Birds inc magpie robin in Hong Kong w H5N1

A little egret found in a Hong Kong park has tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus, the government said on Saturday.

The bird was collected at the Tuen Mun Park in the New Territories on Nov. 18, the city's agriculture, fisheries and conservation department said in a brief statement.

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said today (June 8) that the Common Magpie found earlier in Sha Tin was confirmed to be H5N1 positive after a series of laboratory tests.

The carcass of the bird was collected at 13 Jat Min Chuen Street, Sha Tin on May 31 by department staff following a public referral.

Echoing sentiments expressed by leading virologists Professor John Oxford from the UK and the Dr Robert Webster from the United States (appendix A), Hong Kong-based microbiologist Professor Malik Peiris said that the 500,000+ wild bird trade into Hong was the most likely source of the H5N1-infected wild birds that were being repeatedly detected in Hong Kong:

“Recognizing that the natural habitats of many of these infected birds is not urban, and that the Chestnut Munia in particular no longer occurs in the wild in Hong Kong in any habitat, there is no other logical explanation for the presence of H5N1 in birds found in these highly urbanized locations. Given that such infected birds pose a threat to the poultry industry and to human health, more stringent and effective regulation or an outright ban on the trade of wild birds seems a sensible precaution,” said Professor Peiris.

The Hong Kong Bird Watching Society (HKBWS) called on the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Dr York Chow and the Centre for Health Protection to recognize the wild bird trade and religious releases as an important source of H5N1 introduction into Hong Kong, and to close this route for human infection by banning the trade.

“Government data shows that the most feared case for a new pandemic - H5N1 - is being found weekly in Mong Kok, Sham Shui Po and Happy Valley - some of the most densely populated areas on Earth,” said Mike Kilburn, Vice Chairman of HKBWS. “Munias and mesias – non-migratory birds commonly sold for religious release, have been clearly identified as carriers of the virus.”

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Leading virologists urged governments on Saturday to curb the trade of wild birds as they can spread the H5N1 bird flu virus, which has made a comeback in many parts of the world in recent months.

The warning comes as Hong Kong confirmed a scaly-breasted munia found dead in late February in the densely-populated district of Sham Shui Po had tested positive for the H5N1.

It was the 13th wild bird to have been found dead with the virus in Hong Kong since the start of this year.

"The munia is not a migratory bird. Again, it points to humans and the trade in movement of birds that are responsible for spreading this virus," said virologist Robert Webster from St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis.

Small, wild birds are bought and sold across borders and released for religious purposes in many parts of the world. The practice is particularly strong in Hong Kong, which has a huge population of Buddhists and Taoists. The city imports the small birds mostly from mainland China.

Another interesting discovery in Hong Kong. A friend of mine has reviewed the data on H5N1-infected birds in Hong Kong and found that in the last 2 years all the birds infected are either commonly kept as cagebirds, commonly released by Buddhists to gain spiritual merit, or urban raptors and scavengers which would be likely to prey on sick or dead birds.

Even more interesting . . .

Of the 10 H5N1-positive birds this year 8 (80%) were found within a 3km radius of the Mong Kok Bird Market and 7 (70%) within 1km!

Of the 15 cases last year the figures were 7 (47%)within 3 km and 4 (27%) within 1km.

During the same period not a single bird was discovered with H5N1among the thousands of birds tested at Mai Po.

Does this not suggest what the source might be to anyone?

Apparently not to our government's health officials, vets or conservation staff

Interesting facts:
1. Mong Kok is one of the most densely populated places on the planet.
2. The bird market remains open and birds continue to arrive in Hong Kong
3.Our Health Minister has publicly spoken out in defence of the livelihoods of the bird sellers and has not closed the market. (priorities a la DEFRA?)
4. UN figures suggest around 1 million birds are traded through HK every year
5. A recent HK University study suggested an additional 600,000 were coming in annually from China without regulation, inspection or quarantine
6. Our Government CITES officers monitor a paltry 40,000 imported birds per year
7. Two Silver-eared Mesias - the bird which brought H5N1 to the UK last year were found with H5N1 just 200m from the Mong Kok Bird market earlier this month.

Mai Po Nature Reserve in the northwestern New Territories provides a "natural" early warning system for bird flu in Hong Kong, according to a visiting bird flu expert.

Dirk Pfeiffer, professor of veterinary epidemiology at the University of London's Royal Veterinary College, said the number of dead birds with H5N1 found this month was insignificant compared with the number of carcasses collected for testing and should not cause alarm.

Up to yesterday, only seven out of 1,600 birds collected had been found with H5N1 flu. This compared with January last year when 470 dead birds were collected, four of which tested positive.

For the whole of last year, 17 out of 10,000 birds collected had H5N1.

Although any "trigger point" marking the explosion of bird flu would be difficult to anticipate, Dr Pfeiffer said "to be quite frank, you would see an excess mortality in Mai Po before that actually occurs". "Before you see large percentages in resident wild birds you would actually see something in Mai Po," he said.

"You actually have a nice warning system there."

Even if wild birds at Mai Po became infected, it would be "a long way" before this would spread from poultry to humans, and then among humans.

Meanwhile, television and radio announcements will be broadcast from next week advising people not to release birds into the wild, whether for Buddhist merit-making ceremonies or any other cultural or religious reason.

"We have talked to Buddhist and Taoist associations and they agreed not to release birds," said Thomas Sit Hon-chung, assistant director of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.

He said it would be useless to ban the practice because Hong Kong was a big area.

Six scaly-breasted munias -- a popular species of "prayer birds" used for release in Buddhist rituals to enhance a devotee's karma -- were found dead in a busy shopping on New Year's eve, including one which tested positive for the H5N1 virus.
"We really have to seriously consider this possibility of (prayer bird) infection," said Malik Peiris, a virologist and leading bird flu expert at the University of Hong Kong.
"In Hong Kong, there is no H5N1 activity in poultry. So for this bird that was found dead, the question is how (it) got infected?"
Prayer bird species range from munias, Japanese white-eye, white-rumped munia and tree sparrows costing as little as HK$4 (US$0.50) each, to the more expensive azure-winged magpies and Mongolian larks. Hunters in China use large fine "mist" nets that the birds fly into.
While the Hong Kong government tightly regulates poultry imports, laws for wild bird imports are much more lax, making it a potential crack in the city's bird flu defences.
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Richard Corlett, a professor of ecology at the University of Hong Kong, said the trade in wild birds was on a much larger scale than previously thought, with at least half a million birds freed by Buddhists in 2005, sometimes thousands at a time.
"Mongolian larks, for instance, must have been caught in northern China, trucked down to Hong Kong then released here in a totally unsuitable environment, where they promptly die."
Mass bird release sites in quiet corners of Hong Kong's country parks are often littered with discarded empty bamboo cages and dead bird carcasses, Corlett added.
Hong Kong's concerns come as the European Union passed new laws last week banning imports of wild birds on health and animal welfare grounds, a move which Corlett said the Hong Kong government should follow.
"There's a great deal of reluctance to acknowledge this is a problem ... You can go and buy 10,000 budgerigars and release them in a country park and there's nothing to stop you doing that," Corlett said.
Some experts see unregulated imports of wild birds as a serious bird flu risk. "This speculation or hypothesis is becoming more and more of a concern. There is more evidence to support this," said Dr. Lo Wing-lok an infectious diseases expert and former legislator.
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A microbiologist has called on the government to step up surveillance on the illegal trade of smuggled birds while an ecologist has suggested a complete ban on the release of wild birds in the SAR, even on religious grounds.
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"The SAR government should deal with the problem at source and work with the Guangdong authorities to test the birds," microbiologist Lo Wing-lok said Monday.

Lo, who accused the government for trying to evade the problem, insists more can be done to monitor the illegal trade of smuggled wild birds from the mainland.
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Hong Kong University ecologist Richard Corlett said the goshawk is a predator and the dead one found in Shek Kip Me was most likely released in a religious ceremony [or ate a released bird??].

"Although we cannot know what bird it ate, we do know that the birds released by Buddhists are often in terrible condition because of the cruel way in which they are treated during capture, transport from the mainland and in captivity in Hong Kong, and this makes them very vulnerable to predators like a goshawk," Corlett said.

He added that the more than half a million birds released in Hong Kong each year probably are eaten by predators shortly after being set free.

Corlett suggested a ban on the release of birds on grounds of animal cruelty since almost half a million are captured each year and transported to Hong Kong in atrocious conditions.
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HONG KONG (AP) - Something was strange about the little brown bird found dead from bird flu in one of Hong Kong's busiest shopping districts.

The scaly breasted munia usually lives in rural areas of the territory. So how did it and five others come to be in a bustling urban district - raising the threat of exposing residents and tourists to the virus?

Experts think the birds may have been used in a Buddhist ritual that frees hundreds of birds to improve karma. So, with worries rising in Asia about a new outbreak of bird flu, officials are urging the religious practice be stopped to protect public health.
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The scaly breasted munia is native to Hong Kong but is usually found in tussocks in rural areas, said Lew Young, a manager at the Chinese territory's Mai Po bird sanctuary.

"Six scaly breasted munia being found dead at the same spot at one time easily leads one to suspect whether they were being released," he said.

The birds are commonly used in the Buddhist ceremonies, Young added.

"They are usually transported to Hong Kong from the mainland in boxes. If one of the birds is sick, the rest are likely to be sick as well since they are crammed in one box," he said.

Aidia Chan, a postgraduate student in ecology who studied the releases for her thesis last year at Hong Kong University, said the frequency of releasing birds in Hong Kong is far more than had been suspected.

She contacted 229 religious groups in the city and 48 admitted they released birds to seek blessings. The groups practise the ritual one to 18 times each year, releasing as many as 3,000 birds each time, she said.

"Based on the figures they gave me, I estimate they released a range of 400,000 to 600,000 birds in 2006," Chan said.

"There are also people who buy and release birds individually and there's no way for me to quantify them, so there should be more other than these 48 groups," she said.
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The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said today (February 27) that three earlier suspected cases were confirmed to be H5N1 positive after a series of laboratory tests.

The cases involve a dead House Crow collected on Lai On Estate on February 20, a dead House Crow collected on Tai Hang Tung Estate on February 23, and a dead Common Magpie collected on Island Road on February 24.

Preliminary testing of a House Crow found dead in Shek Kip Mei has indicated a suspected case of H5 avian influenza, a spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said today (February 24), adding that further confirmatory tests are being conducted.

The carcass was collected by AFCD staff on Tai Hang Tung Estate following a public referral on February 23.

As for three earlier suspected cases involving a dead Large-billed Crow found in Yau Yat Tsuen, a dead Munia found on Repulse Bay Road, and a dead White-backed Munia found in Wan Chai, the spokesman said all of the birds were confirmed to have H5N1 virus after a series of laboratory tests.