While the Wuhan pneumonia (novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19) outbreak and African swine fever are still ongoing in China, an outbreak of H5N6 subtype highly pathogenic avian influenza has occurred in Shenyang, Liaoning Province! The mortality rate is as high as 60 to 70%, which is even higher than H7N9.
Since November last year, several provinces and cities in China have experienced avian influenza, mostly of the H5N8 subtype with high pathogenicity. According to the official website of the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on April 12, the press office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs informed the same day that an outbreak of wild bird H5N6 subtype highly pathogenic avian influenza occurred in Changbai Island Forest Park, Changbai Street, Heping District, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province. The briefing did not specify what kind of wild birds.
The notification said that there were 291 wild birds in the epidemic, with 11 morbidity and mortality and another 280 culled. Zhao Aihua, deputy director of the Animal Epidemic Prevention Department of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said in an interview with the China News Service that “H5N6 avian influenza can be prevented and controlled, no need to talk about birds.”
It is understood that H5N6 is a subtype of influenza A virus, but the only subtypes of influenza A virus that appear in humans are H1N1, H1N2, H2N2, H3N2, H5N1, H7N7. However, scientists warned that the virus will mutate from time to time to derive new varieties, resulting in the original only infected avian influenza virus, which can affect humans, must be closely guarded.
Between 1984 and 2013, the H5N6 subtype of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus was detected in poultry and environmental samples in Germany, Sweden and California, Maryland, New Jersey and other places in the United States, during which no confirmed cases of human infection were found, but on May 3, 2014, the world’s first fatal case of human infection with H5N6 avian influenza in Sichuan Province, China, so far, China’s cumulative total of 16 cases, 11 deaths. To date, there have been a total of 16 cases and 11 deaths in China, with a mortality rate of 60 to 70%, much higher than the H7N9 mortality rate of about 30 to 40%.
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