News

In brief…

Since the publication of the last EMPRES Bulletin (No. 26), outbreaks of EMPRES priority diseases in different regions around the world have been reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) or FAO.

Outbreaks reported, October 2004–January 2005
Disease	Country	Reporting date	Location	Agent characterization
Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia	Kenya	November 2004
	Kenya	December 2004
	Nigeria	December 2004	State of Kano (northern Nigeria )
Lumpy skin disease	Senegal	December 2004	Velingara (13º 02' N – 14º 07' W)
Rift Valley fever	Senegal	December2004
Peste des petits ruminants	Israel	December 2004	North district, Nazareth subdistrict, Ilut locality
	Mali	November 2004	Koulikoro region, Niamina district
	Mali	January 2005	Koulikoro region, Niamina district
Goat pox	Viet Nam	January 2005	Cao Bang, Bac Giang, Lang Son and Ha Tay provinces
Bluetongue	Croatia	November 2004	Dubrova c ko-Neretvanska ( Dubrovnik ) county	In sentinel animals without clinical signs, serotypes 9 and 16
	Morocco	October 2004	Ben Slimane, El Hajeb, Kénitra, Khémisset, Khouribga, Larache, Meknès, Rabat, Sefrou, Sidi Kacem, Taounate and Taza provinces
		November 2004	Meknès, Rabat , Sidi Kacem, Taounate, Taourirt and Taza provinces
		December 2004	Taza province
	Portugal	November 2004	Alentejo region, Beja, Elvas and Évora districts
		December 2004	Alentejo region, Burtualhas–Sta. Eulàlia, Évora and Portalegre districts Beira Interior region, Castelo Branco district
		January 2005	Alentejo region, Alcaidinho–St. Maior district
	Spain	October 2004	Andalusia autonomous community, Cádiz and Málaga provinces Extremadura autonomous community, Cáceres province
		November 2004	Andalusia autonomous community, Cádiz, Ceuta, Huelva, Málaga and Sevilla provinces Extremadura autonomous community, Badajoz and Cáceres provinces	Serotype 4
		December 2004	Andalusia autonomous community , Cádiz, Huelva , Málaga and Sevilla provinces Extremadura autonomous community, Badajoz province	Serotype 4
		January 2005	Andalusia autonomous community , Cádiz , Huelva , Málaga and Sevilla provinces Ceuta autonomous city , Ceuta province Extremadura autonomous community , Badajoz and Cáceres provinces	Serotype 4
African swine fever	Burkina Faso	November 2004	Kadiogo province, Ouagadougou district (central Burkina Faso )
	Eritrea	November 2004	40 km south of Asmara , subzone of Dekemhare
	Namibia	December 2004	Okahandja district, Osona (22 º 04' S – 16 º 57' E)
	Namibia	January 2005	Okahandja district, Plot No. 27 (21 º 57' S – 16 º 56' E)
	United Republic of Tanzania	January 2005	Mwanza region, Nyamagana district, Pamba village
Classical swine fever	Russian Federation	December 2004	Vladimir region, Suzdal district, Novoe Selo village
		January 2005	Moscow region, Domodedovo district, Mayak garden fellowship
		January 2005	Komi republic, Pechora district, Puteets village
	Slovakia	November 2004	Lu c enec district , Lu c enec locality
Highly pathogenic avian influenza	South Africa	November 2004	Eastern Cape province , Ikwezi municipality	H5N2
Highly pathogenic avian influenza	South Africa	December 2004	Eastern Cape province , Camdeboo municipality	H5N2
Newcastle disease	Bulgaria	December 2004	Kargali administrative region, Dgebel municipality, Ridino village
	Cyprus	November 2004
	Greece	January 2005	Arcadia prefecture, Peloponnese region
	Japan	December 2004	Fukuoka prefecture
	South Africa	September 2004	KwaZulu-Natal province, Camperdown and Richmond districts

Highly pathogenic avian influenza reported in Asia, October 2004–January 2005, by last known case suspected and/or confirmed
Country	Date of first official reporting to OIE dd/mm/yy	Virus subtype	Latest information ¹
Country	Date of first official reporting to OIE dd/mm/yy	Virus subtype	Last known case suspected and/or confirmed	Source of information	OIE declaration
Pakistan	28/01/04	H7N3	November 2004	Government, FAO²
Indonesia	06/02/04	H5N1	December 2004	Media Web sites
China ³	26/01/04	H5N1	January 2005 (heron)	Government, media Web sites	Yes
Thailand	23/01/04	H5N1	January 2005	Government, FAO, media Web sites	Yes
Viet Nam	08/01/04	H5N1	January 2005	Government, FAO	Yes
¹ Official (OIE) and non-official information (ProMED, press agencies, FAO tracking systems, etc.) ² FAO: FAO representative in concurrence with government sources ³ Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

Contributions from FAO reference laboratories and collaborating centres

FAO/OIE World Reference Laboratory for Foot-and-Mouth Disease, Pirbright , United Kingdom


Country	No. of samples	Virus isolation in cell culture/ELISA ¹									RT-PCR ² for FMD (or SVD) virus (where appropriate)
		FMD virus serotype							SVD virus	NVD ³	Positive	Negative	Not tested
		O	A	C	SAT-1	SAT-2	SAT-3	Asia 1
Eritrea	31	5	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	26	5	26	-
Iran , Islamic Republic of	12	2	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	9	5	7	-
Italy	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	4	-	4 4	-	-
Pakistan	8	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	-	6	4	4	-
Philippines	12	12	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	11	1	-
Tanzania , United Republic of	21	6	-	-	-	5	-	-	-	10	12	9	-
Viet Nam	6	4	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	6	-	-
Total	94	29	2	-	-	5	-	3	4	5	47	47	-
¹ FMD or swine vesicular disease (SVD) virus serotype identified following virus isolation in cell culture and antigen detection enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) ² RT-PCR: reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction for FMD (or SVD) viral genome ³ NVD: no FMD, SVD or vesicular stomatitis virus detected ⁴ Positive by RT-PCR for SVD but not FMD viral genome

FAO/OIE World Reference Laboratory for Rinderpest and Peste des Petits Ruminants , Pirbright, United Kingdom

Report from the FAO World Reference Laboratory for Morbilliviruses, October 2004–January 2005
Country	Species	Sample	Disease	Test	Results
Pakistan		Tissue culture Vaccine	Rinderpest	Virus titration	5 pass, 2 fail
Sudan	Bovine	Tissue	Rinderpest/MCF ¹	RT-PCR	Negative
	Bovine	Swab	Rinderpest/MCF	RT-PCR	Negative
	Bovine	Serum	Rinderpest/PPR ²	C-ELISA ³	Negative
United States of America	Bovine	Serum	Rinderpest	C-ELISA	Negative
¹ MCF: malignant catarrhal fever ² PPR: peste des petits ruminants ³ C-ELISA: competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay