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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/state/epaper/2006/07/02/m1a_BIRDFLU_0702.html
Avian flu expected: How Florida's birds could become infected
By Stacey Singer
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 02, 2006
The bidding starts at sundown.
On Friday nights, twice a month, Okeechobee auctioneer Patricia Pearce sells broilers, cocks, hens, chicks and guinea fowl to South Floridians who want them for meat, eggs or even religious rituals.
The L-Cross Livestock Auction is a tiny part of Florida agriculture that once merited little notice. But such places are increasingly recognized as a crucial front in the domestic battle against bird flu.
Fear persists that the transcontinental migration of wild birds or the massive commercial chicken industry will spread the deadly H5N1 strain to the United States. But backyard flocks, illicit cockfights and certain religious rites fuel a trade in birds that also has health and agriculture officials' full attention.
At the L-Cross Ranch, Pearce said, 100 birds might be consigned alongside sows, goats and cattle on auction night.
"The state inspectors are there every time," Pearce said. The inspectors used to just swab the birds' throats, she said, but lately they've been taking blood samples.
Most experts think it's an issue of when, not if, bird flu will arrive in the United States. Where they disagree is whether illegal smuggling, migratory birds or poultry producers will open the door.
The longer bird flu is kept at bay, the more time the nation has to develop vaccines, stockpile antiviral medicines and refine its response. That effort is growing larger and more expensive with each passing month.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture now estimates it will spend $28 million on testing and surveillance of poultry and $19 million more on wildlife.
It's also spending $21 million on international efforts, opening offices in hot spots such as Indonesia and China and training foreign health authorities on best practices for detecting the disease.
Poultry industry at risk
Florida's poultry industry is home to about 31 million birds, mostly bred for meat or eggs — about two for every state resident. The Florida Department of Agriculture has quintupled the number of birds it will test for the flu this year, said Jennifer Jennings-Glover, the state's poultry program coordinator.
"We're estimated to be testing over 20,000 chickens. In a normal year, before all this, it was 4,000. So we've definitely picked up surveillance," she said.
In humans, bird flu is considered an outbreak, not a pandemic, because it's still difficult to catch. The H5N1 strain has killed 130 people and sickened 228 worldwide since 1997.
But in birds, it's causing devastation and economic wreckage. Once the virus is detected in a region, the export of birds, eggs and feathers to the United States and most other nations is forbidden. Flocks are destroyed. Livelihoods are lost.
The United States' poultry industry, with sales valued at almost $30 billion a year, is among the world's largest. Its annual exports are worth about $2.5 billion.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has put the world on notice that if bird flu appears in one small area in the United States, it will kill that flock and quarantine birds from that area, but it expects the rest of its poultry export to continue as usual.
Caution regardless of source
There's much debate over whether commercial chickens or migratory birds are more likely to spread the disease. The poultry producers say it's the wild birds.
"All of our houses are enclosed, and we follow strict bio-security measures," said Karla Harvill, the public relations manager for Gold Kist of Atlanta, which supplies store-brand chicken to Publix. "You know, the import and export probably isn't involved in the spread of avian influenza. The migratory bird deal is probably the most reasonable explanation of how it will get here."
But conservationists and biologists believe it's the chicken, turkey and duck trade that poses the biggest threat.
"I thought that the latest consensus was that the poultry industry is the most likely source of transmission," said Fran James, a recently retired biologist and bird expert at Florida State University.
In June, a panel of World Health Organization scientists agreed that it's a combination of both, with the poultry trade taking the lion's share of the blame.
One thing all agree on is that illegal smuggling is a huge and growing risk to the Western Hemisphere, which so far is untouched.
The effort to catch smugglers has grown to include more than 3,000 customs agents. They use beagles to sniff through trunks and luggage and alert agents to the scent of voodoo talismans, feathers, eggs and fighting cocks.
In April, a Nigerian traveler was stopped at Miami International Airport after dogs detected dead birds in his luggage. He said they were intended for a religious rite.
The beagles had been part of the USDA's Beagle Brigade, in its Plant and Animal Inspection Service. They were moved to Homeland Security's U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency.
In testimony before the Senate Nutrition and Forestry Committee in May, Ron DeHaven, administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said customs agents had made 192 seizures of birds and poultry products illegally brought in from countries where H5N1 was present.
"We have sent several alerts to Customs and Border Protection with regard to looking out for poultry, poultry products, and other birds that might be coming from high-path H5N1-affected countries, to ensure that they are stopping those products as they might be entering the border," DeHaven told the committee. "We have indeed bolstered that effort."
During a conference call with medical providers, Dr. Emi Saito, who studies bird flu for the USDA, spoke of shipping as a problem spot.
"We still realize we have potential risks for it being brought into our country," Saito said.
Ships are sometimes rerouted because of storms or other considerations. For long delays, live animals can be removed from containers and held in pens together. Contaminated crates and containers could pose a risk, too, she said.
Meanwhile, 7,100 wild birds are being tested in Alaska and 10 other states. Florida Fish and Wildlife officials are testing 1,650 wild birds.
Humans the main variable
But William Karesh, a veterinarian with the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York, is skeptical that wild birds will spread the deadly H5N1 to the United States. That's because historical research on bird flu strains shows that Asian varieties and North American varieties have very little in common.
If and when the feared strain arrives, Karesh expects the scenario to involve multiple routes.
Start with infected hatching eggs or live birds from West Africa, smuggle them to a nation such as Venezuela or Brazil, watch a chicken die-off there, then wait for prized fighting cocks to be smuggled to Florida. Or, when migrating ducks head back north in the spring, H5N1 could travel with them, infecting backyard birds as they go.
"It's about humans participating," Karesh said. "Most of the movement has been seen in the trafficking of infected poultry, and most of that has been illegal."
"The only (human) case we can find in the whole world that might be linked to wild birds is Azerbaijan, and apparently the family was plucking a dead wild bird. It died of avian influenza and they ate it anyway," Karesh said.
Jennings-Glover said it's important that if people discover dead poultry, they don't touch it and instead make a report to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Division of Animal Industry, at (850) 410-0900 or (800) 342-5869 after hours. Reports of dead wild birds can be made over the Internet to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at myfwc.com/bird.
At Okeechobee's L-Cross Livestock Auction, Pearce said she's taking no chances.
"We're real cautious," she said. "If we see something that doesn't look right, we don't even let them unload."
Avian flu expected: How Florida's birds could become infected
By Stacey Singer
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 02, 2006
The bidding starts at sundown.
On Friday nights, twice a month, Okeechobee auctioneer Patricia Pearce sells broilers, cocks, hens, chicks and guinea fowl to South Floridians who want them for meat, eggs or even religious rituals.
The L-Cross Livestock Auction is a tiny part of Florida agriculture that once merited little notice. But such places are increasingly recognized as a crucial front in the domestic battle against bird flu.
Fear persists that the transcontinental migration of wild birds or the massive commercial chicken industry will spread the deadly H5N1 strain to the United States. But backyard flocks, illicit cockfights and certain religious rites fuel a trade in birds that also has health and agriculture officials' full attention.
At the L-Cross Ranch, Pearce said, 100 birds might be consigned alongside sows, goats and cattle on auction night.
"The state inspectors are there every time," Pearce said. The inspectors used to just swab the birds' throats, she said, but lately they've been taking blood samples.
Most experts think it's an issue of when, not if, bird flu will arrive in the United States. Where they disagree is whether illegal smuggling, migratory birds or poultry producers will open the door.
The longer bird flu is kept at bay, the more time the nation has to develop vaccines, stockpile antiviral medicines and refine its response. That effort is growing larger and more expensive with each passing month.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture now estimates it will spend $28 million on testing and surveillance of poultry and $19 million more on wildlife.
It's also spending $21 million on international efforts, opening offices in hot spots such as Indonesia and China and training foreign health authorities on best practices for detecting the disease.
Poultry industry at risk
Florida's poultry industry is home to about 31 million birds, mostly bred for meat or eggs — about two for every state resident. The Florida Department of Agriculture has quintupled the number of birds it will test for the flu this year, said Jennifer Jennings-Glover, the state's poultry program coordinator.
"We're estimated to be testing over 20,000 chickens. In a normal year, before all this, it was 4,000. So we've definitely picked up surveillance," she said.
In humans, bird flu is considered an outbreak, not a pandemic, because it's still difficult to catch. The H5N1 strain has killed 130 people and sickened 228 worldwide since 1997.
But in birds, it's causing devastation and economic wreckage. Once the virus is detected in a region, the export of birds, eggs and feathers to the United States and most other nations is forbidden. Flocks are destroyed. Livelihoods are lost.
The United States' poultry industry, with sales valued at almost $30 billion a year, is among the world's largest. Its annual exports are worth about $2.5 billion.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has put the world on notice that if bird flu appears in one small area in the United States, it will kill that flock and quarantine birds from that area, but it expects the rest of its poultry export to continue as usual.
Caution regardless of source
There's much debate over whether commercial chickens or migratory birds are more likely to spread the disease. The poultry producers say it's the wild birds.
"All of our houses are enclosed, and we follow strict bio-security measures," said Karla Harvill, the public relations manager for Gold Kist of Atlanta, which supplies store-brand chicken to Publix. "You know, the import and export probably isn't involved in the spread of avian influenza. The migratory bird deal is probably the most reasonable explanation of how it will get here."
But conservationists and biologists believe it's the chicken, turkey and duck trade that poses the biggest threat.
"I thought that the latest consensus was that the poultry industry is the most likely source of transmission," said Fran James, a recently retired biologist and bird expert at Florida State University.
In June, a panel of World Health Organization scientists agreed that it's a combination of both, with the poultry trade taking the lion's share of the blame.
One thing all agree on is that illegal smuggling is a huge and growing risk to the Western Hemisphere, which so far is untouched.
The effort to catch smugglers has grown to include more than 3,000 customs agents. They use beagles to sniff through trunks and luggage and alert agents to the scent of voodoo talismans, feathers, eggs and fighting cocks.
In April, a Nigerian traveler was stopped at Miami International Airport after dogs detected dead birds in his luggage. He said they were intended for a religious rite.
The beagles had been part of the USDA's Beagle Brigade, in its Plant and Animal Inspection Service. They were moved to Homeland Security's U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency.
In testimony before the Senate Nutrition and Forestry Committee in May, Ron DeHaven, administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said customs agents had made 192 seizures of birds and poultry products illegally brought in from countries where H5N1 was present.
"We have sent several alerts to Customs and Border Protection with regard to looking out for poultry, poultry products, and other birds that might be coming from high-path H5N1-affected countries, to ensure that they are stopping those products as they might be entering the border," DeHaven told the committee. "We have indeed bolstered that effort."
During a conference call with medical providers, Dr. Emi Saito, who studies bird flu for the USDA, spoke of shipping as a problem spot.
"We still realize we have potential risks for it being brought into our country," Saito said.
Ships are sometimes rerouted because of storms or other considerations. For long delays, live animals can be removed from containers and held in pens together. Contaminated crates and containers could pose a risk, too, she said.
Meanwhile, 7,100 wild birds are being tested in Alaska and 10 other states. Florida Fish and Wildlife officials are testing 1,650 wild birds.
Humans the main variable
But William Karesh, a veterinarian with the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York, is skeptical that wild birds will spread the deadly H5N1 to the United States. That's because historical research on bird flu strains shows that Asian varieties and North American varieties have very little in common.
If and when the feared strain arrives, Karesh expects the scenario to involve multiple routes.
Start with infected hatching eggs or live birds from West Africa, smuggle them to a nation such as Venezuela or Brazil, watch a chicken die-off there, then wait for prized fighting cocks to be smuggled to Florida. Or, when migrating ducks head back north in the spring, H5N1 could travel with them, infecting backyard birds as they go.
"It's about humans participating," Karesh said. "Most of the movement has been seen in the trafficking of infected poultry, and most of that has been illegal."
"The only (human) case we can find in the whole world that might be linked to wild birds is Azerbaijan, and apparently the family was plucking a dead wild bird. It died of avian influenza and they ate it anyway," Karesh said.
Jennings-Glover said it's important that if people discover dead poultry, they don't touch it and instead make a report to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Division of Animal Industry, at (850) 410-0900 or (800) 342-5869 after hours. Reports of dead wild birds can be made over the Internet to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at myfwc.com/bird.
At Okeechobee's L-Cross Livestock Auction, Pearce said she's taking no chances.
"We're real cautious," she said. "If we see something that doesn't look right, we don't even let them unload."