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Article says it was a "confirmed" case of LPAI, however it doesn't indicate whether it was confirmed in Delaware only or also by Ames, Iowa. The update on USDA site doesn't indicate that confirmation from federal testing has been released. I have a sent a message to the reporter for clarification.
Del. on guard for avian flu
Scientists out in force statewide in effort to identify deadly strain
<!--Published:200612160345 Modified:200612160143--> By HIRAN RATNAYAKE, The News Journal Posted Saturday, December 16, 2006
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</imgparams> http://vh10018.v1.moc.gbahn.net/apps...border=0&Q=100 Hunter Bill Bonniwell, of Harrington, unloads his kill at Little Creek, where workers will test the birds for the H5N1 strain of bird flu. (Buy photo) The News Journal/BOB HERBERT <!--Begin Article4.pbo--> <!--ADDITIONAL PHOTOS -->
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</imgparams> http://vh10018.v1.moc.gbahn.net/apps...border=0&Q=100 Joyce McGee, an aid with DNREC, checks game for signs of the avian flu. The News Journal/BOB HERBERT
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<!--End Article2.pbo--><!-- EDITORIAL CARTOON --><!-- MAIN ARTICLE --><!--Begin Article1.pbo--><!-- MAIN ARTICLE CONTENT --> <!-- 12/16/2006
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In the fight against avian flu, these are Delaware's front lines: A makeshift field testing site and a high-security lab at the University of Delaware.
In an otherwise empty Little Creek parking lot, a researcher is taking samples from freshly killed ducks. Those samples are sent to a university lab where they undergo a battery of high-tech tests.
It's all part of a national testing program in which wildlife biologists and virologists will test 100,000 samples from migratory birds this year. In Delaware alone, 3,300 birds will be tested for the disease.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will screen the majority of these samples, looking for an H5N1 strain that is highly pathogenic, meaning is has a strong capability to cause disease. That strain has killed 154 people in Asia and raised fears of a global pandemic.
For Delaware, which is spending $430,000 on testing -- more than all but one other state -- the stakes are high.
An outbreak could sicken 252,000 people in Delaware, hospitalize 13,000 and kill 3,000, according to state estimates. The disease also could destroy the heart of Delaware's agriculture industry: poultry. Chicken farms consume most of the feed grain produced in the Delmarva region, a $1.7 billion industry itself.
Avian flu has already spread from Asia to parts of Europe. And if it comes to Delaware by way of migratory birds, the most likely source, the state's best shot at finding out before the disease creates a pandemic is in the field.
There, Joyce McGee, a biology aid with the state Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, spends most of her week using cotton swabs to take samples from ducks' rectums. Avian flu resides in birds' intestinal tract.
"We call ourselves 'avian proctologists' or 'duck butt swabbers,' " said Robert Hossler, the department's program manager for game species.
They may joke about their work, but they're part of the largest wildlife disease surveillance effort ever undertaken by the United States.
Testing continues in earnest
After the sampling, the swabs are broken in half and dropped into a broth-filled test tube. Wild birds are natural hosts for certain types of influenza viruses and are often not affected by it. In nature, birds may shed or release the virus, said Jack Gelb, director of the Avian Biosciences Center at the University of Delaware.
At the Charles C. Allen Laboratory in Newark, Viruses are divided into subtypes and named according to the two proteins on the virus' surface, either hemagglutinin (HA) or neuraminidase (NA). The subtypes can show various combinations, such as H1N2 or H3N2. The strains are further classified as either low pathogenic or high pathogenic.
Most viruses are low pathogenic and pose little threat to humans, but high pathogenic viruses can cause severe illness and a high death rate in poultry.
It is the high-pathogen strain of H5N1 that is deadly.
"What we do know is that the highly pathogenic virus of H5N1 does kill people," said Dr. Hon Ip, director of the United States Geological Survey's Diagnostic Virology Laboratory at the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis. "The question has become when one of these labs will find highly pathogenic H5N1."
So far, only one of the 1,600 birds Delaware has sampled was a confirmed case of low-path H5N1. That was a green winged teal shot Oct. 27 by a hunter on the opening day of duck season in Sussex County.
"In terms of human health that teal wasn't a concern at all. It was like me saying we found the common cold in birds," Hossler said.
In fact, the discovery was somewhat normal.
"Finding the avian flu is totally normal. But [high-pathogen] H5N1 from Asia is not normal," Gelb said. "It's very unique and a very different situation since it's highly virulent in poultry and it's capable of killing some of the waterfowl."
Quick reaction plans in order
If Gelb discovers a positive sample, it is sent to the National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa for confirmation testing and additional testing to see if it's the N1 subtype.
That lab will inoculate chicken eggs to isolate the influenza virus to see if it will multiply. If it does, a material from a component of the egg with the virus will be injected into chickens in a secure environment and they are observed over 10 days.
"If you inject them today and they die tomorrow, it's a highly pathogenic virus," Ip said. "If they live throughout the 10 days, it's non-pathogenic."
In the chance that there is a highly-pathogenic strain of avian flu found in a Delaware bird, several agencies will converge to the spot where the bird was first spotted.
The public health division will encourage doctors in the area to look at their patients for signs of avian flu.The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will canvass the site for other dead birds. Field officials will increase monitoring and surveillance.
"If it's wild birds, we wouldn't be able to quarantine that area," said Karen Eggert, spokeswoman for USDA -- APHIS. "But we've studied all these birds and we'll look at their historical movement patterns, so we'll know where the birds are moving to."
Chickens raised on farms are already under tremendous protection from avian influenza and contamination because they are raised in covered houses and have limited access to flocks.
"The poultry industry is very worried about H5N1 or any influenza virus getting inside their chicken house because it's not good for business," Hossler said.
If there's a positive deadly strain of avian flu found in this area, the Delaware Poultry Industry Inc.'s Emergency Poultry Disease Task Force will be activated to increase the surveillance of nearby farms. Farmers would be advised not to let anyone onto their property, said Bill Satterfield, executive director of Delmarva Poultry Industry.
"It's already intensive surveillance," he said. "But we'd be changing people's normal behavior so they don't track around and carry this virus from farm to farm."
Contact Hiran Ratnayake at 324-2547 or hratnayake@delawareonline.com.
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/p...=2006612160322
Del. on guard for avian flu
Scientists out in force statewide in effort to identify deadly strain
<!--Published:200612160345 Modified:200612160143--> By HIRAN RATNAYAKE, The News Journal Posted Saturday, December 16, 2006
<!-- <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="200"><tr><td valign="middle">
Read Comments</td></tr></table>--><!--End Article14.pbo--><!-- SUBHEAD --><!-- pbs:article tittel2=1 byline=1 text=1 facts=0 bilde=0 useobjects=1 objectclass=21 --><!-- ARTICLE MAIN PHOTO --><!--Begin Article2.pbo--><!-- ARTICLE SIDEBAR --> <!--MAIN PHOTO--> <imgparams value="">
</imgparams> http://vh10018.v1.moc.gbahn.net/apps...border=0&Q=100 Hunter Bill Bonniwell, of Harrington, unloads his kill at Little Creek, where workers will test the birds for the H5N1 strain of bird flu. (Buy photo) The News Journal/BOB HERBERT <!--Begin Article4.pbo--> <!--ADDITIONAL PHOTOS -->
<imgparams value="">
</imgparams> http://vh10018.v1.moc.gbahn.net/apps...border=0&Q=100 Joyce McGee, an aid with DNREC, checks game for signs of the avian flu. The News Journal/BOB HERBERT
<!--End Article4.pbo-->
<!--End Article2.pbo--><!-- EDITORIAL CARTOON --><!-- MAIN ARTICLE --><!--Begin Article1.pbo--><!-- MAIN ARTICLE CONTENT --> <!-- 12/16/2006
-->
In the fight against avian flu, these are Delaware's front lines: A makeshift field testing site and a high-security lab at the University of Delaware.
In an otherwise empty Little Creek parking lot, a researcher is taking samples from freshly killed ducks. Those samples are sent to a university lab where they undergo a battery of high-tech tests.
It's all part of a national testing program in which wildlife biologists and virologists will test 100,000 samples from migratory birds this year. In Delaware alone, 3,300 birds will be tested for the disease.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will screen the majority of these samples, looking for an H5N1 strain that is highly pathogenic, meaning is has a strong capability to cause disease. That strain has killed 154 people in Asia and raised fears of a global pandemic.
For Delaware, which is spending $430,000 on testing -- more than all but one other state -- the stakes are high.
An outbreak could sicken 252,000 people in Delaware, hospitalize 13,000 and kill 3,000, according to state estimates. The disease also could destroy the heart of Delaware's agriculture industry: poultry. Chicken farms consume most of the feed grain produced in the Delmarva region, a $1.7 billion industry itself.
Avian flu has already spread from Asia to parts of Europe. And if it comes to Delaware by way of migratory birds, the most likely source, the state's best shot at finding out before the disease creates a pandemic is in the field.
There, Joyce McGee, a biology aid with the state Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, spends most of her week using cotton swabs to take samples from ducks' rectums. Avian flu resides in birds' intestinal tract.
"We call ourselves 'avian proctologists' or 'duck butt swabbers,' " said Robert Hossler, the department's program manager for game species.
They may joke about their work, but they're part of the largest wildlife disease surveillance effort ever undertaken by the United States.
Testing continues in earnest
After the sampling, the swabs are broken in half and dropped into a broth-filled test tube. Wild birds are natural hosts for certain types of influenza viruses and are often not affected by it. In nature, birds may shed or release the virus, said Jack Gelb, director of the Avian Biosciences Center at the University of Delaware.
At the Charles C. Allen Laboratory in Newark, Viruses are divided into subtypes and named according to the two proteins on the virus' surface, either hemagglutinin (HA) or neuraminidase (NA). The subtypes can show various combinations, such as H1N2 or H3N2. The strains are further classified as either low pathogenic or high pathogenic.
Most viruses are low pathogenic and pose little threat to humans, but high pathogenic viruses can cause severe illness and a high death rate in poultry.
It is the high-pathogen strain of H5N1 that is deadly.
"What we do know is that the highly pathogenic virus of H5N1 does kill people," said Dr. Hon Ip, director of the United States Geological Survey's Diagnostic Virology Laboratory at the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis. "The question has become when one of these labs will find highly pathogenic H5N1."
So far, only one of the 1,600 birds Delaware has sampled was a confirmed case of low-path H5N1. That was a green winged teal shot Oct. 27 by a hunter on the opening day of duck season in Sussex County.
"In terms of human health that teal wasn't a concern at all. It was like me saying we found the common cold in birds," Hossler said.
In fact, the discovery was somewhat normal.
"Finding the avian flu is totally normal. But [high-pathogen] H5N1 from Asia is not normal," Gelb said. "It's very unique and a very different situation since it's highly virulent in poultry and it's capable of killing some of the waterfowl."
Quick reaction plans in order
If Gelb discovers a positive sample, it is sent to the National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa for confirmation testing and additional testing to see if it's the N1 subtype.
That lab will inoculate chicken eggs to isolate the influenza virus to see if it will multiply. If it does, a material from a component of the egg with the virus will be injected into chickens in a secure environment and they are observed over 10 days.
"If you inject them today and they die tomorrow, it's a highly pathogenic virus," Ip said. "If they live throughout the 10 days, it's non-pathogenic."
In the chance that there is a highly-pathogenic strain of avian flu found in a Delaware bird, several agencies will converge to the spot where the bird was first spotted.
The public health division will encourage doctors in the area to look at their patients for signs of avian flu.The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will canvass the site for other dead birds. Field officials will increase monitoring and surveillance.
"If it's wild birds, we wouldn't be able to quarantine that area," said Karen Eggert, spokeswoman for USDA -- APHIS. "But we've studied all these birds and we'll look at their historical movement patterns, so we'll know where the birds are moving to."
Chickens raised on farms are already under tremendous protection from avian influenza and contamination because they are raised in covered houses and have limited access to flocks.
"The poultry industry is very worried about H5N1 or any influenza virus getting inside their chicken house because it's not good for business," Hossler said.
If there's a positive deadly strain of avian flu found in this area, the Delaware Poultry Industry Inc.'s Emergency Poultry Disease Task Force will be activated to increase the surveillance of nearby farms. Farmers would be advised not to let anyone onto their property, said Bill Satterfield, executive director of Delmarva Poultry Industry.
"It's already intensive surveillance," he said. "But we'd be changing people's normal behavior so they don't track around and carry this virus from farm to farm."
Contact Hiran Ratnayake at 324-2547 or hratnayake@delawareonline.com.
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/p...=2006612160322
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