Detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Sekong Province Lao PDR 2018-Potential for improved surveillance and management in endemic regions.

Significant global efforts have been directed towards understanding the epidemiology of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) across poultry production systems and in wild-bird reservoirs, yet understanding of disease dynamics in the village poultry setting remains limited. This article provides a detailed account of the first laboratory-confirmed outbreak of HPAI in the south-eastern provinces of Lao PDR, which occurred in a village in Sekong Province in October 2018. Perspectives from an anthropologist conducting fieldwork at the time of the outbreak, clinical and epidemiological observations by an Australian veterinarian are combined with laboratory characterization and sequencing of the virus to provide insights about disease dynamics, biosecurity, outbreak response and impediments to disease surveillance.

Reassortant highly pathogenic influenza A(H5N6) virus in Laos.

In March 2014, avian influenza in poultry in Laos was caused by an emergent influenza A(H5N6) virus. Genetic analysis indicated that the virus had originated from reassortment of influenza A(H5N1) clade 2.3.

Multiple introductions of avian influenza viruses (H5N1), Laos, 2009-2010.

Avian influenza viruses (H5N1) of clades 2.3.4.