Te Niwha shares with you this recording of a Sydney ID Distinguished Lecture, hosted by the University of Sydney. The lecture was given by Professor Thijs Kuiken, Professor of Comparative Pathology at the Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam: ‘The expansion of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza’.
The lecture:
The currently circulating highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus of the subtype H5 causes illness and death in wild and domestic birds and mammals, as well as in humans.
The virus evolved from the Goose / Guangdong lineage of HPAI H5 virus, which emerged in commercial poultry in China in 1996, spilled over into wild birds, and spread through Asia, Europe, Africa by 2006, North America by 2021, South America by 2023, and Antarctica starting in 2024.
To prevent more of such emerging infectious disease events in wildlife, livestock and humans from happening in the future, a paradigm shift is needed in infectious disease prevention and control.
