U.S. Expands Bird Flu Testing
We thought we'd bring you up to speed on the bird flu news as our hackle supplies will be a function of this deadly virus.
In other news, be looking for our new Fly Fishing ebook to hit the market here in the next day or so. We've put a lot of work into it and look forward to releasing it.
Tight Lines,
Duke
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U.S. Expands Bird Flu Testing
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Bracing for the possibility that migrating birds could carry a deadly strain of avian flu to North America, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced recently that it plans to test approximately eight times as many wild birds this year as have been tested in the past decade.
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Bracing for the possibility that migrating birds could carry a deadly strain of avian flu to North America, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced recently that it plans to test approximately eight times as many wild birds this year as have been tested in the past decade.
Beginning in April, the USFWS says approximately 75,000 to 100,000 wild birds will be tested for the virus, an increase from the approximately 12,000 birds that have been tested for the virus since 1996.
The expanded testing program, which will focus in Alaska but also include birds in the Pacific islands and on the West Coast, reflects growing concern that the virus could arrive in North America as soon as this spring and be carried into the western continental United States by fall.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns says if test results show the virus exists in wild birds in North America, it would not signal the start of a human pandemic, because avian flu is still primarily a disease of birds.
At least 175 people have been infected, and 95 have died from the disease since December 2003, most after having close contact with infected chickens but not wild birds. Scientists say the virus hasn’t developed the ability to spread easily from person to person. If that happens, they say it could potentially ignite a pandemic.
Of the four major flyways in North America the Pacific flyway is of greatest interest now, says Frank Quimby of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
“The Pacific flyway is the most likely route, because birds that winter in Asia migrate in spring to Alaska,” he said.
Scientists will test birds by first capturing them in nets and then taking swabs from the throat or cloaca (posterior opening). They’ll then send those samples to the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Center in Madison, Wisconsin. If any birds test positive for the H5N1 strain of the virus, confirmatory testing will be done at the USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa. USDA spokeswoman Angela Harless says as many as 18,000 samples a day can be tested. Tests will also be made on birds killed by hunters in Alaska this spring, and in Oregon, Washington and California during this fall’s waterfowl hunting season.
The expanded testing program, which will focus in Alaska but also include birds in the Pacific islands and on the West Coast, reflects growing concern that the virus could arrive in North America as soon as this spring and be carried into the western continental United States by fall.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns says if test results show the virus exists in wild birds in North America, it would not signal the start of a human pandemic, because avian flu is still primarily a disease of birds.
At least 175 people have been infected, and 95 have died from the disease since December 2003, most after having close contact with infected chickens but not wild birds. Scientists say the virus hasn’t developed the ability to spread easily from person to person. If that happens, they say it could potentially ignite a pandemic.
Of the four major flyways in North America the Pacific flyway is of greatest interest now, says Frank Quimby of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
“The Pacific flyway is the most likely route, because birds that winter in Asia migrate in spring to Alaska,” he said.
Scientists will test birds by first capturing them in nets and then taking swabs from the throat or cloaca (posterior opening). They’ll then send those samples to the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Center in Madison, Wisconsin. If any birds test positive for the H5N1 strain of the virus, confirmatory testing will be done at the USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa. USDA spokeswoman Angela Harless says as many as 18,000 samples a day can be tested. Tests will also be made on birds killed by hunters in Alaska this spring, and in Oregon, Washington and California during this fall’s waterfowl hunting season.
posted by The "Duke" at 12:12 PM
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