Avian influenza is a disease or disease syndrome caused by avian influenza virus infection with respiratory and digestive tract dysfunction. Sick chickens have red, swollen eyes, tearing, increased secretions, chronic infection often results in unilateral eye blindness, head and face edema, swollen crowns and meat whiskers, purple-black necrotic spots on the edges, coughing, sneezing, and so on.

Recently, avian influenza has struck again, in the face of avian influenza, how do we prevent it, and what are the early symptoms of avian influenza?

Early symptoms of avian influenza

The incubation period of avian influenza is usually within 1 week, mostly 1~3 days, and the disease can occur at any age, with no gender difference. Early symptoms are similar to those of the common flu. Early symptoms are similar to those of the common flu. The main symptom is fever, which is usually above 39 degrees Celsius and lasts for 1 to 7 days, mostly 2 to 4 days.

Patients may have headache, fatigue, muscle aches and other systemic symptoms, and runny nose, nasal congestion, cough, sore throat and other respiratory symptoms, some patients have a loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal distension, abdominal pain, diarrhea, dilute watery stools and other gastrointestinal symptoms.

Once acute respiratory tract infection symptoms such as fever and cough occur, especially those with high fever and respiratory distress, they should seek medical attention. Personal hygiene habits such as washing hands frequently and covering the nose and mouth when coughing and sneezing can effectively prevent respiratory infections such as influenza.

Preventive measures :

1, strengthen physical exercise, pay attention to supplemental nutrition, ensure adequate sleep and rest to enhance resistance.

2, as far as possible to reduce unnecessary contact with poultry, especially with sick and dead birds. Wash your hands diligently and stay away from poultry secretions. If you have contacted birds or bird droppings, pay attention to clean your hands thoroughly with disinfectant and water.

3. You should try to buy quarantined poultry products from regular places selling avian influenza outbreaks.

4, develop good personal hygiene habits, strengthen indoor air circulation, open the windows for half an hour once or twice a day. Eat poultry meat should be cooked, cooked through, eat eggs when the eggshell should be cleaned with running water, should be cooked and heated sufficiently, do not eat raw. . or half-raw eggs. To have enough sleep and rest, a balanced diet, pay attention to more intake of food rich in vitamin C and other immune-enhancing food. Regular physical exercise to increase the body's resistance to the virus.

5, schools and kindergartens should take measures to teach children not to feed wild pigeons or other birds, such as contact with birds or bird feces, to wash their hands immediately and thoroughly. When traveling, avoid contact with birds as much as possible, for example, don't go to bird watching gardens, farms, markets or parks; don't feed pigeons or wild birds.

6. Don't take a bad cold lightly. The symptoms of avian influenza are similar to those of other influenza illnesses, such as fever, headache, cough, and sore throat, which in some cases can cause complications and lead to death. Therefore, if respiratory symptoms such as fever, headache, nasal congestion, cough and general malaise occur, you should put on a mask and go to the hospital as soon as possible. Be sure to tell your doctor whether you have been to an avian influenza infected area before the onset of the disease and whether you have been in contact with sick birds, etc., and seek treatment and medication under the guidance of your doctor.

Prevention and control of avian influenza/avian influenza

Control of infectious diseases must start with the three links of infectious diseases: the source of infection, the means of transmission, and susceptible populations.

Sources of infection

To properly prevent avian influenza, we must first start with the source of infection. Relevant reports point out that the extreme poultry rearing environment is to promote the mutation of avian influenza virus is an important factor, so improve the poultry rearing environment, reduce the density of farms in the long run is to prevent the mutation of the avian influenza virus as well as the outbreak of the fundamental means, in addition to the different types of poultry rearing separately, but also help to control the spread of the epidemic: ducks, geese and chickens are kept separately to avoid chickens infected with ducks, geese virus and a large number of deaths. The virus of ducks and geese can be prevented from infecting chickens with the virus and killing them in large numbers.

In addition, vaccination of poultry has been proven to be the quickest and most effective way to control avian influenza. However, some experts in Hong Kong said that the method of vaccinating all birds in farms in Mainland China carries a certain degree of risk, that is, all birds are vaccinated so that all of them are resistant to the disease. In this way, in the event of a resurgence of avian influenza, the fact that all birds are disease-resistant will prevent farm owners from detecting the outbreak early enough to give early warning to the authorities concerned. In Hong Kong, all farms are required to keep a small number of birds without any vaccination. In this way, in the event of a resurgence of avian flu, this group of unvaccinated birds can serve as an early warning to alert other farms to the resurgence of the virus. In addition, according to a report by the United Nations Environment Programme, the misuse of vaccines is also an important factor in the mutation of influenza viruses, so over-vaccination is not recommended.

Pathways of transmission

Migratory birds are important transmitters of avian influenza, but it is impossible to slaughter all infected migratory birds, and culling of migratory birds will disperse the original gathering of birds, making the spread of the virus even more difficult to control, and therefore, segregation of poultry and migratory birds to avoid cross infection is an effective means of controlling the spread of the avian influenza. Therefore, segregating poultry and migratory birds to avoid cross-infection is an effective means to control the spread of avian influenza. In China, many farms have put up huge nets on the farms where poultry are kept to prevent poultry from being infected by migratory birds carrying the virus. In addition, some European countries require farms to move their birds indoors to prevent contact between poultry and wild birds as a means of transmission. Although moving birds indoors reduces the amount of space they have to move around and affects the texture of the meat, it is less costly than eliminating the entire bird population due to disease.

In addition to bird migration, the worldwide trade in birds is also an important means of spreading the avian influenza virus. While the legal trade in birds is subject to stringent animal health inspections in accordance with the relevant regulations and there is relatively little chance of spreading the disease, the illegal trade in birds, in particular the trade in wild birds** is not subject to animal health controls, and the capture, trafficking, sale, consumption, and release of wild birds can not only cause the virus to spread across geographical boundaries, but can also lead to the spread of the virus across borders. Not only does this cause the virus to spread across geographical boundaries, but it also has the potential to spread the virus between bird and human due to the close contact between the operator and the wild birds. Therefore, strict monitoring of legal as well as illegal trade in birds is also an important part of preventing and controlling the spread of avian influenza.

Vaccine

The University of Hong Kong has successfully developed an improved H5 avian influenza vaccine from the registered smallpox vaccine. Researchers to smallpox vaccine cowpox virus as a blueprint for the vaccine to add the H5 virus, the use of rats to do the test, the results found that the vaccine for viral infections, there is 100% protection, the vaccine can reduce the H5 virus replication in the body of rats, and stay in the body to stimulate more immune antibodies. The advantage of the new vaccine is that it is suitable for people with low immunity and can be produced by pharmaceutical companies within a short period of time.