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JUNEAU, Alaska Mar 11, 2006 (AP)? He lives in one of the most remote areas of North America, but that hasn't stopped James Active Jr. from worrying about bird flu on its march around the globe.
A Yupik Eskimo from Kipnuk, a native village of 600 people on the edge of the Bering Sea, he follows the news on satellite television: millions of chickens and ducks dead or slaughtered in Asia, a scattering of human deaths, fallen swans in France, a dead cat in Germany.
Thousands of miles from these outbreaks, Active sounds resigned to the eventual appearance of the disease on his turf.
"We hear about it being overseas in different countries but somewhere down the line, I'm sure it will end up this way too," he said.
A subsistence hunter, Active depends on birds to feed his family through the spring until salmon return to local rivers in June. Like many others, he shrugs off his nagging worries.
He can't afford to give up hunting birds, he said, even as a massive effort gears up to catch the disease if it enters North America through his vast back yard.
While no roads link Kipnuk and dozens of neighboring villages to the rest of the world, the skies are thoroughfares for migrating waterfowl and shorebirds. Come spring, they nest by the millions in the surrounding delta of the mighty Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers a broad flat plain covering millions of acres that is crisscrossed by rivers and streams and dotted with countless lakes and sloughs and ponds.
It's considered the crossroads for birds migrating between Asia and North America.
So far, the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, found in migratory birds in other parts of the world, has not been detected in North America. In an effort to catch it when it does, the federal government plans to test 75,000 to 100,000 live or dead birds this year in Alaska and more than two dozen other states.
Deborah Rocque, avian influenza coordinator for the region's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, says her agency will work with others to test at least 15,000 birds in Alaska.
"We feel pretty confident that if it is here, our sampling plan will be able to detect it," she said.
While most birds will be tested live, several thousand hunter-killed birds also will be checked.
That will require the help of local subsistence hunters. They'll be asked to bring their catch to a check station where technicians will swab the birds for fecal matter.
Even though test results won't be available for two weeks to two months, Active is willing to help. He and other residents of the delta's cash-poor villages depend on the spring migration birds like cackling geese, king eiders, sandhill cranes, green and blue-winged teal to add a boost of protein to their diet.
"Without (subsistence) we'd have to depend on chicken and turkey. That's expensive," said Active. Food prices in remote villages are 2 1/2 to three times what they are in urban areas.
"And wild bird is better than chicken and turkey," Active added.
Michael Rearden, manager of the Yukon-Delta National Wildlife Refuge, said the benefits of good fresh food far outweigh the more uncertain risks of bird flu.
"People need to be cautious and reasonable about (handling the birds) but this is an important food source out here and I'd hate to see people avoiding them," he said.
Still, the news from abroad is making some people nervous. Radio station KYUK in the hub village of Bethel recently broadcast a call-in show on bird flu. Some villagers wanted to know if boiling the birds would kill the virus, and if they should worry about bird droppings on the wild berries they pick.
Wildlife and health experts say they have little to fear. So far the only cases of human sickness have been among people in very close daily contact with infected poultry. Callers were told their chances of picking up the virus from contaminated berries are next to nil and their food is safe as long as it's well-cooked, even if the virus is present.
Yet the jitters are not surprising. Elders remember the stories of the flu pandemic of 1918 that wiped out entire households in some villages. That virus, believed to have been carried to Alaska by soldiers returning from World War I, was also a bird flu that mutated into one that spread easily among humans.
A Yupik Eskimo from Kipnuk, a native village of 600 people on the edge of the Bering Sea, he follows the news on satellite television: millions of chickens and ducks dead or slaughtered in Asia, a scattering of human deaths, fallen swans in France, a dead cat in Germany.
Thousands of miles from these outbreaks, Active sounds resigned to the eventual appearance of the disease on his turf.
"We hear about it being overseas in different countries but somewhere down the line, I'm sure it will end up this way too," he said.
A subsistence hunter, Active depends on birds to feed his family through the spring until salmon return to local rivers in June. Like many others, he shrugs off his nagging worries.
He can't afford to give up hunting birds, he said, even as a massive effort gears up to catch the disease if it enters North America through his vast back yard.
While no roads link Kipnuk and dozens of neighboring villages to the rest of the world, the skies are thoroughfares for migrating waterfowl and shorebirds. Come spring, they nest by the millions in the surrounding delta of the mighty Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers a broad flat plain covering millions of acres that is crisscrossed by rivers and streams and dotted with countless lakes and sloughs and ponds.
It's considered the crossroads for birds migrating between Asia and North America.
So far, the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, found in migratory birds in other parts of the world, has not been detected in North America. In an effort to catch it when it does, the federal government plans to test 75,000 to 100,000 live or dead birds this year in Alaska and more than two dozen other states.
Deborah Rocque, avian influenza coordinator for the region's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, says her agency will work with others to test at least 15,000 birds in Alaska.
"We feel pretty confident that if it is here, our sampling plan will be able to detect it," she said.
While most birds will be tested live, several thousand hunter-killed birds also will be checked.
That will require the help of local subsistence hunters. They'll be asked to bring their catch to a check station where technicians will swab the birds for fecal matter.
Even though test results won't be available for two weeks to two months, Active is willing to help. He and other residents of the delta's cash-poor villages depend on the spring migration birds like cackling geese, king eiders, sandhill cranes, green and blue-winged teal to add a boost of protein to their diet.
"Without (subsistence) we'd have to depend on chicken and turkey. That's expensive," said Active. Food prices in remote villages are 2 1/2 to three times what they are in urban areas.
"And wild bird is better than chicken and turkey," Active added.
Michael Rearden, manager of the Yukon-Delta National Wildlife Refuge, said the benefits of good fresh food far outweigh the more uncertain risks of bird flu.
"People need to be cautious and reasonable about (handling the birds) but this is an important food source out here and I'd hate to see people avoiding them," he said.
Still, the news from abroad is making some people nervous. Radio station KYUK in the hub village of Bethel recently broadcast a call-in show on bird flu. Some villagers wanted to know if boiling the birds would kill the virus, and if they should worry about bird droppings on the wild berries they pick.
Wildlife and health experts say they have little to fear. So far the only cases of human sickness have been among people in very close daily contact with infected poultry. Callers were told their chances of picking up the virus from contaminated berries are next to nil and their food is safe as long as it's well-cooked, even if the virus is present.
Yet the jitters are not surprising. Elders remember the stories of the flu pandemic of 1918 that wiped out entire households in some villages. That virus, believed to have been carried to Alaska by soldiers returning from World War I, was also a bird flu that mutated into one that spread easily among humans.
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