Wildlife Surveillance [News]

Center hopes to be part of the first defense against bio-terrorism

Daily Press
26 February 2006

Wildlife Center of Virginia has applied for grant to implement surveillance network.

Canada and the United States are keeping a close eye on migratory birds that spend summers in Alaska. Not for pleasurable bird-watching reasons, but for public safety.

Hundreds of thousands of birds annually fly south for winter homes as far away as South America, crossing and settling into many North American areas as they travel.

It wouldn't take much - maybe something the size of a can of hairspray - to inoculate migrating ducks, swans and geese with a toxin that could threaten humans or endanger the agriculture industry.

Ed Clark, director of the non-profit Wildlife Center of Virginia, believes the nation should prepare for and be vigilant about the possibility of environmental bio-terrorism.

He also thinks wildlife can be our earliest warning signal of a threat. For example, the possibility of waterfowl landing on and then dying from a poisoned public water supply is why Clark and the wildlife center have applied for and hope to hear soon about a $175,000 grant from the Institute for Defense and Homeland Security to plan and implement the North American Wildlife Disease Surveillance Network.

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Bird flu watchers keep eye on Alaska
Saint Petersburg Times
26 February 2006
Lisa Greene

The migratory patterns of wild birds intersect there. When the birds leave, will they bring H5N1 to North America?

In a few weeks, as the sun begins to warm and the days lengthen, the birds will start taking flight.

By the end of March, thousands upon thousands - ducks, geese, sandpipers - will begin their annual trek north, toward Alaska. Scientists hope they won't be carrying the notorious bird flu virus with them.

But as world health officials look toward Europe in alarm, where bird flu is spreading among wild birds faster than anyone expected, some U.S. scientists are looking half the world away, to Alaska.

Alaska is the crossroads of three of the world's great migratory flyways. Birds from Asia and North America mingle here, winging across continents to find the perfect bird nursery. Predators are few, tasty insects plentiful and sunlit hours long enough for plenty of baby feeding time.

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