Emerging Infectious Diseases (May 2020)

Effectiveness of Live Poultry Market Interventions on Human Infection with Avian Influenza A(H7N9) Virus, China

  • Wei Wang,
  • Jean Artois,
  • Xiling Wang,
  • Adam J. Kucharski,
  • Yao Pei,
  • Xin Tong,
  • Victor Virlogeux,
  • Peng Wu,
  • Benjamin J. Cowling,
  • Marius Gilbert,
  • Hongjie Yu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2605.190390
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 26, no. 5
pp. 891 – 901

Abstract

Read online

Various interventions for live poultry markets (LPMs) have emerged to control outbreaks of avian influenza A(H7N9) virus in mainland China since March 2013. We assessed the effectiveness of various LPM interventions in reducing transmission of H7N9 virus across 5 annual waves during 2013–2018, especially in the final wave. With the exception of waves 1 and 4, various LPM interventions reduced daily incidence rates significantly across waves. Four LPM interventions led to a mean reduction of 34%–98% in the daily number of infections in wave 5. Of these, permanent closure provided the most effective reduction in human infection with H7N9 virus, followed by long-period, short-period, and recursive closures in wave 5. The effectiveness of various LPM interventions changed with the type of intervention across epidemics. Permanent LPM closure should be considered to maintain sufficient effectiveness of interventions and prevent the recurrence of H7N9 epidemics.

Keywords