Virginia To Test Birds For Avian Flu
Virginia wildlife officials will start searching for avian flu next month in migrating birds along Virginia's coast, waterways and wetlands.
Mute swans will be the first birds tested. At least four other species will be tested as they arrive later from their summer breeding grounds up north.
Bob Ellis with the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries says state and federal officials plan to sample some 800 waterfowl and about 800 shorebirds, mostly around the Eastern Shore, the Chesapeake Bay and rivers in eastern Virginia.
The samples will join a federal database. Ellis told the Richmond Times-Dispatch Virginia is considered a top sampling state because our wetlands are popular among birds heading south, including birds from areas with cases of avian flu.
Ellis says swabs taken from the birds will be tested by the state Agriculture Department's lab in Harrisonburg.
The federal government will reimburse the game agency 100-dollars per bird.
The game department will notify the governor, state and federal health and wildlife officials and the public of any preliminary positive results.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Virginia wildlife officials will start searching for avian flu next month in migrating birds along Virginia's coast, waterways and wetlands.
Mute swans will be the first birds tested. At least four other species will be tested as they arrive later from their summer breeding grounds up north.
Bob Ellis with the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries says state and federal officials plan to sample some 800 waterfowl and about 800 shorebirds, mostly around the Eastern Shore, the Chesapeake Bay and rivers in eastern Virginia.
The samples will join a federal database. Ellis told the Richmond Times-Dispatch Virginia is considered a top sampling state because our wetlands are popular among birds heading south, including birds from areas with cases of avian flu.
Ellis says swabs taken from the birds will be tested by the state Agriculture Department's lab in Harrisonburg.
The federal government will reimburse the game agency 100-dollars per bird.
The game department will notify the governor, state and federal health and wildlife officials and the public of any preliminary positive results.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)