Avian influenza

Avian Influenza

(also known as bird flu, avian influenza) is a form of influenza virus that is hosted by birds causes, but may infect several species of mammals. It was first recognized in Italy in the early 1900s and is now known that the whole world. A strain of the H5N1 type of avian flu virus, which was created in 1997, when the most likely source identified for a future pandemic.

Strains of avian influenza can infect virus different types of animals, including birds, pigs, horses, seals, whales and humans. However, spreading wild fowl act as natural asymptomatic carriers, they are prone to domestic shares. Bird flu virus spreads in the air and in manure and there is no evidence that the virus can survive in well cooked meat.

Diagnosis

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How to recognize bird flu
What should you should

       * Ruffled feathers
       * Soft-shelled eggs
       * Depression and droopiness
       Sudden drop in egg production
       * Loss of appetite
       * Cyanosis (purplish-blue coloring) of wattles and comb
       * Edema and swelling of the head, eyelids, comb, wattles and hocks
       * Green Diarrhea
       * Bloody nasal
       * Co-ordination problems, including loss of ability to walk or stand, and
       * Pin-point hemorrhages (most easily seen on the feet and calves)
       * Shortness of breath
       * Increased death losses in a herd
       * Sudden Death
       * nasal discharge

  
Poultry Vaccination as a strategy for controlling AI in commercial birds

Outbreaks of avian influenza in the poultry industry cause devastating economic losses and is generally controlled through extensive culling of infected birds. Alternative strategies also use vaccination as a supplementary control measure during avian influenza outbreaks.

Advantages of Vaccination

• Vaccination reduces susceptibility to infection.
• A higher dose of virus is necessary to infect the vaccinated birds.
• Vaccinated birds shed less virus.
  - Decreased contamination of the environment.
  - Decreased risk of human infection
• Used strategically vaccination compliments a stamping out strategy by slowing/stopping the spread of the virus