Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=8287797
Response teams train for bird flu outbreak
by Jason Moore
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Teams of first responders took to the woods along the north fork of Campbell Creek Wednesday and staged an exercise to prepare -- just in case the bird flu ever reaches Alaska.
The state and federal workers placed dead ducks in the woods as part of the exercise and to learn how a response would unfold if an unusual bird die-off occurred.
Workers donned protective clothing to collect samples.
Avian flu is considered extremely contagious and responders place extra emphasis on team safety.
The exercise also taught the responders, who would be the first on-hand in the event of a bird flu outbreak, how to safely collect and contain samples.
"When we start investigating something like this we don't know what's going on and so we want to go out and collect the samples so that we can send them to the right diagnostic laboratories, so that they can tell us what's going on," U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist Kim Trust said. "While we're doing that we want to make sure our people are safe."
These same agencies have tested more than 25,000 live birds in Alaska over the last two years.
None of the samples showed the highly-contagious H5N1 strain of the virus.
Contact Jason Moore at jmoore@ktuu.com
Response teams train for bird flu outbreak
by Jason Moore
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Teams of first responders took to the woods along the north fork of Campbell Creek Wednesday and staged an exercise to prepare -- just in case the bird flu ever reaches Alaska.
The state and federal workers placed dead ducks in the woods as part of the exercise and to learn how a response would unfold if an unusual bird die-off occurred.
Workers donned protective clothing to collect samples.
Avian flu is considered extremely contagious and responders place extra emphasis on team safety.
The exercise also taught the responders, who would be the first on-hand in the event of a bird flu outbreak, how to safely collect and contain samples.
"When we start investigating something like this we don't know what's going on and so we want to go out and collect the samples so that we can send them to the right diagnostic laboratories, so that they can tell us what's going on," U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist Kim Trust said. "While we're doing that we want to make sure our people are safe."
These same agencies have tested more than 25,000 live birds in Alaska over the last two years.
None of the samples showed the highly-contagious H5N1 strain of the virus.
Contact Jason Moore at jmoore@ktuu.com