Indonesia finds H5N1 in healthy chickens

Indonesia finds H5N1 in healthy chickens

Reuters, Hong Kong/Canberra

Indonesian health authorities have found chickens which tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus but which appear to be healthy, a sign that the bug may become harder to detect, officials in Hong Kong and Jakarta said.

Some species of waterfowl, like ducks and geese, are natural hosts of the H5N1 and do not fall ill from it. But the virus has always been known to be virulent in chickens, which fall sick quickly and die within 24 hours of contracting it.

Hong Kong's Health Minister York Chow said authorities in Indonesia had found infected chickens which were asymptomatic of the virus.

"As the virus may have spread so widely (in Indonesia), chickens have now become hosts," Chow told reporters in Hong Kong on Wednesday. He did not give other details.

"We are worried that if there are infected chickens which don't show any symptoms, then if we are in close contact with them, the chances of humans getting infected will be higher."

Mathur Riady, director general of the poultry department at Indonesia's agriculture ministry, confirmed the report.

"... we have also learned that in the case of the virus in birds they can be affected but they won't die," he told Reuters in Jakarta. "They even show no clinical symptoms."

Leo Poon, a microbiologist at the Chinese University in Hong Kong, said the discovery of the H5N1 infected, but asymptomatic, chickens was bad news, but more information was needed.

There are many different strains of the H5N1. Many have low pathogenicity and are relatively harmless, and only some have proven to be deadly for birds and humans.

"We don't have all the information and they could have just found a low pathogenic strain of H5N1 in the chickens. Or this could be a highly pathogenic strain but which has adapted itself in chickens or turned less virulent," Poon said.

Bird flu has killed more than 60 people in four Asian nations since late 2003 and has been found in birds in Russia and Europe.

Experts' greatest fear is that the H5N1, which has a documented mortality rate of about 50 percent, could set off a pandemic if it gains the ability to be passed easily among people.

In Indonesia, health ministry data shows that six people are believed to have died from the H5N1.

Meanwhile, Australia is to host a regional meeting at the end of October to discuss an Asia-Pacific response to bird flu, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Wednesday.

The meeting will be held in the northern Australian city of Brisbane on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 and will be attended by pandemic and disaster management coordinators from the 21 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member countries, including Indonesia.

"The objective of the meeting is to ensure a swift and coordinated regional response to contain any outbreak of avian influenza," Downer said.