U.S. Hunt for Bird Flu Begins in Anchorage
adn.com
2006 May 18
Doug O'Harra
Photo coutrsey of adn.com
At a salt marsh along Anchorage's mucky west coast, federal scientist Bob Gill palmed a tiny shorebird trapped only minutes earlier in a fine-mesh net.
It was a female pectoral sandpiper and, Wednesday morning, the little pond-wader became the unwitting volunteer in an extraordinary quest:
Find the first carrier of deadly avian flu in North America.
One of the world's impressive long-distance migrants, most pectoral sandpipers range from Argentina through Alaska to Siberia. The fear is that some wild birds will catch the flu in Asian breeding grounds and bring it here.
This particular bird, the first captured for testing here at the edge of the continent, had probably arrived in Anchorage only days ago to forage for bugs and worms in marshes below the Coastal Trail. It's likely bound for Russia or Arctic Alaska. Just passing through.
2006 May 17
Diana Denner
The Lab of Ornithology at Cornell University is part of a new avian influenza government task force. Its mission is to understand, track and relay accurate information to the public about the bird flu.
Because the disease is endemic in China's poultry, and many species migrate over those flocks, authorities have an eye on Alaska, where about 30 migratory birds, including Arctic warblers and yellow wagtails, will breed this spring after wintering in Asia. The lab's task force plans to sample thousands of birds for H5N1 as part of an early detection program.
Most avian influenza A viruses are LPAI viruses associated with mild disease in poultry; whereas, HPAI viruses can cause severe illness and death in poultry. Influenza viruses change by what's known as drift and shift.
Bird Flu Found in Fowl in Indonesia's Papua-Official
Reuters.com
2006 May 16
JAKARTA, May 16 (Reuters) - Indonesia has found the avian flu virus in chickens in Papua province, the first bird flu case in the archipelago's easternmost province, a senior government official said on Tuesday.
A number of fighting cocks in Manokwari regency of western Papua tested positive for the H5N1 virus in late April, prompting authorities to cull about 200 chickens, Syamsul Bahri, animal health director at the agriculture ministry, told Reuters.
"The fighting cocks might have been brought to Papua from neighbouring Sulawesi island," Bahri said. "It was the first case we had in Papua."
"We culled around 200 chickens, mostly from backyard farms around the neighbourhood where the virus was found to prevent it from spreading," he said.
Bird flu has been found in poultry in about two-thirds of the country's 33 provinces.
The latest case in poultry in Papua highlights international concern over Indonesia's ability to contain the spread of the virus, which has killed 25 people in the country and at least 115 worldwide since 2003.
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