty with this, for us, is saying which is the next new disease."
For instance, nobody saw severe acute respiratory syndrome coming. Before SARS was identified in 2003 as a new and lethal disease, it had been carried from China's southern Guangdong province to over 25 countries, ultimately killing nearly 900 people worldwide.
Fortunately, the "fortress Austalia" quarantine approach protected the nation from SARS but it will be insufficient against future EIDs, predicts veterinarian John Edwards, who is with Murdoch University in Western Australia and the Australian Biosecurity Co-operative Research Centre.
"These viruses are actually on the move and Australia needs to challenge itself as to whether it has the right (biosecurity) procedures in place," professor Edwards said. He recommends additional financial and professional support to neighbouring nations with weak surveillance and emergency response systems.
The panelists argue it is vital that biosecurity systems keep track of diseases emerging in wildlife and livestock, as well as people.
That's so, says doctor Daszak, because more than 60 per cent of EIDs are caused by animal pathogens and over 75 per cent of those spread from wildlife. For instance, scientists believe SARS "jumped" to people from wild animals collected for the lucrative exotic food trade.
Where animals and people are in close contact, chances increase that an animal virus may develop the ability to infect people, or another animal that can infect people. Eventually, SARS-like, it could spread person-to-person.
Nipah virus is currently raising alarm bells. It jumped from bats to pigs then from pigs to humans, in whom it causes encephalitis. The virus is closely related to the Hendra virus which first emerged in Queensland in 1994, killing 14 horses and their trainer. There have been nine outbreaks since, the most recent hit a Queensland property in July resulting in the death of a vet and horses.
The Malaysian Nipah virus outbreak led to 105 human deaths and the culling of a million pigs.
"There are episodes of human-to-human transmission (of Nipah virus) happening in Bangladesh right now," said Daszak. "If an infected traveller goes into (Australia's) agricultural area (it could spread to pigs). One infected pig would cause millions of dollars in damage," he warned.
The economic impact of recent EID outbreaks ranges from over $US50 billion for the SARS pandemic, and nearly $US30 billion for foot and mouth disease in the UK, to roughly $US400 million from the 1999 outbreak of Nepah virsus in Malaysia.
Public health expert Julie Hall says the most famous EID is H5N1 avian influenza, or bird flu. Only 245 people have died after contracting it from chickens, but since it first emerged in 2003 medical experts have feared H5N1 could develop the ability to be transmitted between people. The result could be a global crisis akin to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, says Hall, who is with the World Health Organisation's Western Pacific Regional Office.
Hall's comments came as experts gathered this week in Portugal for the Third European Influenza Conference.
Speaking to New Scientist magazine in advance of the meeting, virologist Rob Webster of St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, said: "It's doing what we knew it would do -- recombining and evolving." Just two critical mutations would enable the virus to infect people.
The conference heard that for the first time one of over 70 vaccines being trialled had been shown to be effective against many strains of H5N1, allowing nations to produce and stockpile it prior to an outbreak.
"The threat of a pandemic jumping from animals to humans is still there," said Hall, echoing the conference delegates' concern.
She warned local authorities against the belief that because H5N1 had not yet gone global, it never would: "The number one threat is flu fatigue."
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
France urges EU-Med partnership on animal disease
9/23/08 Reuters--The European Union might do well to share expertise with non-EU countries bordering the Mediterranean to help fight the spread of animal diseases like bird flu or bluetongue, France's farm minister said on Monday.
"We could create ... a European or Mediterranean network. A lot of risks are coming from the south, as we know," France's Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier told a conference on animal health and disease.
"There are a number of countries that are ready to work in this direction ... between the two shores of the Mediterranean. The idea is to provide our expertise in animal health to the countries of the south to create regional partnerships."
He did not elaborate on which countries had expressed an interest in this area.
EU countries were seeing more animal-to-human disease transmission in recent years, along with animal disease epidemics such as bluetongue, foot-and-mouth and classical swine fever, experts at the conference said.
Trade and smuggling of animal products, especially birds, were a major factor, they said. Emerging viruses were being identified with increasing frequency, and in humans these were predominantly coming from the animal world.
"Animal health is just as much a risk for humans, not least the breeders themselves who have direct consequences on any restrictions on animal movements," Barnier said.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Gambia-US ready to combat bird flu
9/23/08 Gambia Observer--An international workshop on Incident Command System (ICS), aimed at combating bird flu is currently underway at the Paradise Suites Hotel in Kololi. The five-day deliberation, which began on Monday and is jointly organized by the Department of Veterinary Services in collaboration with the United States Department of Agriculture?s Animal and Plant Health Inspections Service (USA-APHIS) will seek to address the problem of avian influenza.
Participants are drawn from the departments of veterinary services of Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal and The Gambia.
In his welcoming remarks, Barry L Wells, United States ambassador to The Gambia, expressed delight at the fact that United States Department of Agriculture is sponsoring the five-day international workshop. He urged participants to take the workshop seriously.
For his part, Kekoi Kuyateh, deputy permanent secretary at the Department of State for Agriculture, said The Gambia, like many other countries around the world, has benefited greatly from the United States Department of Agriculture in the area of capacity building, provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), sampling and diagnostic kits.
He thanked the government and people of the United States of America for the tremendous global efforts in the control and prevention of avian influenza.
