DNR Takes a Gander at Wild Geese
baltimoresun.com
05 July 2006
Candus Thomson
Photo courtsey of baltimoresun.com

Leonardtown // These days, Maryland's front line of defense against an invasion of the deadly bird flu looks, quite literally, like a wild goose chase.

On foot, in trucks and by boat, a team of biologists from the Department of Natural Resources is swooping down on flocks of geese to test them for avian influenza, specifically Asian H5N1, a strain that has caused the death of more than 100 people and millions of birds overseas.

Wildlife experts suspect that if the deadly form of the virus enters this country, it will most likely be through birds that mingle in the arctic during the breeding season before returning to their wintering grounds.

Maryland has been designated a "Tier One" state by the U.S. Department of Agriculture because the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries are at the heart of the Atlantic goose migratory route, which runs from Canada's Hudson Bay to North Carolina.

"The single most important effort we can make in the classic canary-in-the-coal-mine monitoring is testing wild migratory birds," says Paul Peditto, director of DNR's Wildfire and Heritage Service. "We are creating a scientific dragnet to be able to detect the wildlife carrier of H5N1."

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Avian Flu Hits South African Ostriches
EARTHtimes.org
04 July 2006
Helen Steele
Photo courtsey of EARTHtimes.org

The South African government, Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs officials have confirmed that a strain of bird flu has been found on a western cape farm in South Africa. The outbreak occurred on a farm roughly 30 km west of the coastal town of Mossel Bay and the farm has been put under quarantine as a precautionary measure with all of its 60 ostriches subsequently being killed. This has been done in an attempt to contain the outbreak, department officials stated.

The Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute situated near Pretoria confirmed that tests on the ostriches had revealed the presence of the H5N2 strain of avian influenza. This is considered less dangerous compared to the H5N1 strain that was responsible for many bird flu cases across Asia, Africa and Europe. The H5N2 strain of avian flu cannot be contracted by humans unlike the H5N1 strain which is extremely pathogenic and has been the cause of human as well as extensive poultry fatalities.

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