WASHINGTON, April 2 (Reuters) – Dogs can catch influenza directly from birds, Korean researchers said on Wednesday, saying their finding shows pets could play a role in future pandemics.

Several pet dogs became ill and died from what turned out to be purely avian strains of seasonal flu virus, the researchers reported in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

“Our data provide evidence that dogs may play a role in interspecies transmission and spread of influenza virus,” Daesub Song of Green Cross Veterinary Products Company Ltd in Yong-in, South Korea and colleagues reported.

The dogs had H3N2 influenza — a strain similar to one of the flu strains now circulating among humans. But genetic analysis showed the dogs were infected with viruses directly from birds, Song’s team said.

Doctors know animals pass flu viruses to one another. Many experts believe most, if not all, influenza viruses originate among birds.

The H5N1 avian influenza virus, which is sweeping through flocks in Asia, Africa and parts of Europe, has occasionally passed to humans, infecting 376 people and killing 238 of them. It has also occasionally infected dogs, cats, clouded leopards, civets and dozens of bird species, from swans to coots.

The fear is that it will somehow change or combine into a form that is easily passed from one human to another, sparking a pandemic that would have the potential to kill hundreds of millions of people globally.

H3N2 is found in birds and is also a very common human flu strain. But the varieties that infect birds and people look different on the genetic level.

Song’s team investigated outbreaks among dogs.

“From May through September 2007, cases of severe respiratory disease occurred in animals at three veterinary clinics located 10 to 30 km (6 to 18 miles) apart in Kyunggi Province and one kennel located in Jeolla Province (southern South Korea),” they wrote.

A miniature schnauzer recovered, but a cocker spaniel, two Korean Jindo dogs and a Yorkshire terrier died.

Another 13 dogs in a shelter were affected, and there is evidence some dogs infected others.

DNA analysis showed the viruses from the dogs closely resembled those from Chinese chickens or ducks in Hong Kong, Japan and China.

“Transmission of avian influenza A virus to a new mammalian species is of great concern because it potentially allows the virus to adapt to a new mammalian host, cross new species barriers and acquire pandemic potential,” they wrote.

They believe the dogs were infected via food.

“We posit that this transmission results from feeding dogs untreated minced meats of ducks or chickens,” they wrote.

“In South Korea, untreated duck and chicken meats, including internal organs and heads, have been widely used to feed dogs for fattening in local canine farms or kennels.”

It is possible some of the dogs were infected via respiratory secretions in live bird markets, and passed the virus to others, they added.

“Live-bird markets are thought to constitute a missing link in the epidemiology of avian influenza viruses because they bring together numerous hosts, such as chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese and doves, in a high-density setting, which represents an ideal environment for virus interspecies transmission,” they wrote. (Reporting by Maggie Fox, editing by Will Dunham and Todd Eastham)

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Jon Ungoed-Thomas and Steven Swinford
The Sunday Times
October 30, 2005

CUSTOMS officers claim that the businessman at the centre of Britain’s first avian flu case made up to £4m from an alleged bird-smuggling operation.

Officers working under cover found that Brett Hammond secretly imported thousands of exotic birds using fake documents more than a decade ago, according to court records.

Despite the discovery of the illegal trade, Hammond was allowed to continue to run one of Britain’s 83 quarantine centres, which are a key defence against an avian flu pandemic.

Hammond was prosecuted for Vat evasion and jailed for a year. He denies smuggling, but his accountant said last week that Hammond accepts that some of the birds were not quarantined.

The disclosure that Hammond flouted a scheme for which he is now responsible is an embarrassment for Margaret Beckett, the environment secretary, who has been accused of overseeing a “shambolic” quarantine system.

Last night Beckett was under further pressure as new documents showed that the UK had rejected a proposed ban on commercial wild bird imports to protect against avian flu six months ago. She had insisted in the House of Commons last week that the proposal had nothing to do with protecting the country from avian flu.

Britain’s first case of the H5N1 strain of avian flu, which has killed at least 60 people in Asia, was confirmed eight days ago after the death of an orange-winged Amazon parrot at the quarantine centre operated by Hammond’s company, Pegasus Birds.

The centre consists of a group of ramshackle sheds in the garden of a semi-detached house in South Fambridge, Essex. It has emerged that 32 other birds had died there before the parrot and that some of those were also infected with avian flu.

Checks are still being carried out on other batches of birds previously imported by Hammond. Ministers hope no infected birds were sold to the public.

Cursory checks on Hammond would have revealed the authorities’ extensive files on his activities. In the early 1990s he was under surveillance on suspicion of selling wild birds without putting them in quarantine and for failing to declare the imports to customs.

Court documents state: “The investigation involved the alleged large-scale smuggling of exotic birds into the United Kingdom. The birds would be purchased from various dealers (in Europe) and be transferred to a hired van. The birds would then be concealed to avoid detection.”

Prosecution lawyers alleged that Hammond and an associate were involved in the smuggling operation. The drivers transporting the live cargoes were given official documentation – including false invoices – permitting importation.

On most occasions, however, they were not challenged and the birds entered the country illegally and without going into quarantine, according to customs documents held by the court.

Between January 1993 and May 1995, officers identified 165 trips involving Hammond and his associate. On some, they followed vehicles suspected of carrying boxes of birds from Belgium and Holland. “These vehicles were followed from Dover on a number of occasions and each time the deliveries were made to the premises of Pegasus Birds Ltd.”

Hammond was jailed for 18 months at Knightsbridge Crown Court in London in February 1997 after admitting a specimen charge of evading up to £50,000 Vat. This was reduced to 12 months on appeal.

By Nassim Khadem
Canberra
October 27, 2005

COUNTRIES exporting birds to Australia face tougher quarantine measures to reduce the chance of bird flu spreading to our shores.

The Federal Government announced the stronger measures yesterday after authorities in Melbourne last week found three racing pigeons imported from Canada had been exposed to bird flu.

Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran said all imports of live birds and hatching eggs would have to be tested for avian influenza antibodies before being shipped to Australia. They would be tested again on arrival.

Health Minister Tony Abbott, returning to Australia after a bird flu meeting in Ottawa, Canada, said interstate travel and public gatherings could be banned if an outbreak of the deadly bird flu virus hit Australia.

The Government was considering the bans as part of plans to tackle any spread of bird flu across the country. “Cancellation of interstate travel, border closures between different parts of the country, cancellation of large public gatherings (are being considered),” he said.

Mr McGauran lifted the ban on bird imports from Canada, imposed last week, saying trade could resume “with the additional testing requirements”.

Prime Minister John Howard also announced an $8 million package over four years to help the South Pacific prepare for a bird flu outbreak. He said it was important to improve the region’s quarantine systems, infection prevention and control programs, and animal surveillance.

Mr Abbott said Australia would be more prepared than other countries in the event of an outbreak. “We’ve been very quick building up our antiviral stockpile; we did that last year,” he said. “I think that quite a few of the other countries were a bit impressed with what Australia had done.”

He said Australia had been working closely with Indonesia, Vietnam and China, which were vulnerable to an outbreak because of less stringent poultry farming conditions. “We’ve been working with them to boost surveillance, to improve their reporting systems, to improve their laboratory diagnostic capacity,” he said.

But shadow foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said the Government had been complacent and had not given enough money to help vulnerable Asian countries.

Australia will host an APEC meeting on avian flu in Brisbane next week. It will bring together for the first time disaster management co-ordinators from 21 APEC countries and health and quarantine experts.

Migrating birds are expected to spread the deadly bird flu into East Africa within weeks, increasing the risk of an influenza pandemic that could kill millions worldwide, according to Nature magazine.

- with AAP