Oh, the things we learn when researching avian influenza.

Apparently, a brisk cottage industry in Indonesia -- and duplicated across Asia -- is the raising of a certain species of swallow called the "Edible-nest swiftlet."  Rather than be redundant, let me point to the definition, straight from the Website 10000birds.com, found at:  http://10000birds.com/edible-nest-swiftlets.htm

The Edible-nest Swiftlet Collocalia fuciphaga is found throughout S E Asia and is renowned for the fact that the birds’ nests are used for making bird’s nest soup. During the breeding season, the salivary glands of this species expand to produce the special saliva for binding detritus together for building the nest, which is a shallow cup stuck to the cave wall. Nests which are ‘white’ and made purely or almost purely of saliva - like those of the Edible-nest Swiftlets above - are the most valued. When cooked, the birds’ nests have a gelatinous texture and in Chinese cuisine high medicinal and aphrodisiac qualities are ascribed to these nests. Scientific investigations reveal these nests to be high in protein with about 7% lime. Many consumers of bird nest soup report significant improvement in appetite. However, some others noticed excessive secretion of gastric acid that may cause acid reflux symptoms.

Nests are harvested from cave walls and there is increasing concern that over-harvesting is causing several species of cave swiftlets to become scarce. Bird nest merchants in southeast Asia (including Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand) have started to raise and breed the swiftlets in house-like structures. They build the shelters to attract wild swiftlets to build nests in them. The “wrong” kind of nests are then destroyed along with the eggs inside. Over time, the selection process only leaves behind a colony of swiftlets that produce the right kind of nest for the trade. “House nests” are priced much lower than the “cave nests” due to the level of risks involved in the harvesting process of the latter. (Adapted from Birding India: Edible-nest Swiftlet) (bold mine)

Apparently, another item left behind is H5N1, or so the locals fear.  Now, both the WHO and Pro-Med are reporting that the focus of the investigation is the presence of a swiftlet in the immediate vicinity of the dead 31-year old healthcare worker.  I quote directly from the WHO release on the case:

The Ministry of Health of Indonesia has announced a new case of human infection of H5N1 avian influenza. A 31-year-old male from the Bengkalis District, Riau Province developed symptoms on 31 October, was hospitalized on 3 November and died in an AI referral hospital on 6 November. Identification of the source of his infection is ongoing and includes investigation into a large swallow farm in close proximity to the case's house. (bold mine)

The villagers have raised these swiftlets to harvest their precious nests from the rooftops of buildings.  There is video of the Riau locals smoking out remaining swiftlets and burning the leftover nests from Indonesian television station Liputan6.com, specifically at: http://www.liputan6.com/news/?d=150643&c_id=7 .  The video is the last news story on the loop.

Fascinating possible vector, eh?  This adds to the (growing) list of potential H5N1 vectors, including housecats, pigs and dogs in Southeast Asia.  China has also been concerned about a possible link between swallows and H5N1.  The following is from the Chairman of Health Promotion and Detection of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, from February 4, 2006.  http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/health_promote_protect/announcement-06feb.html , and the context is within various influenza warnings.

The University Library has for years been a favorite nesting area by swallows.  As a precaution to prevent passersby from walking underneath the swallow nests outside the Library, the Estates Management Office has placed nice pot plants to block a section of the pedestrian walkway near the carpark entrance of Tin Ka Ping Building leading up to the central steps.  “No Parking” signs are also posted to inform drivers not to park their cars in that area.  Pot plants are also placed around areas beneath the swallow nests outside Sir Run Run Shaw Hall.

How could swallows handle the stress of H5N1 without a mass die-off?  A partial answer might be found in a recent report entitled "Ecologic Immunity of Avian Influenza (H5N1) in Migratory Birds."  An excerpt follows:

Far less information is available, however, on 1 important aspect: how do infected birds perform during long-distance migration? Møller et al. (22) showed that barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) with large energy reserves maintain better immune function during migration, clear ectoparasites and blood parasites more effectively, and arrive earlier at breeding grounds (which is an important determinant of reproductive success) than birds with poor energy reserves.

Swallows are a secondary vector of the Buggy Creek Virus, related to equine encephalitis, and found in areas of the Midwest, including Oklahoma and Nebraska.  From a 2004 news release from the the University of Tulsa:

Charles R. Brown, a biology professor at The University of Tulsa, has received a grant of $856,000 from the National Institutes of Health to study a virus that infects cliff swallows. The research may help understand the transmission of other viruses that affect humans, such as West Nile virus.

Brown will be specifically studying the Buggy Creek virus, named after the location where it was first discovered in western Oklahoma. The virus is known to live in the cliff swallow and is transmitted from bird to bird by the blood-sucking cimicid insect. It is not known if the virus affects the health of birds or humans, or if mosquitoes spread the virus to humans.

The Buggy Creek virus is similar to the one that causes Western equine encephalitis, a disease that is spread to horses and humans by infected mosquitoes, but which generally causes only flu-like symptoms in humans.

When the swallows migrate to South America in the winter, the parasitic bugs burrow beneath the mud nests, re-emerging when the birds return in the spring, shortly before the breeding season in May and June. (bold mine)

I bolded the South America part because of the article that appeared last year, warning that we might be looking in the wrong hemisphere for H5N1.  Migratory patterns in the Northern Hemisphere are very well-known, but such patterns in the Southern Hemisphere are not well-plotted at all, especially those in South America (home to malaria, dengue, and other dangerous diseases), according to the University of Florida.

So these swiftlets are about to go through some incredible scrutiny.  Let me give a huge tip of the hat to Dr. Henry Niman and FluTrackers poster Dutchy for bringing this to light.

H5N1 has officially returned to Great Britain. 

This past Sunday, workers at the Redgrave Park Farm in Suffolk, near the border with Norfolk, made an unsettling discovery.  In one of five poultry sheds on the property, the workers found sixty dead birds,  DEFRA was quickly called and tests clearly showed the presence of high-path H5N1.

What is interesting is the proximity of the poultry operation to a lake teeming with wild migratory birds.  About two football fields away, these wild birds -- including wild swans and Canadian geese - frolick.

Wild swans have also been the focus of H5N1 scrutiny in Germany and France.  So the appearance of wild swans in an area also suffering an H5N1 infestation is certainly not, at first glance, coincidental.

Of course, the retail companies who would have ordinarily bought these turkeys, ducks and geese would now have you believe they had no plan to buy these fine, plump birds just before the holiday season started!  One spokesperson said:

"The farm was due to supply us with a small percentage of our Christmas turkeys, ducks and geese. It is a relatively small farm and it would have accounted for less than 2.5 per cent of all our Christmas turkeys. We will be working closely with other farms that supply us and we are confident we will meet public demand."

Here is the article link, from the London Daily Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/13/nbird313.xml

The following snippet clearly shows that the British authorities are all too quick to throw those frolicking wild birds under the proverbial bus:

I think these wild birds need legal representation.  Recall that at first, the Bernard Matthews H5N1 fiasco was laid at the webbed feet of migratory wildfowl.  But, as we learned later, it might only have been partially true.  Matthews'  poultry may indeed have been contaminated -- in Hungary.  But then, the Hungarian turkeys were shipped to Matthews' processing plant in Britain, and all Hell broke loose last February.  While the virus may be antigenically similar to Czech and German strains, the lineage is most certainly Qinghai -- and migrating wild birds and deficient industrial farming techniques may both be at fault here.

But news reports say these turkeys are free-range fowl, which conjures up images of fun-loving, blissfully ignorant turkeys running in slow motion toward other turkeys of the opposite sex, or else running toward the feeding troughs.  But hold on there, Baba-looie!  Maybe free-range is a nice feel-good word that simply means "gotcha."

From the Website http://www.eastbayanimaladvocates.org/, and its subsidiary Web page  http://www.free-range-turkey.com/wst_page3.html :

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the single condition for the term 'free-range' is that birds have access to the outdoors. All other facets of a free-range turkey's life can be indistinguishable from the living conditions of a conventional-raised bird.

University of California-Davis poultry specialist, Ralph Ernst reports: "Most free-range birds are still fenced in corrals, though people like to imagine the birds are out roaming the range. They're not out exercising. These birds are raised much like the regular turkeys." (3)

Thousands of free-range turkeys are raised in a single warehouse-like structure (known as a grow-out shed), forced to stand on accumulated fecal waste and breathe in ammonia fumes.

Recall the beginning of this story.  Five sheds and 60 dead birds.  So until we know exactly how free-range these free-range turkeys were, the jury is out on the immediate cause of the outbreak.  And if the local wildfowl tests negative for H5N1, then we have a real conundrum on our hands.

In order to catch up and not plow the same ground as my peers in flublogia have done so well, I offer this link to Mike Coston's excellent digest and Crawford Kilian's equally excellent digest of the recent Riau death from H5N1 -- and the strong circumstantial case for yet another familial cluster in Indonesia.

The blog can be found at: http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2007/11/rumblings-from-riau.html , and Crawford Kilian's entry can be found at: http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/2007/11/wife-of-muhamma.html .

While all this is going on, the WHO and the Indonesian government continue to fiddle around the issue of some 58 samples of H5N1 the Indonesians sent to the WHO but never received back.  This all harkens back to the refusal by Indonesia to send samples to the WHO back in January of this year.  After much harrumphing by both sides, Indonesia finally relented and promised to send samples again.  However, the WHO did not start receiving samples again until September (http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest+News/Asia/STIStory_156965.html).  Jakarta has now said it wants its 58 samples back in order to manufacture its own vaccine (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-11/09/content_7039518.htm ).

Contrast this behavior with that of the Chinese government, which just released 23 samples and (according to them) released all gene sequences.  Hopefully, this is true.

New Zealand took no chances with a Korean Air flight from Seoul to Auckland this morning.  A woman took ill and everyone, from the pilot down to the authorities, took it very, very seriously.  Apparently, New Zealand authorities are aware of the South Korea-to-Vietnam link with last week's reported death of Lu Chin-chu (I do not believe in coincidences when it comes to H5N1).  Lu's death is still, apparently, a mystery, as is the condition of his father.  But that has not stopped the New Zealanders from scratching their itchy trigger fingers when it comes to erring on the side of extreme caution.  Which is good for all.

The following is from today's Chicago Sun-Times, via AP:

The woman was later deemed to be ''no risk'' and suffering from suspected gastroenteritis, airport police Inspector Richard Middleton said, congratulating the flight crew for notifying authorities about the potential problem.

The woman, whose name was not released, was briefly treated at a hospital in Auckland, Middleton said.

Crew on the flight, from South Korea via Australia, alerted airport authorities when the woman began vomiting and showing other possible bird flu symptoms, sparking a lockdown on the tarmac as the plane landed, said Norman Upjohn, an ambulance duty manager.

The 223 people aboard the Boeing 747 were held for about an hour under ''full quarantine procedure'' while a paramedic in protective clothing examined the woman, Upjohn said.

South Korea declared itself bird flu free in June, after reporting no new cases of the H5N1 strain of bird flu -- in birds or humans -- for three months. Australia and New Zealand have reported no infections of H5N1, which has killed at least 206 people worldwide since 2003, according to the World Health Organization.

So what DID happen to Lu Chin-chu?  Was he indeed South Korean, or Taiwanese as one Vietnamese newspaper is now reporting (thanks, Dr. Niman)?  What killed him?  No one is saying, which tells me something is afoot -- if for no other reason than the authorities would like to quickly put everything behind them if Lu was indeed negative for H5N1.  Pasteur moves quicker than this.

Geez,

Take four days off and see what happens!  Let me strive to digest all the bird flu comings and goings (and there are a TON of comings and goings!) and I will render some comments accordingly.