Bird flu in Americas within the year, says UN

[Waltz]

Bird flu in Americas within the year, says UN

Posted on : Thu, 09 Mar 2006 20:20:00 GMT | Author : Ryan Jones
News Category : Health

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/5660.html

NEW YORK - As bird flu spreads its dragnet far and wide, the United Nation's bird flu chief said issued a stern warning that the dreaded H5N1 virus would soon make its way to the Americas. Dr. David Nabarro said bird flu could hit the continents in about six to twelve months.

Migratory patterns of the birds, which move to Arctic and Alaska in spring means that the virus will be borne by them to the Americas, he said. "I think it's within the next six to 12 months," Nabarro told reporters.

"And who knows ? we've been wrong on other things, it may be earlier." The H5N1 strain of the virus has spelt disaster for poultry stocks all over Asia and Europe and has now reached Africa where it is feared that the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily from person to person.

So far the World Health Organization has chronicled 171 human cases of bird flu and 94 people mostly in Asia have succumbed to it. The virus has spread at an alarming rate throughout Europe and it is expected that the next destination would be the Americas.

Nabarro said that there was bound to be a pandemic, but there was no time frame for it, "Because it is moving and because we believe wild birds are implicated, predicting where it's going to flare up next is a very tricky thing to do, and being able to know the scale of the flare-up is also quite tricky," he said. Till now all bird flu cases have come about as a result of close contact with poultry animals.

But scientists fear that the virus could mutate into a form easily transmissible between humans and could trigger a pandemic claiming millions of lives. Nabarro said that UN was closely monitoring the situation in West Africa, where most people depend on chickens for their livelihood, "There is a regional crisis in West Africa with outbreaks in Nigeria and Niger," Nabarro said.

"But we are frankly anticipating that we will find the virus in other West African countries and there is a lot of preparatory work under way." The U.S. Department of Agriculture officials has responded by saying that they would be testing 75,000 to 100,000 live or dead birds this year with focus on Alaska. "Some of the challenges we face now are really quite dramatic and call for a lot of technical expertise," Nabarro said.

 

[Bruce]

Re: Bird flu in Americas within the year, says UN

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Brian McCaffrey conducts shorebird research in Alaska.

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/conditions/03/09/bird.flu.migration.ap/index.html

U.S. increasing bird flu screening

NEW YORK (AP) -- The spring migration of birds from Asia to Alaska is expected to start next month, and this year it will encounter a beefed-up federal effort to look for bird flu.

The screening project, in Alaska and elsewhere, is projected to test five to six times as many birds this year alone as the government has screened since 1998.

Scientists worry that birds arriving in Alaska from Asia may bring in the H5N1 virus and pass it along to other birds, which will fly south this fall.

Scientists already had been watching for the deadly flu strain in wild birds in Alaska and North American migratory flyways. But the effort is being dramatically stepped up this year, said John Clifford, chief veterinarian for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is working with other agencies on the program.

Scientists will study live birds, others that are found dead or killed by hunters, and environmental samples that might carry the worrisome form of bird flu.

While most concern about birds flying south through the United States focuses on their Pacific route in the western states, other migratory paths will be included, Clifford said.

The goal is to test 75,000 to 100,000 live or dead birds this year, said Angela Harless of the USDA. The testing, which also will include some Pacific Ocean islands, will focus on waterfowl and shorebirds.

At the same time, Clifford said, officials will continue to monitor other activities that may introduce the virus to the United States: importing and smuggling of birds.

The chief concern about the H5N1 flu in wild birds is that the virus might make its way to some of the 10 billion or so chickens produced every year in the United States. That could damage the poultry industry and pose a hazard for people who work with chickens. Virtually all bird flu cases in people reported so far are blamed on close contact with infected poultry.

Human cases are uncommon, but scientists worry that the virus may mutate into a form that can pass easily between people. That could lead to a worldwide flu epidemic.

It makes sense to focus the wild bird monitoring on Alaska, but migratory routes are so complex there's no guarantee that Alaska is where the virus will first arrive in North America, or that it will follow recognized flyways from there, said Ken Rosenberg, director of conservation science at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, N.Y.

Migrating birds can show up "virtually anywhere and come from virtually anywhere. That's just the nature of birds and bird migration," he said.

Rosenberg said he expects the deadly flu now wreaking havoc in Asia and parts of Europe and Africa will show up in wild birds in the United States, and wouldn't be surprised if it was in the next year. It might not appear in an outbreak that kills many birds, but rather in isolated cases, he said.

Rosenberg also said he's heard reports of people wanting to slaughter wild birds to protect against bird flu.
"From a conservation perspective that would be a horrible thing to do, and it would be totally unwarranted given the situation we have today," he said.

Peter Marra of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center at the National Zoo in Washington said it's clear migratory birds have played a role in the spread of bird flu elsewhere, and that Alaska is an important place to look for it. But that's not the only way the virus could reach the United States.

"I would say movement of birds through the illegal pet trade is probably the most likely way it's going to get here," Marra said.
That's just a guess, he quickly added, but there is precedent. Taiwan, where bird smuggling is common, confirmed last October that its first case of H5N1 bird flu appeared in birds smuggled from China. A Nigerian official also has blamed illegal poultry imports for delivering the virus to that country.

Clifford agreed that smuggling birds or bird products is a possible route into the country, and said the government will boost its anti-smuggling efforts as well. Those efforts include not only inspections at the border, but also teams within the United States that survey exotic food markets, live bird markets and restaurants for signs of illegal animals.

As for legal imports, virtually all live birds that enter the United States have to go through a 30-day quarantine and be tested for bird flu and other viruses, Clifford noted. The government doesn't allow imports of birds from countries that have H5N1 in poultry flocks.