N. California Wildlife Tested For Bird Flu

[hawkeye]

clock Nov 16, 2006 3:28 pm US/Pacific
N. California Wildlife Tested For Bird Flu

(CBS13) SACRAMENTO It was a typical November day at the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area: gray skies, light rain, and a lot of waterfowl hanging around -- not to mention one big tent and a lot of government scientists.

As news cameras focused, federal and state biologists showed us how they test wild ducks for the avian influenza. None have been found here, but that disease could spread from overseas where it is rampant.

?The current, extreme threat from this disease in Africa and Asia will probably continue for the next two to ten years, that's what the experts are saying,? said Dr. Annette Whiteford, State Food and Agriculture Veterinarian.

You know our valley is certainly a prime candidate for avian influenza, that?s because the area is a so-called ?freeway? for birds.

Every year millions of waterfowl follow the Pacific Flyway down from Alaska, and feed in our valley.

?The Pacific Flyway birds could potentially have contact with birds from the infected area, China, Indonesia, parts of Europe,? said Fish and Game Veterinarian Pam Swift

If bird flu spread here, it could infect our poultry farms and then infect humans. The federal government is spending about $30 million to check as many as a 100,000 wild birds. We're buying time until there's a cure.

?There are lots of people working on vaccines. And there are some elements of some of the viruses in the current human vaccine that is potentially helpful,? said Dr. John Takekawa, Federal Wildlife Biologist.

About a dozen ducks were tested at this media event and as the cameras rolled, they were freed proving even a bird can get fifteen minutes of fame.

Avian flu can infect ducks and geese, also shore birds and hawks. Biologist say if you find five or more of these birds dead in one area, notify authorities

[hawkeye]

Re: N. California Wildlife Tested For Bird Flu

Wild Birds Tested For Avian Flu
Biologists Gather In Yolo County

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- State and federal biologists gathered in Yolo County on Thursday to catch and test wild birds for avian flu.

The Sacramento Valley is the temporary home for millions of migratory birds. The birds come down from Alaska, and biologists said the concern is that those birds might mix with others from Asia that have the disease.

"It could have an impact on California. We have a vibrant agriculture and poultry industry. It also can be a public health threat. It's one of the things we're testing for, but it's not in North America at this time," said Steve Edinger of the state Department of Fish and Game.

So far, about 100,000 birds have been tested in the U.S., including about 10,000 in California.

Avian flu is a concern worldwide.

Federal agencies are coordinating findings with agencies in Canada, Mexico, Russia, Japan and China.

[hawkeye]

Re: N. California Wildlife Tested For Bird Flu

YOLO BYPASS
Checks of migratory birds show no avian flu in U.S.

A multimillion dollar national effort to screen North American migratory birds for potentially deadly strains of avian influenza has so far come up empty -- and if the United States is lucky, things will stay that way.

In California, thousands of pintail and mallard ducks have been trapped, banded and subjected to the indignity of a medical swabbing of their most private parts in search of the H5N1 strain of bird flu.

So far, nothing but negatives.

The bird screening program is an unusual partnership that has recruited help from wildlife biologists in a spectrum of state and federal agencies ranging from the California Department of Fish and Game to the U.S. Geological Survey. At the urging of the Bush administration, Congress appropriated $29 million for the avian flu surveillance program this year.

In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state Legislature added $1 million to the $700,000 from the federal program to screen birds in the state.

On Thursday, representatives from four government agencies demonstrated the screening technique in front of a gaggle of reporters and television cameras in the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, a 16,000-acre reserve straddling Interstate 80 between Sacramento and Davis.

"The earlier we can find any disease, the earlier we can respond to protect poultry and human health,'' said Brad Bortner, a migratory bird expert for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The target is the strain of bird flu that has killed 153 people, mostly in Southeast Asia, since 2003. Nearly all of those victims lived in close contact with chickens, which are the primary target of the H5N1 strain. Since 2003, millions of chickens and ducks have either been killed outright by the virus or have been destroyed in an effort to contain the disease.

It remains a difficult bug for humans to catch, but scientists fear that with a few genetic changes, it could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, possibly triggering a pandemic as deadly as the 1918 Spanish flu -- believed to have killed at least 50 million around the globe.

U.S. sentries against such an onslaught are wildlife biologists such as Jenny Hoskins, of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Russ Odell, an aide with the state Department of Fish and Game.

Since this summer, they have swabbed the bottoms of hundreds of ducks, taking samples from the bird's cloaca -- the orifice that handles both reproduction and elimination of waste in birds.

For Thursday's demonstration, the agencies trucked in to the Yolo site 18 pintail ducks that had been captured the previous evening at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, about an hour away north of Sacramento. Biologists used 60- by 40-foot "rocket nets" propelled by explosives to catch the birds -- a method commonly used to capture waterfowl before attaching bands to their legs.

One bird at a time, Bortner wrangled each duck into a gentle lock to keep it still, while Odell twirled the fluffy polyester-tipped swab. One goopy-bottomed female seemed particularly unhappy to see them. "This one is giving us a lot of sampling material,'' Bortner deadpanned.

Odell slipped each swab into a preservative-filled test tube, which was bar-coded and duly recorded by Hoskins. The tubes are shipped to a lab at UC Davis, where they are tested for a component of the bird flu virus. Those that test positive are sent to a federal lab in Ames, Iowa, for further testing.

No positives have been found, but in eight states outside California, a mild strain of H5N1 that has been present in the United States for decades and causes no illness, has been detected.

For each pintail duck, the ordeal was over in about 30 seconds, and Bortner released each one into the water, from which they quickly flew off, a little ruffled but apparently unharmed.

Pintails, said Bortner, are particularly sought in the surveillance program, because they are known to mingle in their northern Alaska nesting grounds with birds from Asia. "They've been known to fly here from Russia,'' Odell added.

Other waterfowl tested in the program include mallards, northern shovelers, wigeons, black brant and white-fronted geese.

So far this year, 60,000 live wild birds have been sampled using this technique in the United States, said Paul Slota, a microbiologists for the U.S. Geological Survey. Another 20,000 "environmental samples" -- bird poop or pond water draws -- have also been analyzed.

Dan Yparraguirre, waterfowl coordinator for the state Department of Fish and Game, said the state goal to test 3,600 wild birds is almost completed. Now that duck hunting season is under way, biologists hope to test an additional 3,600 hunter-killed birds at reporting stations.

[Daisy]

Re: N. California Wildlife Tested For Bird Flu

This is just a mile down the road from my house!

I love living in the flyway. btw: I haven't seen any dead birds.

[hawkeye]

Re: N. California Wildlife Tested For Bird Flu

Good! Hopefully you never will.