Avian Influenza

Avian Influenza provides the first comprehensive guide covering the full spectrum of this complex and increasingly high-profile disease, its history and its treatment and control. All aspects of avian influenza are dealt with in depth, systematically covering biology, virology, diagnostics, ecology, epidemiology, clinical medicine, and the control. The book fuses coverage of the latest discoveries in the basic sciences with a practical approach to dealing with the disease in a clinical setting, and providing instruction and guidance for veterinarians and government animal health officials encountering this disease in the field. Avian Influenza provides the reader with a global perspective, bringing together chapters written by leading animal health researchers and veterinarians with significant experience working with this disease. Providing a summary and synthesis of important data and research on this virus, its impact on both wild and domesticated birds, and approaches to controlling the spread of the disease, Avian Influenza will be an invaluable resource for all veterinarians, scientists, animal health professionals, and public health officials dealing with this virus. * Covers full range of topics within avian influenza in one comprehensive and authoritative text * Provides a summarization of peer-reviewed and empirical data on avian influenza viruses, the infection and diseases they cause * Discusses strategies used in control of the disease * Leading experts are drawn together to provide an international and multi-disciplinary perspective * Fuses latest developments in basic scientific research with practical guidance on management of the disease

Looks at the H5N1 strain of bird flu and how it is effecting the world bird population and what its potential impact will be on the world human population should it become easily transmittable.

Over the past decade, substantial resources have been spent on tackling avian influenza and building a global capacity for a pandemic response. The catastrophic costs of the 1918 influenza pandemic are well documented, and the swine flu pandemic of 2009-10 has raised the alarm yet again. Across the world, surveillance systems have been upgraded, stockpiles of antiviral drugs and influenza vaccines have been created, veterinary and public health systems have been improved and poultry production and marketing has been dramatically restructured. What are the lessons from this experience? And what does this suggest for the future? This book explores how virus genetics, ecology and epidemiology intersect with economic, political and policy processes in a variety of places - from Bangkok to Washington, to Jakarta, Cairo, Rome and London. It focuses on the interaction of the international and national responses - and in particular the experiences of Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand. It asks how effective is the disease surveillance and response system - can it respond to a new pandemic threat? The comparative analysis reveals the challenges and limitations of a technocratic, centralised response, and the need to take seriously local contexts. Drawing from these experiences, the book concludes with a discussion of future prospects and challenges, examining in particular what a 'One World, One Health' approach - where approaches to animal, human and ecosystem health are integrated - would look like in practice.Published in association with the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

When, in late 2011, it became public knowledge that two research groups had submitted for publication manuscripts that reported on their work on mammalian transmissibility of a lethal H5N1 avian influenza strain, the information caused an international debate about the appropriateness and communication of the researchers' work, the risks associated with the work, partial or complete censorship of scientific publications, and dual-use research of concern in general. Recognizing that the H5N1 research is only the most recent scientific activity subject to widespread attention due to safety and security concerns, on May 1, 2012, the National Research Council's Committee on Science, Technology and Law, in conjunction with the Board on Life Sciences and the Institute of Medicine's Forum on Microbial Threats, convened a one-day public workshop for the purposes of 1) discussing the H5N1 controversy; 2) considering responses by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which had funded this research, the World Health Organization, the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), scientific publishers, and members of the international research community; and 3) providing a forum wherein the concerns and interests of the broader community of stakeholders, including policy makers, biosafety and biosecurity experts, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and the general public might be articulated. Perspectives on Research with H5N1 Avian Influenza: Scientific Enquiry, Communication, Controversy summarizes the proceedings of the workshop.

This book focuses on the "Bird Flu: the new emerging infectious disease", a new health problem, and the aspects relating to the use of tropical medicine. It specifically covers the clinical aspects, scientific laboratory, public health, as well as the social sciences relating to this new important infectious disease. Mainly, the book presents summative data from the molecular to the population scales, as well as additional metanalysis for important topics. In addition, the diagnostic guideline and clinical practice guidelines of the mentioned conditions are detailed. There is still limited knowledge on this topic while the wider distribution of the disorder due to the globalisation can be expected.

Avian influenza, or 'bird flu', is a contagious disease of animals caused by viruses that normally infect only birds and, less commonly, pigs. Avian influenza viruses are highly species-specific, but have, on rare occasions, crossed the species barrier to infect humans. In domestic poultry, infection with avian influenza viruses causes two main forms of disease, distinguished by low and high extremes of virulence. The so-called "low pathogenic" form commonly causes only mild symptoms (ruffled feathers, a drop in egg production) and may easily go undetected. The highly pathogenic form is far more dramatic. It spreads very rapidly through poultry flocks, causes disease affecting multiple internal organs, and has a mortality that can approach 100%, often within 48 hours. A pandemic can start when three conditions have been met: a new influenza virus subtype emerges; it infects humans, causing serious illness; and it spreads easily and sustainably among humans. The H5N1 virus amply meets the first two conditions: it is a new virus for humans (H5N1 viruses have never circulated widely among people), and it has infected more than 100 humans, killing over half of them. No one will have immunity should an H5N1-like pandemic virus emerge. All prerequisites for the start of a pandemic have therefore been met save one: the establishment of efficient and sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus. The risk that the H5N1 virus will acquire this ability will persist as long as opportunities for human infections occur. These opportunities, in turn, will persist as long as the virus continues to circulate in birds, and this situation could endure for some years to come.

The highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 strain has spread from domestic poultry to a large number of species of free-ranging wild birds, including non-migratory birds and migratory birds that can travel thousands of kilometers each year. The regular contact and interaction between poultry and wild birds has increased the urgency of understanding wild bird diseases and the transmission mechanisms that exist between the poultry and wild bird sectors, with a particular emphasis on avian influenza. Monitoring techniques, surveillance, habitat use and migration patterns are all important aspects of wildlife and disease ecology that need to be better understood to gain insights into disease transmission between these sectors. This manual contains chapters on the basic ecology of avian influenza and wild birds, capture and marking techniques (ringing, color marking and satellite telemetry), disease sampling procedures, and field survey and monitoring procedures.--Publisher's description.

Avian influenza, sometimes avian flu, and commonly called bird flu, refers to "influenza caused by viruses adapted to birds". Of greatest concern is highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). These influenza viruses occur naturally among birds. Wild birds world-wide carry the viruses in their intestines, but usually do not get sick from them. However, avian influenza is very contagious among birds and can make some domesticated birds, including chickens, ducks, and turkeys, very ill. Infected birds shed influenza virus in their saliva, nasal secretions, and faeces. Susceptible birds become infected when they have contact with contaminated secretions or excretions or with surfaces that are contaminated with secretions or excretions from infected birds. The risk from avian influenza is generally low for most people, because the viruses do not usually infect humans. However, confirmed cases of human infection from several subtypes of avian influenza infection have been reported since 1997. The spread of avian influenza viruses from one ill person to another has been reported very rarely, and has been limited, inefficient and unsustained. This important book gathers the latest research from around the globe in this field.