Chilean health officials on Saturday confirmed that a flu outbreak detected on two turkey farms was identical to the A(H1N1) virus and was transmitted by humans.
The outbreak was initially reported late on Thursday in two farms in the Valparaiso region, 160km west of Santiago, by the Chilean Agricultural and Livestock Service.
“Preliminary results from the analysis showed that the virus [found in the turkeys] is the same as that in Chile” during its current southern hemisphere summer, said the Public Health Institute (ISP), the country’s top public health authority.
Chile is one of the countries worst-hit by the A(H1N1) virus in South America. The region accounts for over 70 percent of the nearly 1,800 deaths worldwide.
The latest bulletin by Chile’s health ministry said 116 people have died of swine flu and another 12,175 people were treated for infections. But the intensity of the pandemic has lessened.
The case of transmission from humans to turkeys was the first in the world. But Health Secretary Jeanette Vega said the strain was not a mutated form of the A(H1N1) virus. World health officials have expressed concern the virus could gain strength and mutate.
The World Organization for Animal Health, based in Paris, said it is awaiting confirmation of the strains from analysis by other international laboratories of record.
The ISP said the analysis of the full genome will be available later this week.
The alert over the turkey farms was raised after the company running the properties noticed a sudden 70 percent drop in egg production and eggshell quality late last month.
Consuming turkeys, the ISP stressed, “does not present any risks to the population.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of