12.01.2015

Government laboratory tests yesterday confirmed a new variant of the H5N2 avian influenza at goose farms in Yunlin and a duck farm in Pingtung.
This form of the H5N2 virus has not appeared before in Taiwan or elsewhere.
Health authorities also reported Taiwan's first documented case of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N8, found in a flock of geese in Chiayi County.
The avian influenza strains H5N2 and H5N8 have spread with speed across Taiwan. Today sixty-five poultry farms in seven counties and cities were found with infected poultry (Jan 13), almost double the 38 farms yeaterday.
The H5N8 virus in Chiayi closely matches a strain detected in South Korea last year.
The H5N2 found in Yunlin and Pingtung counties is unlike all previous variants of H5N2.
Its H5 genome sequence is similar to the South Korean case, while the N2 most resembles a virus reported in China's Jilin province in 2011.