Global Avian Influenza Network for Surveillance (GAINS)

Wildlife Conservation Society
www.wcs.com

WCS Global Health Program

Avian Influenza:  During the last week of May, an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N1 virus was reported in Qinghai Province in China.  Subsequently, on May 22nd, six dead swans and one sick swan were found at a small lake (Doit lake) nearby Ugii Nuur in Arkhangai province.  The State Central Veterinary Laboratory (SCVL) team arrived at the site the next day for sampling and investigation.  Samples from two dead swans and one sick swan confirmed the presence of H5 but SCVL could not type the Neuraminidase (N1), therefore the samples were sent to Hokkaido Veterinary Laboratory to complete the N typing.  At this point it is possible that the swans were dead with highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 due to the H5N1 outbreak in Qinghai, but we can not state this with 100% certainty until the laboratory results of N typing are in.

In a recent report from Roger Morris with the World Bank mission in Mongolia, dead whoopers may have been detected at a second site.  The locations of these mortalities are at lakes "broadly south of Khunt nuur", which may suggest that these latest swans are in the same areas as the first (as the only lakes south of Khunt Nuur that really hold more than a couple of swans are at Ogii).