Birdflu Mailing List: Interesting article

[Zsolt Vincze (ZVincze]

05/24  8:57p CDT Interior: Swans Likely 1st to Get Bird Flu  

Interior: Swans Likely 1st to Get Bird Flu  

 

AP Photo DCSA104 

By JOHN HEILPRIN=

Associated Press Writer=

   WASHINGTON (AP) _ A deadly bird flu virus will likely slip into

the United States through a pretty package: either majestic swans

flying across the Bering Strait into Alaska or from smuggled exotic

wildlife at one of the nation's ports.

   Its detection probably will depend on watching to see if

hundreds of birds die at once, Interior Department officials said

Wednesday in an interview with The Associated Press, adding it may

not show up at all in 2006.

   ``From my perspective, I would say swans are the starting point

because we found the disease already, or Europe has found them, in

swans,'' said H. Dale Hall, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service.

   The first 1,300 tissue samples taken in Alaska from migratory

birds that could carry the H5N1 virus are due to arrive later this

week at the U.S. Geological Survey laboratory in Madison, Wis. They

come from a subsistence hunt by native Alaskans.

   Among migrating birds, officials believe the disease will

probably be transmitted from an Asian species to a North American

one from the Pacific Flyway when both begin arriving in Alaska for

the summer to nest. The Pacific flyway _ one of four bird highways

in the sky over the United States _ stretches from Alaska and

western Canada through the Western states to Mexico.

   ``Birds coming up that would fly in that flyway are the ones

that would probably most likely mingle with the Australasian birds

that have come up and may be carrying'' H5N1, Hall said. ``We're

working as if it could show up this year.''

   The Madison lab between now and next January will test 10,000 to

20,000 tissue samples for the 'H' type of protein hemagglutinin.

Testing for the 'N' type of protein neuraminidase will be done by

the Agriculture Department in Ames, Iowa. Nationally, 70,000

samples are expected to be tested.

   Only after both phases of testing will Bush administration

officials announce whether the highly pathogenic H5N1 has arrived

in the United States. The virus has spread from Asia to Africa and

Europe, killing at least 124 people.

   If an H5N1 strain shows, officials will then have to determine

whether it is a highly pathogenic variety capable of causing a

large kill of at least 500 or more birds.

   Typically, three to 12 die-offs of more than 500 birds occur

each year. There have been two this year already, from bird cholera

at Klamath Basin in Oregon and California and parasites in the

Mississippi River between Wisconsin and Illinois, said H. Dale

Hall, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

   Hall added, however, that global trade in pets, illegal wildlife

and animal parts could prove to be the more likely route for the

deadly virus reaching the United States.

   ``I am more concerned about the illegal smuggling and the

bringing-in illegally of birds into this country,'' he said. ``And

the reason is an endangered species, or even birds people are not

supposed to have because they're from another country bring very

high dollars in.''

   Hall and Patrick Leahy, director of the U.S. Geological Survey,

which is conducting the initial round of tests for presence of the

virus, said their concerns about the virus will ease sometime

between October and December if it hasn't shown up.

   ``We may dodge the bullet this year, but the sampling will

continue,'' Leahy said, explaining the entire effort would begin

anew next spring.

   Leahy said a variation of influenza in birds, H5N2, was found

last year in two of 100 birds sampled in North Dakota.

   The first samples of the two ducks came back positive for the

deadly bird flu strain, but more analysis found they were infected

with one of a number of duck viruses and ``there was nothing to be

concerned about,'' said Ted Gutzke, project leader at North

Dakota's J. Clark Salyer National Wildlife Refuge.

   It isn't clear yet which birds will be show symptoms of the

disease or just be a carrier like a Typhoid Mary, Leahy said. ``A

lot of the USGS activities is looking at how the virus behaves in

different wildlife species,'' he said.

   Meanwhile, the White House was closely monitoring a family

cluster of bird flu cases likely transmitted from human to human in

Indonesia. Seven of eight family members died, but there wasn't

reason yet to fear a pandemic, said the World Health Organization

in Geneva.

   ``They're still trying to investigate the possibilities it's

human-to-human contact, whether this is the sort of contact that

might lead to a pandemic,'' said Tony Snow, President Bush's press

secretary.

   Hall said the Fish and Wildlife Service hopes to collect tissue

samples or feces from 27 species of migratory waterfowl and

shorebirds that could have contracted virus _ directly or

indirectly _ from ducks in China or other sources. It also is

collecting water samples from where birds defecate.

   No one knows whether the virus will reach the United States or

develop into a strain of deadly flu that can be transmitted easily

by humans. Until that happens, Interior officials say they won't

become alarmed.

   ``Our reaction until there's evidence that it has recombined or

has mutated would be to treat it as we do other wildlife diseases _

make sure people know it's there,'' Hall said. ``We have bird

die-offs every year.''

   In the meantime, Hall advised anyone who comes across a dead

bird not to handle it. Game birds should be cooked thoroughly and

hunters should keep sanitation in mind in handling, cleaning and

deboning them, he said.

   ___

   On the Net:

   U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: http://www.fws.gov

   U.S. Geological Survey: http://www.usgs.gov

      

(PROFILE

(COUNTRY:Canada; ISOCOUNTRY3:CAN; UNTOP:021; APGROUP:NorthAmerica;)

(COUNTRY:China; ISOCOUNTRY3:CHN; UNTOP:142; UN2ND:030; APGROUP:Asia;)

(COUNTRY:Indonesia; ISOCOUNTRY3:IDN; UNTOP:142; UN2ND:035;
APGROUP:Asia;)

(COUNTRY:Mexico; ISOCOUNTRY3:MEX; UNTOP:419; UN2ND:013;
APGROUP:NorthAmerica; APGROUP:LatinAmerica;)

(COUNTRY:United States; ISOCOUNTRY3:USA; UNTOP:021;
APGROUP:NorthAmerica;)

)

   <END>

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