Germany has reported an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu virus in a backyard in the southwestern part of the country, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said on Monday.
China reported an outbreak of a highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 bird flu at a farm in Shaoyang city of the southern province of Hunan, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on Sunday.
State of Iowa Governor Terry Branstad declared a state of emergency due to a rapidly expanding avian flu outbreak, saying the entire state was at risk from the spread of the disease.
Bird flu on a duck farm in northern England is the highly contagious H5N8 strain, the same form of the virus already discovered in Germany and the Netherlands, Britain's farm ministry confirmed on Tuesday.
Chinese scientists have confirmed for the first time that a new strain of bird flu that has killed 23 people in China has been transmitted to humans from chickens. In a study published online in the Lancet medical journal, the scientists echoed previous statements from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Chinese officials that there is as yet no evidence of human-to-human transmission of this virus.
A new bird flu strain that has killed 22 people in China is one of the most lethal of its kind and transmits more easily to humans than another strain that has killed hundreds since 2003, a World Health Organization (WHO) expert said on Wednesday.
The new strain of bird flu that has killed 17 people in China has been circulating widely under the radar and has acquired significant genetic diversity that makes it more of a threat, warned scientists.
South Korea is moving to stem future cases of bird flu as foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreaks have been largely put under control, the government.