Bird flu: diverse range of vaccines platforms “crucial” for enhancing human pandemic preparedness

New study launches following the discovery of a second case of avian influenza spreading from cows to humans

TAYLOR & FRANCIS GROUP

Vaccination remains the most effective strategy for avian influenza prevention and control in humans, despite varying vaccine efficacy across strains.

That’s according to the authors of a new review which delves into existing research into bird flu vaccines for humans.

Published in the peer-reviewed journal Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, the results of the paper are particularly timely following news last week (Wednesday 22nd May) that the bird flu strain H5N1 had once again, for a second time, jumped from cattle in America to a human – prompting fears of subsequent human-to-human infection, with possible critical consequences.

Instances of the avian influenza were first recognized in US cattle in March. Since then, this strain has mainly spread from cow-to-cow and scientists have discovered very high levels of virus in raw milk (pasteurized milk is safe, having shown viral RNA but not infectious virus). To-date two people, however, are known to have contracted the bird flu virus. Both patients – US farmers – only reported eye symptoms and with treatment they made a full recovery.

Following tests on the first human instance, it was seen that the strain had mutated to be better adapted to mammalian cells, but as long as that human didn’t pass it onto another person it likely stopped the spread at that point.  
With the second case, the CDC has released a statement to say it has been monitoring influenza surveillance systems intently, especially in impacted states. “There has been no sign of unusual influenza activity in people, including in syndromic surveillance,” they report.

The concern now, though, is that if H5N1 continues to be given the environment in which to mutate (such as in close quarter cattle farms) – and this continues long enough – it has the potential to find a combination that will easily spread to humans.

The results of this new research, carried out by a team at the University of Georgia, USA, suggests vaccines still remain our “primary defense” against potential spread of avian influenzas such as the H5N1 and others assessed.

“The H5N1, H7N9, and H9N2 subtypes of avian influenza virus pose a dual threat, not only causing significant economic losses to the global poultry industry but also presenting a pressing public health concern due to documented spillover events and human cases,” explains lead author Flavio Cargnin Faccin, who alongside his mentor Dr. Daniel Perez of the University of Georgia, USA, analyzed the current landscape of research into human vaccines for these bird flus.

“This deep delve into the landscape of avian influenza vaccines for humans shows vaccination remains the primary defense against the spread of these viruses.”

The team examined studies of vaccines tested in mice, ferrets, non-human primates, and clinical trials of bird flu vaccines in humans, and assessed both established platforms and promising new directions.

The review carried out suggests inactivated vaccines are a safe and affordable option that primarily activate humoral immunity – the part of our immune system that produces antibodies.

Live attenuated influenza vaccines (LAIVs) are known to induce a wider immune response than inactivated vaccines, activating not only antibody production but also mucosal and cellular defenses. In this review, the authors suggest this broader response may offer greater protection, though, the authors suggest further research is needed to fully understand and harness its potential benefits for both human and agricultural applications.

The review also examined alternatives, such as virus-like particle (VLP) vaccines and messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, that have emerged more recently. Although VLP vaccines for bird flu have limited clinical trial data in humans, results from studies in mice and ferrets showed promise, the authors found. mRNA vaccines against H5N1 and H7N9 bird flu subtypes also generated a rapid and strong immune response in mice and ferrets, and, while data in humans is scarce, results from a phase 1 study of an H7N9 mRNA vaccine in healthy humans were “encouraging”.

Overall, the team suggests “exploring and employing a diverse range of vaccine platforms”, will be “crucial for enhancing pandemic preparedness and mitigating the threat of avian influenza viruses”.

 

---

JOURNAL

Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics

DOI

10.1080/21645515.2024.2347019 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Literature review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Pandemic preparedness through vaccine development for avian influenza viruses

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

29-May-2024

P.E.I. milk being tested for avian influenza as precautions ramp up

CBC
Wed, May 29, 2024 

Dairy farmers on P.E.I. are being advised to tighten their bio security and watch for any sick or dead birds in their area as the province ramps up safeguards against avian flu. (CBC - image credit)


P.E.I.'s chief veterinary officer is keeping in close contact with the Island's dairy farmers and veterinarians to make sure they have the latest information on the ongoing avian influenza outbreak in the United States.

The U.S. identified a second human case of bird flu linked to dairy cows last week. The H5N1 virus that's at the centre of the current outbreak is deadly to birds; in cows, it's resulted in decreased milk production, loss of appetite and fever.

The virus has not yet been detected in Canadian dairy cattle, and all tests of commercial milk for fragments of H5N1 have also been negative, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

P.E.I.'s chief veterinary officer Dr. Jill Wood said the CFIA started preventative testing of cattle entering Canada from the U.S. back on April 29.

A holstein classifier from Holstein Canada scores the cows from poor to excellent. This cow, named Kerry, was rated excellent.

The H5N1 virus has not yet been detected in Canadian dairy cattle, and all tests of commercial milk for fragments of avian influenza have also been negative, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says. (Nancy Russell/CBC)

"On that date, they started to require cattle crossing the border from the U.S. into Canada to have a negative avian influenza test before being permitted into the country. And they also started looking at retail milk samples from all across Canada," Wood said.

"They took 303 samples and those all came back negative, so again, good news on that front."

Tightening bio security

Wood said individual dairy farmers are also being advised to tighten their bio security.

"Simple things like asking visitors to to put on boot covers, keeping a visitor log, if they are buying new cattle to isolate those animals for a couple of weeks, milk them last," she said.

"[We're] definitely discouraging any purchases of cattle from the U.S. right now."

Wood said the way the avian flu is spreading on farms south of the border seems to be different from what happened among the bird population.

"If it was being spread entirely by the wild bird population, then that makes it very difficult to prevent," she said. "Birds are migrating and there's nothing we can do to stop them from from flying to Prince Edward Island."

The U.S. outbreak appears to have been spread from farm to farm, she said.

"The original cattle in Texas, we think, got infected by what we call a single spillover event from birds to cattle. And then the subsequent spread from there seems to mostly be because cattle from infected farms moved on to non-infected farms," Wood said.

"We're hoping with the test at the border and with the precautions that our farmers are taking that we can prevent it from showing up in Canada."

This year marked the first time a dangerous form of bird flu was reported in dairy cows. Two human cases linked to the outbreak also involved only eye infections. Were these curveballs from H5N1 (left)? Some scientists say earlier research warned about all these unusual possibilities.

This year marked the first time a strain of bird flu was reported in dairy cows. (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/The Associated Press)

She said there are still questions about how the virus is being transmitted.

"We haven't totally ruled out that that birds could introduce it on another farm," she said.

"So [we're] certainly asking farmers to be aware of that as well, and to report any increased number of dead birds or wildlife on their farms."

The P.E.I. government has an avian influenza page on its website, and the CFIA also provides regular updates.

'We trace every animal from birth'

Gordon MacBeath, a dairy farmer from Marshfield, P.E.I., and chair of the Dairy Farmers of Prince Edward Island, said the dairy industry has protocols in place already that will help monitor the avian influenza situation.

Gordon MacBeath is a dairy farmer from Marshfield, P.E.I. and chairman of the Dairy Farmers of Prince Edward Island.

Gordon MacBeath is a dairy farmer from Marshfield, P.E.I., and chair of the Dairy Farmers of Prince Edward Island. (Tony Davis/CBC)

"There's inspectors on farms on a regular basis, and so producers are used to bio security measures, and they're just asked to enhance some so that veterinarians visiting and suppliers visiting ... respect those bio-security protocols," he said.

"One thing that's unique in Canadian cattle is our traceability. We can trace every animal from birth on and off farm regardless of the location where the animal is. So if there ever was an outbreak, we could always trace that animal back through its history. And I think that's very significant in any disease outbreak."

MacBeath said he is supportive of the CFIA's testing.

"I think it's a positive for the industry," he said. "It reassures producers, it reassures consumers and reassures government that our food supply is safe. That we're on top of any potential introduction of the disease to Canada."

A new avian virus has appeared for the first time in southern Ontario — and it's not bird flu

CBC
Wed, May 29, 2024 


The Ontario Animal Health Network says in April two flocks in southwestern Ontario testes positive for aMPV subtype B. (Andrew Rush/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via The Associated Press - image credit)


A virus that can wreak havoc on poultry farms and was until now unheard of in the province has appeared in southwestern Ontario, infecting and killing hundreds of turkeys with its arrival

Avian metapneumovirus subtype B (aMPV B), which attacks the respiratory system of birds, and is especially problematic for poultry, resulted in the deaths of 253 turkeys in southwestern Ontario in recent months, according to the World Animal Health Information System.

The turkeys killed by the virus include 166 birds at a farm in Centre Wellington, north of Guelph, and 87 birds at a farm in Huron-Kinloss in Bruce County.


The arrival of the virus in Ontario comes at the same time as concerns continue to mount over a highly contagious form of avian flu, which has made the jump from poultry to cows and even humans.

"For someone in my business, it's very scary because it's a large threat. It's a high risk," said Jorge Cota, the president of Canadian Select Genetics Ltd., a turkey breeder in Putnam, Ont. "We're really tightening things down, and we're on high alert because this can be very devastating."

According to Cota, his job boils down to managing disease risk. That's why bio-security precautions like decontamination of vehicles before they enter his farm property, showers when entering and leaving, and other sanitation processes are the norm for his business and others who supply commercial farmers with their animals.

One of Cota's primary concern lies with how commercial farmers handle news of the outbreak, he said.

Earlier this month, the Feather Board Command Centre (FBCC), which coordinates Ontario's poultry industry in response to disease risks, issued the latest in a number of increasingly urgent warnings to the province's poultry farmers.

It included a recommendation that biosecurity protocols at farms be heightened, and contained a specific nod to increasing concerns for farms in Middlesex, Oxford and Perth counties.

Noting the financial impacts the virus has had on farms in the United States, Cota said those warnings should not be taken lightly.

"Commercial farmers tend not to think at as highly a level as we do about biosecurity, but I'm sure they're aware and nervous. They've heard a lot of stories out of the U.S., and know what could happen to them," he said.

"But, you never know when someone or something is going to bring it onto your farm. Everyone learns eventually, but many people never think it'll happen to them."

LISTEN | Bird virus new kills hundreds of turkeys in southwestern Ontario

In a statement sent to CBC News on Tuesday, farming organization Turkey Farmers of Ontario said it has been aware of the arrival of aMPV in Ontario since late April.

The statement also said it is working with government and industry officials, as well as the FBCC.

"Avian metapneumovirus does not present a food safety risk or human health concern," the statement read.

Moving forward, as someone well-acquainted with disease management, Cota said he expects the arrival of the virus to shake the industry, but isn't sure just how much yet.

"I think it's manageable, but as it is with other diseases, I think we're going to go through some hard times here, and we'll be better off once we go through it," he said.

"I think it's going to affect a lot more people than we think it is, and vigilance is the number one thing farmers need to keep it out of their farms."

Alpacas test positive for H5N1 bird flu for the first time

Brenda Goodman, CNN
Tue, May 28, 2024 



Highly pathogenic avian influenza, sometimes called bird flu, has been confirmed in alpacas for the first time, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories.

The animals that tested positive were on a farm in Idaho where poultry had tested positive for the virus and were culled in May. The alpacas tested positive May 16, the USDA said in a news release.

The USDA noted that the finding of other infected animals on the same farm as the infected birds wasn’t necessarily a surprise.

The gene sequence of viruses isolated from the alpacas shows that it is closely related to the H5N1 viruses that are currently circulating in dairy cattle.

There are more than 264,000 alpacas registered in the US, according to the Alpaca Owners Association.

Scientists have closely watched the H5N1 virus for roughly two decades. For most of that time, it has primarily affected birds. In the past two years, however, the virus has been infecting a wider variety of wild and farmed mammals, raising concern that it could be moving closer to becoming a pathogen that can transmit easily between people.

Human cases have been reported sporadically around the globe over the years, including three in the US, but no person-to-person transmission has been reported in the ongoing US cattle outbreak.

H5N1 bird flu found in alpacas for first time

Miranda Nazzaro
Wed, May 29, 2024




Bird flu has been found in alpacas for the first time, marking the latest spread of the current H5N1 bird flu virus, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Tuesday.

The infected alpacas were at a farm in Idaho, where the avian influenza virus was detected in poultry that has since been culled, the USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories said in a statement.

The alpacas tested positive for the virus May 16, and the USDA noted its detection was not unexpected given the “co-mingling of multiple livestock species.”

The H5N1 bird flu is widespread in wild birds around the world, prompting outbreaks in poultry and U.S. dairy cows across the nation this spring. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the current public health risk is still “low,” though it is monitoring the situation.

Since 2022, there have three human cases related to bird and dairy exposure in the U.S. The first was in Colorado in 2022, followed by one in Texas last month and one in Michigan last week.

In the most recent case in Michigan, the bird flu was detected in a farmworker who had mild symptoms and has since recovered, according to health officials.

Bird flu was first detected in dairy cows in March, though data for viral samples show it was circulating in cattle at least four months prior and prompted a drop in milk production.

The CDC has confirmed outbreaks in 67 herds in nine states, and as of Tuesday, the virus has been detected in more than 9,300 wild birds across 50 states. More than 92 million poultry in 48 states have also been impacted, the CDC noted.

Humans are urged to avoid direct contact with wild birds and observe them only from a distance and to not eat or drink raw milk or products made with raw milk, per the CDC.

Study: Development of a vaccine will best protect humans from bird flu

Dennis Thompson, 

HealthDay News
Wed, May 29, 2024 

Vaccines remain humanity's best defense against the threat posed by the H5N1 and other strains of bird flu, according to the research published in the journal Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics. Photo by Adobe Stock/HealthDay News


Humanity's best protection against bird flu will be the development of effective vaccines, a new study says.

The H5N1 avian flu has been raging through cattle and poultry in the United States, increasing fears that the virus will make the leap into humans and potentially cause another pandemic.

Only two people to date are known to have contracted the virus linked to the current outbreak. Both patients were U.S. farm workers, and luckily they only suffered eye symptoms and made a full recovery with treatment, researchers said.

In the first human case, researchers found the strain had mutated to be better at infecting the cells of mammals.

The concern is that if H5N1 continues to spread in U.S. farms, it has the potential to mutate into a form that will easily spread among humans, researchers said.

Vaccines remain humanity's best defense against the threat posed by the H5N1 and other strains of bird flu, according to the research published in the journal Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics.

"The H5N1, H7N9, and H9N2 subtypes of avian influenza virus pose a dual threat, not only causing significant economic losses to the global poultry industry but also presenting a pressing public health concern due to documented spillover events and human cases," said lead researcher Dr. Flavio Cargnin Faccin, a doctoral student with the University of Georgia.

"This deep delve into the landscape of avian influenza vaccines for humans shows vaccination remains the primary defense against the spread of these viruses," Faccin said in a journal news release.

The researchers analyzed a number of different vaccine types -- inactivated vaccines, live attenuated flu vaccines and mRNA vaccines -- and determined they all show promise in protecting animals and people from the avian flu.

Overall, the team suggests "exploring and employing a diverse range of vaccine platforms "will be "crucial for enhancing pandemic preparedness and mitigating the threat of avian influenza viruses."

Work along those lines already is proceeding in mRNA vaccines.

A study published last week reported that an experimental mRNA vaccine against the H5N1 avian flu was effective in preventing serious illness and death in lab mice and ferrets.

The lab animals maintained high levels of antibodies a year after infection, and vaccinated animals infected with H5N1 cleared the virus quicker and suffered fewer symptoms than unvaccinated animals, researchers reported in the journal Nature Communications.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about the bird flu.

Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Bird Flu Is More Widespread Among Dairy Cows, Sewage Tests Suggest

Riley Griffin and Jessica Nix
Thu, May 23, 2024 




(Bloomberg) -- A Michigan farmworker who tested positive for bird flu is just the second person to have been infected since an outbreak in US cattle appeared in March. Surveillance of sewage suggests the virus may be more widespread among dairy cows than reported, raising workers’ risk.

Academic and industry-run labs have been leading the way toward more nuanced and complete information about the H5N1 virus’s range by analyzing wastewater. They found bird flu in sewage samples collected before the virus had been identified in US cows. They’re seeing signs in cities that are far from infected cattle herds. And they’re already giving the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention better information about where to focus its efforts.

While rarely seen in humans, the H5N1 strain has considered a pandemic threat for decades because it often jumps between species, sometimes causing lethal disease in people. As farmers resist testing, the US needs to expand its monitoring of sewage, particularly in rural areas around farms where the pathogen may be spreading, said Paul Friedrichs, director of the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy.

“We’re going to need to do more work as a nation on how do we better structure wastewater surveillance in areas that don’t have or aren’t on a municipal wastewater system,” Friedrichs, a retired major general and joint staff surgeon at the Pentagon, said in an interview. “That’s the gap we’re going to have to figure out how to bridge.”

Concerned about lost income, dairy farms have resisted efforts to test cows and workers, potentially concealing the true scope of the virus’s spread.

Viruses are often excreted in feces, which prompted scientists to turn to wastewater early in the pandemic to track Covid’s spread, hunt for new trends and spot the emergence of concerning variants. Although it’s unable to show whether the source is infected humans, animals or products like milk, wastewater surveillance paints a more complete picture of where pathogens are emerging across broad geographic areas.

In Texas, for example, 19 out of 23 wastewater sites were found to contain traces of the virus between early March and the end of April, according to Texas Wastewater Environmental Biomonitoring. Meanwhile, the state has some 400 dairy farms, and just 14 herds have tested positive for bird flu to date, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

Other Biden administration officials, who asked not to be named while describing the federal response, said they’re worried about the time it took the government to first spot the outbreak in cattle, which likely began in late 2023 after contact with sick migratory birds. That monthslong delay shows the limitations of US pandemic preparedness efforts and a disjointed public-health system, the officials said.

Friedrichs said the US should seek the help of additional wastewater experts and operations to develop “a more robust national picture.”

Tracking Technology

Specialists in the field include Verily, the Alphabet Inc. life-sciences unit that began working with Stanford University and Emory University to monitor wastewater during the pandemic. With funding from Google co-founder Sergey Brin and others, Verily expanded testing for more than dozen viruses to 190 sites, and in October, it was tapped to support the CDC’s National Wastewater Surveillance System that includes hundreds more facilities.

Since it was first detected in US cattle in March, bird flu has been found in 52 herds from nine states. However, before the first reported case, Verily’s top wastewater scientist Bradley White noticed a strange trend: influenza A, a viral category that includes H5N1, was spiking in parts of the country. White had a hunch the surge was driven by bird flu, and developed a test for genetic signatures typical of H5N1 and its H5 cousins.

Using the assay to look back through old wastewater samples, White found an H5 virus had been present in Amarillo, Texas, as early as February — weeks before the White House was first alerted of the emerging outbreak. That shows the potential for wastewater surveillance as an early warning signal for bird flu, White said.

It appears bird flu has “run its course” in Texas, he said, as overall influenza A levels appear to be declining in the state. Verily announced this week that it had expanded its search for H5 markers to all 190 sites in an effort to better track the outbreak.

Recognizing the need for more monitoring, the CDC is also putting an additional $3 million into wastewater analysis, part of a $93 million package aimed at improving H5N1 surveillance. The agency said in 2022 that it had put more than $100 million toward testing for Covid in wastewater, and expected the funds to last for an additional three years. In March, it made a fiscal 2025 budget request for an additional $20 million to test sewage for emerging diseases.

The CDC is also starting a project to check sewage at 10 new locations close to livestock, and launching a study that would help distinguish whether human or animals were responsible for virus detected in wastewater. Last week, it launched an online wastewater data dashboard tracking influenza A. Between late April and mid-May, only two of six Michigan-based wastewater sites on the CDC dashboard showed moderate levels of influenza A.

Potential Mutations

Concern about H5N1 soared about two decades ago when a strain of the virus began running rampant in poultry, occasionally infecting people. Health officials worldwide began looking for signs of human-to-human transmission that might have signaled a potential pandemic before the outbreak finally subsided. While some human cases have been severe, even deadly, the two farmworkers infected in the recent US outbreak both had mild symptoms and recovered. No transmission between people has been seen.

H5N1 infections in cows can lead to decreased milk production and may raise their risk of other conditions, like pneumonia. Pasteurization kills the virus, and there’s no evidence of danger from commercial milk, cheese or ice cream.

Health officials are particularly concerned about tracking the virus on dairy farms where infected cows frequently come in contact with workers, and mutated viruses may find opportunities to infect humans. The dangers the virus has shown in the past raises the stakes for wastewater monitoring.

“The risk is the longer this outbreak continues, the more opportunities there may be for a spillover jump from an animal species to a human,” said Al Ozonoff, an infectious disease scientist at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. The next event experts worry about is, he said is “some viral evolution which creates an opportunity for human-to-human transmission.”

--With assistance from Ilena Peng.

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Why did Serbia react so harshly to the UN resolution on Srebrenica?

WHITE CHRISTIAN NATIONALISTS

Copyright Darko Bandic/Copyright 2021 The AP. All rights reserved

By Sergio Cantone

Published on 25/05/2024 - 

Serbian government and public opinion have continued to harshly criticise the UN General Assembly's decision on Thursday to pass the resolution commemorating the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica. Why is this the case?

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution decision on Thursday to declare 11 July the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica has a highly political role, according to the regional actors. 

The Serbian government and public opinion have been staunchly criticising it since its preliminary phases.

Belgrade sees the declaration as a part of a comprehensive Western political and diplomatic offensive against Serbia and the Serbs on issues covering a spectrum from Kosovo to the Bosnian question, two main key talking points for the government in Belgrade, which regards them as unresolved issues stemming from the wars of Yugoslavia in the 1990s

Bosnian Serb leader threatens secession ahead of UN genocide vote

UN approves annual commemoration of 1995 Srebrenica genocide

Meanwhile, its proponents highlight that the resolution is solely meant to commemorate the victims of the July 1995 events in the eastern Bosnian town.

The document is comparable to the UN resolution designating 7 April as the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

Germany and Rwanda, the two countries that proposed and drafted the settlement on the Tutsi massacre approved by the UNGA in 2018, were the main co-sponsors of the Srebrenica resolution.

Serbian political context

As Serbia prepares to hold key local elections on 2 June — including who will rule over Belgrade — Bosnia and Kosovo are still crucial factors in the public political debate of the Western Balkans country. 

Serbian conservative President Aleksandar Vučić's reluctance to join the EU sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine has also contributed to strained relations between his country on the one side and the EU, the US and some of its neighbours on the other.

Serbian President Aleksandar VucicDarko Vojinovic/Copyright 2024 The AP. All rights reserv

Serbia's potential EU membership could be put on hold, while according to various opinion polls, Euroscepticism in the Balkan country has prevailed over the blossoming Europhilia of the early 2000s. 

Whether this is a reaction to the enlargement blues outspokenly displayed by some in the EU or a genuine national sentiment, in the eyes of some in Serbia, hesitance toward the West is a part of pushback against its many demands.

Former Yugoslavia and international justice

The verdicts from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) clearly established the personal responsibility of individuals and concrete military units and made a distinction between those and any collective actors, such as Serbia and the Republika Srpska — the Serb-majority entity of Bosnia — and the genocide in Srebrenica. 

Serbia initially started to take steps and recognise the rulings at home. In 2010, the country's National Assembly adopted its own Resolution on Srebrenica based on the ICJ's verdict, but without explicitly mentioning genocide. Then, in 2015, President Vučić went to Srebrenica to pay tribute to the victims.

Meanwhile, the text of the UN resolution commemorating the Srebrenica genocide excludes the Serbian collective responsibility for the "Bosnian Genocide" thanks to a Montenegrin amendment.

Supporters of Bosnian Serb political leader Milorad DodikRadivoje Pavicic/Copyright 2024 The AP. All rights reserved

"Serbia is afraid that the resolution could be misused at the international fora, and it could become 'evidence' that the Serbian nation, the Serb people and the Republika Srpska bear the responsibility for the genocide, Serbian legal expert Milan Antonijević said. 

"When one reads the text of the resolution, one realises that without any doubt, it is condemning the genocide in Srebrenica and not linking it to any of the nations involved (in the conflict). But the legal level and its wording are one thing, and the political PR is another."

During the Bosnian war, over the course of three days around 11 July 1995, the Bosnian Serb army of the Republika Srpska killed 8,000 Bosniak men and boys despite the area having been officially designated by the UN as a “safe area” for civilians. 

Those units were under the military orders of General Ratko Mladić and the political leader of the former president of the Republika Srpska, Radovan Karadžić.

banners of the former Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko MladicAndrej Cukic/AP

A considerable number of Bosnian Serb officials, both army officers and politicians, were condemned by the ICTY for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Both Mladić and Karadžić were sentenced to life for genocide, among other counts.

It was the first time in Europe since World War II and the Nuremberg trials against Nazi German top officials that an international tribunal issued a verdict on genocide.

"When the Serb (political actors) accepted, reluctantly, their responsibility for the Srebrenica genocide, they believed that they were forced to do that. And if you look at their actions and their rhetoric, you do realise this reluctant acceptance of responsibility happened under a lot of pressure in a different geopolitical situation," Bosnian historian Adnan Huskić, from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, told Euronews. 

"And ever since, what they have been doing was to permanently deny that the genocide took place and used any available opportunity to rehabilitate the persons who were found guilty in front of the ICTY," Huskić said.

'Missing an opportunity to use an opportunity'

After the military and political setbacks of the 1990s and the fall of the Slobodan Milošević regime, Serbia started a process of rapprochement with the EU and the US. 

At that time, Russia and China were much less assertive than they are today — the "different geopolitical context" Huskić mentions.

According to opposition politician, writer, and former Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Drašković, Serbia should have joined the initiative and backed the resolution.

"Unfortunately, the Serbian government missed an opportunity to use an opportunity to support this resolution on the genocide in Srebrenica, explaining that the Serbian nation further condemned crimes because Serbs, as a people, were the victims of a genocide during World War II," Drašković told Euronews. 

"By paying tribute to the victims of the genocide in Srebrenica, we would have paid tribute to the Serb victims in World War II," he explained.

Overview of the courtroom at the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, in The Hague, the NetherlandsBAS CZERWINSKI/AP2007

In the early 1990s, Vuk Drašković proposed a general reconciliation among the peoples of former Yugoslavia to rebuild inter-communitarian confidence in the region through a collective recognition of the mutual and respective historical guilts for the massacres of the past. This was the central focus of his foreign and security policy, along with the full integration of Serbia into the West.

After the wars, Drašković opposed the violent dissolution of Yugoslavia and the role played by Milošević's Serbia as he participated in the democratic governments in Belgrade. As the head of Serbian diplomacy, he established the basis for his country's EU membership application and a clear path to softening relations with NATO. 

Unresolved Bosnian question

Nevertheless, more than thirty years have passed since the end of the war, and the question of the future of Bosnia and the delicate balance between the three main ethnic communities is still a source of concern in the region. 

The key to the complex and complicated political system can be traced back to the 1995 US-brokered Dayton Agreement, which put an end to the bloodshed between Bosnian Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks, turning Bosnia into a de facto protectorate of the international community.

Last month, Vučić criticised the draft resolution, saying it should have been presented at the UN Security Council rather than in front of the UN General Assembly because the "region is not stabilised yet".  

A constitutional reform could have revised the strict political separation among the Bosnian communities established by the Dayton Peace Accords and eliminated mechanisms that blocked almost all decision-making processes along ethnic lines — the root cause of all divisive politics in the country.

Nevertheless, after decades of attempts, the process collided with the new political instability generated by the Russian war in Ukraine.  



from left, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and U.S. Secretary of State Warren ChristopherJoe Marquette/AP

"I don't think that there is an overwhelming will to replace the current communitarian power-sharing system. I don't see the actors that could push the process forward," commented Huskić.  

I don't think that there is either a regional or a global environment favourable to that move. The process is going in another direction, and I think Bosnia is becoming more communitarian than before. The constitutional reform has stalled," he concluded. 

Serbia, Bosnia and the war in Ukraine

The Ukrainian war and its spillover have deeply influenced the situation in Central and Eastern Europe and reignited the unresolved conflicts between old adversaries.

"I cannot forget the very wrong message conveyed by the Serbian Orthodox Church that Russians, whatever they are doing, must be supported by the Serbs because they are our Orthodox brothers. This is why the (Serb Orthodox) Church did not condemn the Russian aggression on Ukraine," Drašković said. 

The Serbian government believes that German diplomacy, led by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, seems to be putting more pressure on Belgrade than other countries on many issues, from Kosovo to Russia and Bosnia. Germany was the co-sponsor of the UN resolution on the Srebrenica genocide, after all.

Vuk Draskovic, center, the veteran charismatic Serbian opposition leader,Joe Marquette/AP

"I think that the German foreign policy since Angela Merkel stepped down is much harsher towards Serbia," Antonijević said. 

"It is true that Germany is still supporting the accession of Belgrade to the EU and investing huge (amounts of) money in Serbia. Yet, Berlin should coordinate more with Belgrade, especially because next year, 2025, will mark the 30th anniversary of Srebrenica," argues Milan Antonijević.

The international community's high representative — the peace watchdog in Bosnia — is a top German official, Christian Schmidt.

Early this year, he drafted the so-called "integrity package" for  Bosnia and Hercegovina, a set of reforms concerning electoral transparency and anti-fraud systems with rules supposed to introduce ineligibility for the war criminals to honour the EU Enlargement requests. 

The head of the Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, opposed the "integrity package" and threatened the secession of the Serbian entity from the rest of the country if it were forced to implement it. He has also repeatedly rejected Schmidt's authority — granted to him by the UN — labelling him as a "German occupier".

Dodik is the only top official from a European country who has repeatedly visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow since February 2022.

Russia's meddling to be addressed?

As a long-time opposition stalwart, Drašković thinks that the current Serbian establishment is not fit to rule the country in the years to come and that there are still many unresolved questions in Belgrade.

"Russia is doing everything to open a Balkan front. It wants a Balkan front. It can do it because it controls the security structures of the Serbian state," denounced Drašković.

"The EU missed the opportunity to make the rulers of Serbia open the files about the activities of the Russian security services in Serbia. The European Commission's obligation is to impose on Serbia to open those secret files. It should be a priority," he insisted.

In the end, the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica won't make any difference, according to Drašković. "Milorad Dodik recognised that genocide fifteen years ago. He simply changed his mind", he concluded.

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=KOSOVO

Seeing the Forest for the Trees
Thesis on The Kosovo Crisis and the Crisis of Global Capitalism
(originally written May 1999, Bill Clinton set the stage for George W. to invade Afghanistan and Iraq for humanitarian purposes.)
http://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2005/01/war-whats-it-good-for-profit.html

Spot silver tops $30 an ounce to hit highest since 2013

Bloomberg News | May 17, 2024 

Stock image.

Spot silver surpassed $30 an ounce to hit the highest level in more than a decade.


The precious metal closed 6.5% higher at $31.49 an ounce Friday, the highest since February 2013. It has soared 32% this year, outpacing gold and making it one of the year’s best-performing major commodities.

Silver’s rally comes amid surging investor interest, an increasingly supportive macroeconomic backdrop and a projected fourth annual market deficit. The price rally accelerated Friday, helped by spillover sentiment in the broader metals markets.

“This week was kind of the recreation of the meme stock,” Phil Streible, chief market strategist at Blue Line Futures, said Friday in a phone interview. “Those speculators naturally look for different areas to exploit. And silver is usually the one that they favor.”

Silver was a target market of Reddit retail traders in 2021 amid a buying stampede in GameStop Corp. and other small-cap stocks that captivated the financial world.

The precious metal’s break through the $30 level may trigger substantial buying activity by exchange-traded funds — increasing the risk of a silver squeeze, according to TD Securities senior commodity strategist Daniel Ghali.

Investors remain net sellers of physically backed silver ETFs, with holdings down 1.7% as of Thursday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In the week ending May 14, money managers boosted their bullish wagers on Comex silver futures to the highest in more than two years. Gross shorts held by these investors accounted for 11% of total open interest as of May 14.

Although silver’s rally has outpaced gold’s, it is still relatively cheap.

The two precious metals move largely in tandem as both offer similar macro- and currency-hedging properties. With gold hitting a record on central bank buying, retail interest in China and a resurgence in bets that lower US interest rates are on the way, silver has gone along for the ride. Although there’s been scant interest from investors in silver-backed exchange-traded funds, physical sales have picked up, including at Singapore-based dealer Silver Bullion Pte.

Silver has a dual character, valued both for its uses as a financial asset and an industrial input, including for clean-energy technologies. The metal is a key ingredient in solar panels, and with robust growth in that industry, usage of the metal is expected to reach a record this year, according to the Silver Institute. Against that backdrop, the market is headed for a fourth year in deficit, with this year’s shortage seen as the second biggest on record.

(By Yvonne Yue Li)

Vigilance Needed To Avert Spread Of Bird Flu To Humans

 May 20, 2024  

By Neena Bhandari

Health experts are calling for tighter biosecurity measures in global poultry production, from farms to markets, to monitor bird flu (avian influenza) following its spread among dairy cows in the United States.

Since 2003, 888 cases of human infection with the avian influenza virus, also known as H5N1, have been reported from 23 countries, of which 463 were fatal, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia are among the worst affected.

“Although the number may appear not as big as many other outbreaks, we need to bear in mind that each infection in humans is an attempt of the virus to try to establish itself in [the] human population,” says Wenqing Zhang, head of the WHO’s global influenza programme, in a video released this week (Monday).

“Although the chances are slim so far, as long as it succeeds just once, it is a start of an influenza pandemic…”

Symptoms in humans range from mild upper respiratory problems to severe illness such as pneumonia and multi-organ failure.

The recent outbreak among dairy cows in the US indicates that H5N1 is expanding its range beyond birds, sparking concerns worldwide especially in many Asian countries where avian influenza has become endemic.

While the virus has not shown signs of adapting to allow human-to human transmission, the WHO is calling on countries to enhance surveillance measures and improve food hygiene practices.

Anyone exposed to infected live or dead poultry or infected animals, or contaminated environments such as live bird markets, is at risk, says Zhang.

‘Compromised biosecurity’ 

Bangladesh is considered a “hotspot” for the emergence of zoonotic infectious diseases due to its dense population, diverse wildlife and increasing urbanisation and deforestation.

Here, surveillance in live bird markets, also known as wet markets, reveals a high prevalence of avian influenza in poultry and the surrounding environment, which heightens the risk of so-called “zoonotic spillover” – the transmission of virus from animals to humans – says Nadia Rimi, associate scientist and coordinator of the Programme for Emerging Infections at ICDDR,B, an international health research institute in Dhaka.

In Bangladesh, the H5N1 virus has become endemic in poultry, Rimi tells SciDev.Net.

“There are numerous small-scale poultry farms and live bird markets across the country with compromised biosecurity conditions and hygiene practices, which create a conducive environment for spreading of infectious pathogens,” she says.

Other countries in the region have similar poultry farming and selling practices and biosecurity conditions. India, Pakistan and Nepal have also reported a few cases of human H5N1 infection.

“What’s also concerning and what would precipitate greater spread is if the [avian influenza] virus were to find itself into the pig population… a perfect vessel through which an even more virulent strain could emerge,” said Nirav Shah, principal deputy director at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a Council on Foreign Relations briefing earlier this month (1 May).

According to Rimi, the greatest risk is the “probability of coinfection and genetic reassortment” with other influenza viruses in humans, which could lead to the emergence of a novel influenza virus strain “with pandemic potential”.

The H5N1 strain of the virus has widely spread among wild birds, poultry, land and marine mammals and now in dairy cows. So far, only one case of cow-to-human transmission has been confirmed in a US dairy worker.

The WHO recommends that people worldwide consume pasteurised milk as preliminary tests show that pasteurisation kills the virus detected in raw milk.

Early bird flu control

A recent study by scientists from the interdisciplinary research and development programme, One Health Poultry Hub, highlights that bird flu control for pandemic prevention must start before poultry reaches wet markets.

Rimi says that controlling chickens entering the market and vaccinating them requires multipronged interventions at the farm and transportation level as well as the markets themselves.

“We are currently implementing interventions in the live bird markets, including weekly rest days, routine cleaning and disinfection…to explore if these are acceptable, feasible and effective for these resource-poor settings”, she adds.

The findings from the study – based on computer modelling using data from Bangladesh – showed that nine in ten chickens that entered live bird markets without having been previously exposed to the H9N2 subtype of avian influenza virus became infected with it when they remained there for one day.

The time between a bird being infected with H9N2 and it becoming contagious could be less than five and a half hours in a live bird market and one in ten birds arrived at the markets already exposed to H9N2, according to the researchers.

Vietnam on alert

In April, Vietnam reported its first human infection with the H9N2 strain.

Pawin Padungtod, senior technical coordinator at the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases in Vietnam, says the virus is being closely monitored in the Greater Mekong sub-region under a One Health approach, which balances the health of people, animals and ecosystems.

He says, poultry vaccination against viruses has been a crucial strategy in Vietnam’s bird flu control efforts. Regular surveillance is conducted to detect and monitor the incursion of any new avian virus and determine the efficacy of vaccines.

“These surveillance activities have been providing crucial information to support vaccine selection and identification of areas where [avian influenza] outbreaks are more likely to occur,” Padungtod tells SciDev.Net.

“Vietnam has been removing unsold chickens and it uses H9 vaccine to reduce exposed birds entering the market. We can further use the evidence provided in this study to advocate for [bird flu] vaccination in animals and strengthen live bird market biosecurity in the country.”

• This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Asia & Pacific desk.

Neena Bhandari

Neena Bhandari is a freelance foreign correspondent, journalist and writer.