Volume: 214, Published: 14 March 2023

Philippines: 55 rabies deaths reported in the first two months of 2023
Date: 12 March 2023; Disease: Rabies; Location: Multiple locations, Philippines
The Philippines Department of Health’s Epidemiology Bureau reports 55 human rabies cases/deaths through February 25 this year. This is an 8 percent increase in cases/deaths compared to the same period in 2022 (51). Only three of the 17 regions in the country have not reported a rabies case this year to date.  Central Luzon (11) and Calabarzon (9) have seen the most rabies cases. Rabies is an acute viral infection that is transmitted to humans or other mammals usually through the saliva from a bite of an infected animal. It is also rarely contracted through breaks in the skin or contact with mucous membranes. According to the Control of Communicable Diseases Manual, all mammals are susceptible to rabies. Raccoons, skunks, foxes, bats, dogs, coyotes and cats are the likely suspects. Other animals like otters and ferrets are also high risk. Mammals like rabbits, squirrels, rodents and opossums are rarely infected. Initially, like in many diseases, the symptoms of rabies are non-specific; fever, headache and malaise. This may last several days. At the site of the bite there may be some pain and discomfort. Symptoms then progress to more severe: confusion, delirium, abnormal behavior and hallucinations. If it gets this far, the disease is nearly 100% fatal. Read more at Outbreak News Today.

China: First rabies case in ferret badgers reported in Miaoli County
Date: 12 March 2023; Disease: Rabies; Location: Miaoli County, Taiwan province of China
The Taiwan Animal and Plant Epidemic Prevention and Quarantine Bureau of the Agriculture Committee announced last week the first positive cases of rabies in three ferret badger detected in Miaoli County. The Bureau of Prevention and Inspection carried out a monitoring plan to actively capture small carnivorous wild animals at the junction of the epidemic. A total of 3 ferret badgers were captured in Zhuolan Township, Miaoli County on January 1, Zhuolan Township in Miaoli County on January 7, and Taian Township in Miaoli County on 18 January. These three cases submitted for inspection are the first positive cases of ferret badger rabies detected in the jurisdiction of Miaoli County. The Bureau of Prevention and Inspection has asked the Animal Protection and Epidemic Prevention Office of Miaoli County to strengthen animal inspections and epidemic investigations within its jurisdiction, and appealed to the public that if they find any dead wild animals, they should notify the local animal epidemic prevention agency and do not handle it by themselves. Read more at Outbreak News Today.

Singapore: 17 more cases of African swine fever (ASF) found in wild boars
Date: 10 March 2023; Disease: ASF; Location: Singapore
Another 17 cases of African swine fever have been detected in wild boars in Singapore. According to the latest report by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) on Feb 24, there are now 18 cases recorded in Singapore, more than two weeks after the National Parks Board (NParks) confirmed the country's first case on 7 February. Of the 18 cases, 15 were detected in wild boar carcasses while the remaining three were trapped wild boars. The three trapped boars were killed and disposed of, said WOAH. In its epidemiological comments, it said the virus has been detected in wild boars in forested areas and nature parks in several parts of Singapore. The situation is deemed "sufficiently stable", it added. Read more at Today Online and WOAH.

Bangladesh: Three more Nipah virus cases reported, bringing the seasonal total to 14
Date: 6 March 2023; Disease: Nipah virus; Location: multiple locations, Bangladesh
Health authorities in Bangladesh have reported three additional Nipah virus cases, including two additional deaths, according to a recent report. This is up from 11 cases and 8 deaths reported over two weeks ago. According to the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) in Dhaka, from January 2023 as of 4 March 2023, a total of 14 Nipah cases are identified through the surveillance system. The new cases are reported from Manda upazila in Naogaon district in the Division of Rajshahi in western Bangladesh. This outbreak is related to the consumption of date palm sap. Read more at Outbreak News Today.

India: High pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 outbreak
Date: 9 March 2023; Disease: HPAI (H5N1); Location: Government Poultry Farm, Bokaro, Jharkhand, India
In a recent HPAI (H5N1) outbreak, 2615 farm birds died of the disease while 3532 birds were killed and disposed of. The event is ongoing. Read more at WOAH and Live Mint. Also read thousands of poultry birds culled following the spread of avian influenza in Ranchi, Jharkhand in The Times of India.

Japan: About 680,000 chickens to be culled due to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak
Date: 6 March 2023; Disease: HPAI (H5N1); Location: Niigata prefecture, Japan
An avian influenza outbreak will force Japan's Niigata Prefecture to have 680,000 chickens culled, the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries updated. Officials said that the presence of avian influenza virus was confirmed on a farm in Niigata Prefecture which was confirmed through genetic analysis. This is the 78th case this season, 680,000 chickens will be culled, the ministry said. A quarantine will be introduced on the transportation of chickens and their eggs within a 3-kilometer radius around the farm, according to the statement. Read more at Urdu Point.

Cambodia: High pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 outbreak
Date: 6 March 2023; Disease: HPAI (H5N1); Location: Torb Sdarch village, Prey Vêng, Cambodia
An unspecified species of wildlife was confirmed positive with HPAI (H5N1) in a recent outbreak. Contact with wild species is stated as the source of the infection. Read more at WOAH.

Indonesia: Reappearance of foot-and-mouth disease
Date: 5 March 2023; Disease: FMD; Location: Cirebon Regency, Indonesia
After having zero FMD cases at the end of 2022, officials have shared that the FMD cases in Cirebon Regency are now reappearing. Data from the Agriculture Service of the Regency of Cirebon (Distan) as of 27 February 2023, out of a total of 1885 ruminants, 26 died, 186 were forcibly slaughtered, 1632 recovered and 41 are still sick. Cirebon Distan district secretary shared that FMD cases at the start of 2023 were spread across 80 villages in 32 sub-districts. According to the official, cases of FMD reappeared in Cirebon Regency as supplies of ruminants arrived from outside Cirebon Regency ahead of Islamic holidays. Read more at World News (French).

Russian Federation: African swine fever (ASF) outbreak in domestic pigs
Date: 10 March 2023; Disease: ASF; Location: Privolzhskoe, Russian Federation
One domestic pig died of ASF in a group of 5 animals where 12 animals were marked as susceptible. The source of infection is marked as unknown or inconclusive. Read more at WOAH.

Rats are another animal link in the COVID-19 chain
Date: 9 March 2023
A new study shows there are currently 8 million wild animals in New York City with the potential to incite secondary zoonotic transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to humans, including new variants the human population has not encountered yet. “Rats likely play an important role in the evolution of Alpha, Delta, Omicron variants, which has the potential to result in the emergence of new variants in rats that are naive to the human population and may contain properties harmful to humans,” a multi-institutional research team writes in their newest study on SARS-CoV-2 in wild rats in NYC. It is estimated that New York City has approximately 8 million wild rats inhabiting the sewer systems, mass transit routes and elsewhere. With that being the case, were the rats susceptible to reverse zoonosis of SARS-CoV-2 during the height of the pandemic in NYC? Read more at Laboratory Equipment.

Zoo lion transmits COVID-19 to its keepers, the first of such case
Date: 9 March 2023
A lion infected with SARS-CoV-2 at an Indiana zoo likely transmitted the virus to at least two of the keepers that were caring for the big cat, a new study shows. It is the first confirmed case of an infected zoo animal transmitting the coronavirus to a human, researchers say. However, such transmission is likely rare and in this case, probably resulted from the fact that the lion needed to be fed by hand, scientists wrote in the study. It's long been known that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can infect many species, and that it can pass between humans and animals. The virus likely jumped from an animal to a human in the first place, and past studies suggested that pet cats and dogs catch SARS-CoV-2 from owners at extremely high rates. Other studies showed that deer have transmitted the virus to humans, and infected hamsters in a Hong Kong pet shop sparked a human outbreak of the delta variant. Read more at Live Science.

Frequent zoonotic spillover of diverse sarbecoviruses in communities interacting with wildlife
Date: 6 March 2023
Research has shown that viruses such as Sarbecoviruses (subgenus of Coronaviridae that predominantly infect bats) also have the potential to infect humans. Sarbecoviruses are most likely to emerge in populations in Southeast Asia, which have not been adequately surveyed to date. A new study published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases surveyed communities in rural Myanmar to study their exposure to sarbecoviruses and interaction with wildlife. The study's findings showed participants' exposure to diverse sarbecoviruses, which have not infected humans yet. Extractive industries and bat contact were the exposure patterns that positively correlated with seropositivity. This highlighted the importance of zoonotic transmission over human-to-human transmission. The absence of human-to-human transmission and the remote nature of the viruses could explain why many of them are not recognized by the global community yet. The findings echo the importance of sustained surveillance at the rural wildlife-human interface in Southeast Asia. This geographic region has a high level of mammalian diversity, and the future emergence of zoonotic diseases is quite likely. Read more at News Medical and get full text at IJID Online.

Alternative strategies to control salmonella infection in poultry
Date: 13 March 2023
Salmonella in poultry causes either subclinical disease or no change and thus enhances the likelihood of infection transmission to humans from asymptomatic poultry via the food chain. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, salmonella causes 1.35 million infections per year in the United States. Since antibiotic use has been reconsidered due to resistance, alternative strategies based on feeding and non-feeding are recommended to control salmonella infection in poultry and to reduce production costs. Salmonella infection is one of the primary challenges for the poultry industry due to the potential risk of mortality, economic losses and public health threats. Concerns regarding antibiotic resistance has led to the design and validation of alternative strategies to prevent and control salmonella infection. However, further research is required to understand the functional potential of antibiotic-free strategies and to promote their application to reduce and control salmonella infections. Read more at Poultry World.

Sri Lanka: Transportation of animals and animal products from Northern Province banned as Lumpy skin disease (LSD) spreads among cattle
Date: 7 March 2023
The Livestock Development Division of the Ministry of Agriculture emphasizes that LSD is the disease that is spreading among cattle in Mullaitivu district these days. Agriculture Minister instructed the division to investigate this disease situation immediately. Explaining the information about the disease, additional secretary said that this condition was reported for the first time in Sri Lanka in 2019 and before that this condition was not reported in this country. LSD is a viral disease that affects cattle and rarely fatal. Nodules that form on the skin cause wounds that fall off and heal with treatment, the official explained. Also, because this condition is caused by a virus, a cow once infected with the disease has no possibility of contracting the disease again. Read more at Colombo Page.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) virus infections in wild carnivores connected to mass mortalities of pheasants in Finland
Date: 6 March 2023
Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has caused widespread mortality in both wild and domestic birds in Europe during 2020–2022. Virus types H5N8 and H5N1 have dominated the epidemic. Isolated spill-over infections in mammals started to emerge as the epidemic continued. In autumn 2021, HPAI H5N1 caused a series of mass mortality events in farmed and released pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) in a restricted area in southern Finland. Later, in the same area, an otter (Lutra lutra), two red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and a lynx (Lynx lynx) were found moribund or dead and infected with H5N1 HPAI virus. Phylogenetically, H5N1 strains from pheasants and mammals clustered together. Molecular analyses of the four mammalian virus strains revealed mutations in the PB2 gene segment (PB2-E627K and PB2-D701N) that are known to facilitate viral replication in mammals. This study revealed that avian influenza cases in mammals were spatially and temporally connected with avian mass mortalities suggesting increased infection pressure from birds to mammals. Read more at Science Direct.

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