[In this post: (1) India; (2) Philippines; (3) Research: pre-pandemic vaccines; (4) Ghana; (5) Indonesia. See original texts at the source sites. EDITED.]
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(1) [INDIA, PAKISTAN, POULTRY, AVIAN INFLUENZA] Bird-flu: Punjab govt for alertness on Indo-Pak border
Chandigarh, Aug 9 : Despite the strict vigil along the Indo-Pakistan border, the Punjab government has called for stepping up surveillance along its 553-km-long border to prevent the smuggling of poultry in view of the bird-flu outbreak.
Though chances of smuggling of poultry and its products to India from Pakistan are remote due to the vigil being maintained by the BSF, alertness has to be maintained, Financial Commissioner, Animal Husbandry S C Agrawal said here today at a meeting of the high-level panel set up by the state government to check bird-flu.
The panel also decided that to create awareness about avian influenza, its containment and other measures to be adopted in case of its outbreak, services of the electronic media and radio would be taken.
The meeting was chaired by Animal Husbandry minister Gulzar Singh Ranike.
Disclosing this, Mr Agrawal who heads the panel, said that services of the electronic media would be employed to sensitise the public, especially those attached to the poultry trade, about aspects of avian influenza.
Dr B S Sidhu, Director, Animal Husbandry said that regular clinical surveillance for bird-flu was being conducted by field staff across the state and there had been no report of any unusual mortality of birds. He further said that reports were being sought from different districts on a weekly basis and these were being compiled and forwarded to the Central Government.
Dr Sidhu said that veterinary officers and pharmacists were being imparted exhaustive refresher trainings on the bird-flu threat and Deputy Directors had been directed to be in touch with their respective Deputy Commissioners. District level action plans have also been made to meet any emergent situation.
Dr H S Sandha, Joint Director, Regional Disease Diagnostic Lab, Jalandhar said in the meeting that so far 10,000 serum samples and 2,500 swabs and dropping samples had been tested and found negative for bird flu.
--- UNI
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(2) [PHILIPPINES, INDONESIA, POULTRY, AVIAN INFLUENZA] Feed stocks from Indon legal
By Joy Romares-Sevilla
THE livestock division of the regional office of the Department of Agriculture (DA) said importation of corn and other feed stocks for livestock and poultry is not prohibited even if these are coming from Indonesia -- identified to be a bird flu infected country.
"The importation of corn from Indonesia is not prohibited, it's just that the department is following some measures whenever we import corn from this country," said Dr. Rafael Mercado, chief of the Livestock Division of the DA-Southern Mindanao.
Mercado said there is a memorandum order from the government that measures should be followed in the importation of feed stocks including corn.
"The memorandum says that the feed stocks should not be taken from within 15 kilometers radius kung saan may (where there is) infection ng Avian Influenza, the corn or feed stocks must also be intact in a safe place and upon transport, dapat malinis at na-disinfect ng mabuti ang sasakyan (the vehicle should have been clean and disinfected)," Mercado explained.
He added that the government is extra careful with the products that come from other countries especially for meat and poultry products.
"To protect the people's safety, andyan ang (there is the) Regional Avian Influenza Task Force who monitors the entry of meat and poultry products dito sa (here in the) region," he said.
Avian Influenza, Mercado claimed, has affected the economic condition of Indonesia.
"The latest news said that Avian Influenza in Indonesia has now reached Northern Sulawesi, dati central part lang, so napakalapit na n'un sa (lately only in the central part, so it is already closer to) Manado where we have a scheduled flight once a week," Mercado said.
On the other hand, Mercado said they are on a massive education, communication and information campaign regarding bird flu.
"We should be aware of the threat of bird flu kasi sa Indonesia, according to the report of the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 100 cases na ang na report sa human beings na ma bird flu and millions of chickens and birds died because of bird flu," he said.
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(3a) [RESEARCH, VACCINES, PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS] New vaccine may beat bird flu before it starts
09 Aug 2007 23:46:18 GMT
Source: Reuters
(Writes through with quotes, details from researcher)
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Researchers studying bird flu viruses said on Thursday they may have come up with a way to vaccinate people before a feared influenza pandemic.
Experts have long said there is no way to vaccinate people against a new strain of influenza until that strain evolves. That could mean months or even years of disease and death before a vaccination campaign began.
But a team at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Maryland and the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta said they may have found a short-cut.
The vaccine might protect people against the mutation that would change the H5N1 avian flu virus from a germ affecting mostly birds to one that infects people easily, the NIAID's Dr. Gary Nabel and colleagues report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
"If we can define what changes need to be made to make that jump then we can target the immune system to that spot on the virus," Nabel said in a telephone interview.
"It gives us a chance to develop vaccines or monoclonal antibodies ... to really work in a preemptive way to be prepared."
Monoclonal antibodies, often used against cancer, are engineered immune system proteins that specifically attack proteins on a tumor or, in this case, on the flu virus.
"While nobody knows if and when H5N1 will jump from birds to humans, they have come up with a way to anticipate how that jump might occur and ways to respond to it," National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni said in a statement.
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LEARNING FROM DISASTER
H5N1 remains mainly a virus of birds, but experts fear it could mutate into a form easily transmitted from person to person and sweep the world. It has occasionally infected people, killing 192 people out of 319 known cases since 2003, according to the World Health Organization.
To better try and understand the threat, researchers have studied various strains of H5N1 and compared them to the worst known flu virus ever -- the H1N1 virus that killed anywhere between 50 million and 100 million people in 1918 and 1919.
They found a mutation that makes one strain of the H1N1 virus more easily infect birds, and another one prefer humans. It lies in the part of the virus that attaches to cells in the respiratory tract.
They then made the same alteration in an H5N1 virus, and vaccinated mice with some of this genetically engineered H5N1 DNA.
They found an antibody that could neutralize both types of H5N1 -- H5N1 adapted to birds, and an engineered form that would in theory prefer humans.
"It delivers a powerful blow against this virus and really hits it where it lives," Nabel said.
If a vaccine could be designed to protect people against viruses with this mutation, it might be used before a pandemic even started, Nabel said.
A monoclonal antibody could be used to treat people who were already infected, he added.
Companies are making human vaccines against H5N1, but they are designed using the current strain of the virus, which does not easily infect humans. Scientists fear they are a poor match for any form of the virus that may eventually affect people.
Nabel said his team was working on some possible vaccines using the new approach.
AlertNet news
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(3b) [RESEARCH, VACCINES, PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS] NIH SCIENTISTS TARGET FUTURE PANDEMIC STRAINS OF H5N1 AVIAN INFLUENZA
Preparing vaccines and therapeutics that target a future mutant strain of H5N1 influenza virus sounds like science fiction, but it may be possible, according to a team of scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and a collaborator at Emory University School of Medicine.
Success hinges on anticipating and predicting the crucial mutations that would help the virus spread easily from person to person.
Led by Gary Nabel, M.D., Ph.D., director of the NIAID's Dale and Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research Center (VRC), the team is reporting in the August 10, 2007 issue of the journal "Science" that they have developed a strategy to generate vaccines and therapeutic antibodies that could target predicted H5N1 mutants before these viruses evolve naturally.
This advance was made possible by creating mutations in the region of the H5N1 hemagglutinin (HA) protein that directs the virus to bird or human cells and eliciting antibodies to it.
"What Dr. Nabel and his colleagues have discovered will help to prepare for a future threat," says NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. "While nobody knows if and when H5N1 will jump from birds to humans, they have come up with a way to anticipate how that jump might occur and ways to respond to it."
"Now we can begin, preemptively, to consider the design of potential new vaccines and therapeutic antibodies to treat people who may someday be infected with future emerging avian influenza virus mutants," says NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. "This research could possibly help to contain a pandemic early on."
Making a vaccine against an existing strain of H5N1 or any other type of influenza virus is relatively routine.
Typically, samples of existing influenza virus strains are isolated and then grown inside eggs or in cell cultures.
The virus is then collected, inactivated, purified and added to the other components of the vaccine.
A flu shot prompts a person's immune system to detect pieces of the inactivated virus present in the vaccine and make neutralizing antibodies against them.
Later, if that same person is naturally exposed to a flu virus, these same antibodies should help fight the infection.
Influenza viruses constantly mutate, however, and vaccines are most effective against the highly specific strains that they are made from. This makes it difficult to predict how effective a vaccine made today will be against a virus that emerges tomorrow.
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Dr. Nabel and his colleagues started their project by focusing narrowly on mutations that render H5N1 viruses better able to recognize and enter human cells.
Bird-adapted H5N1 binds bird cell surface receptors.
But these receptors differ slightly from the receptors on human cells, which in part explains why bird-adapted H5N1 can infect but not spread easily between humans.
About a year ago, the research team began asking what mutations help the virus shift its adaptability.
They compared the structural proteins on the surface of bird-adapted H5N1 influenza virus with those on the surface of the human-adapted strain that caused the 1918 pandemic.
They focused specifically on genetic changes to one portion of the H5 protein -- a portion called the receptor binding domain.
They showed that as few as two mutations to this receptor binding domain could enhance the ability of H5N1 to recognize human cells.
Additional mutations would likely need to accumulate for H5N1 to spread more easily from person to person, says Dr. Nabel.
The few mutations he and his colleagues identified are likely just a subset of those, he emphasizes.
Moreover, they found that these mutations change how the immune system recognizes the virus.
Mouse antibodies that target H5N1 were up to tenfold less potent against the mutants.
Dr. Nabel and his colleagues used their knowledge of receptor specificity to create vaccines and isolate new antibodies that might be used therapeutically against human-adapted mutants.
They vaccinated mice with the material from viruses they altered to contain the mutant receptors, and they discovered one broadly reactive antibody that could neutralize both the bird- and human-adapted forms of an H5N1 virus.
According to Dr. Nabel, their findings should contribute to better surveillance of naturally occurring avian flu outbreaks by making it easier to recognize dangerous mutants and identify vaccine candidates that might provide greater efficacy against such a virus before it emerges.
"Our findings build on elegant studies of the influenza HA protein by structural biologists," notes Dr. Nabel. "Insight into the structure of the avian flu virus has enabled us to target a critical region of HA that directs its specificity. Such a structure-based vaccine design may allow us to respond to this future threat in advance of an actual outbreak."
NIAID is a component of the National Institutes of Health. NIAID supports basic and applied research to prevent, diagnose and treat infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections, influenza, tuberculosis, malaria and illness from potential agents of bioterrorism. NIAID also supports research on basic immunology, transplantation and immune-related disorders, including autoimmune diseases, asthma and allergies. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID Web site at http://www.niaid.nih.gov.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- The Nation's Medical Research Agency -- includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.
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REFERENCE: Z Yang et al. Immunization by avian H5 influenza hemagglutinin mutants with altered receptor binding specificity. "Science" DOI: 10.1126/science.1135165 (2007).
Visit http://www.PandemicFlu.gov for one-stop access to U.S. Government information on avian and pandemic flu.
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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
NIH News
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
http://www.niaid.nih.gov/
Embargoed for Release: Thursday, August 9, 2007, 2:00 p.m. EDT
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(4) [GHANA, POULTRY, AVIAN INFLUENZA] Poultry Farmers Urged To Implement Bio-Security Measures
Poultry farmers have been urged to implement bio-security measures on their farms to prevent an outbreak of Avian Influenza (Bird Flu). Dr Joseph Adongo Awuni, Head of Bird Flu Surveillance Team, made the call at a day's poultry development workshop organised by Tema Municipal Poultry and Livestock Development Board yesterday.
He said the only means to prevent an outbreak of bird flu and other poultry diseases was how to implement bio-security measures.
Dr Awuni was speaking on the theme: 'Farm bio-security as a means of preventing bird flu outbreak on poultry farms-from the veterinarian point of view,' at the workshop. Giving some measures in bio-security, Dr Awuni said farmers must fence their farms and provide specific exit and entry, avoid the creation of open feeding ponds to migratory birds.
He said farmers must restrict movements of people and vehicles in and out of susceptible areas and between farms to limit exposure of the disease. Giving the sanitation aspect of bio-security measures, he said the avian virus could not withstand high temperature therefore, detergents and disinfectants must be used always in cleaning farm premises.
Dr Awuni urged the farmers to make bio-security plans to identify the wrong practices on their farms and correct them.
Mr Kenneth Quartey, Chairman of Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers (GNAPF), advised members to take bio-security measures serious. He noted that such measures were ideal than to receive GH¢4.30 (43,000 cedis) as compensation per live bird when farms were culled by Government due to the detection of an outbreak of bird flu.
Source/Credits: GNA
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(5) [INDONESIA, CIDRAP, INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION] Indonesia to keep withholding virus samples for now
Aug 9, 2007 (CIDRAP News) – Indonesian health officials said this week they will continue withholding samples of the H5N1 avian influenza virus at least until a new virus-sharing mechanism is worked out at an international meeting in November.
The statements came in response to criticism earlier this week from a World Health Organization (WHO) official, who said Indonesia was endangering global health by withholding the viruses.
In December, Indonesia stopped sharing its H5N1 samples with the WHO as a protest against the cost of commercial vaccines derived from such samples. The samples are needed for tracking the mutations and spread of the virus and for developing vaccines.
Indonesia said it would resume sharing its H5N1 samples in May when the World Health Assembly passed a resolution asking the WHO to establish an international stockpile of H5N1 vaccines and create an interdisciplinary working group to draw up new "terms of reference" for the sharing of flu viruses by WHO collaborating centers and reference laboratories.
At that juncture the country sent three H5N1 samples to the WHO, which appeared to end its embargo. However, David Heymann, the WHO's assistant director-general for communicable diseases, said at a press conference Aug 6 that the samples contained no live viruses.
"Indonesia is putting the public health security of the whole world at risk because they're not sharing viruses," Heymann said in the press briefing. The briefing dealt with a WHO-sponsored meeting in Singapore last week, where a working group of officials from 23 countries drew up virus-sharing proposals to be considered further at the November meeting.
Triono Soendoro, Indonesia's deputy health minister for research, told the Financial Times yesterday that the samples the country sent the WHO in May were adequate for determining if a viral mutation had occurred.
Indonesia will resume sending samples only when a formal system is established that ensures developing countries receive equitable access to affordable vaccines made from the samples they share, Soendoro told the Times. "If that's not all ready and we send samples, anything could happen. It's a simple request to be transparent, to be accountable," he said.
It wasn't clear if Indonesia would begin sharing viruses again once the working group's plan is completed at the WHO intergovernmental meeting in November or when the final agreement is approved at the World Health Assembly next May, the Times reported.
However, Lily Sulistyowati, an Indonesian health ministry spokesperson, said the country would wait for the new virus-sharing mechanism to be approved at the November meeting before resuming sending virus samples, the Jakarta Post reported today.
"However, anyone who needs the virus can file a special request to us officially," she told the Post. Sulistyowati also said she couldn't understand why the WHO didn't complain earlier about the samples Indonesia sent in May, according to the Post report.
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See also:
Aug 7 CIDRAP News article "WHO: Indonesia's withholding of viruses endangers world"
Aug 1 CIDRAP News story "WHO working group grappling with virus-sharing issues"
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