Wild Claims about Avian Influenza, Preservation Projects, and State Stops Culling Herds of Deer and Elk

Media too Quick to Say Wild Birds Spread the Virus
The Tyee
2006 March 29
Grant Sheppard
Photo courtesy The Tyee

While scientists and conservationists are calling for a more careful, science-based approach to avian influenza, some members of the media are covering the story in a sensational and superficial manner. One ABC News story, for example, didn't mince words. "[Bird flu] is being spread much faster than first predicted from one wild flock of birds to another, an airborne delivery system that no government can stop."

>>>Full Article

Funds are There to Take Active Role in Deer
RECORDNET.COM
2006 Mar 29
Photo courtesy RECORD.NET

In the San Bernardino Mountains, herds of bighorn sheep are making a comeback, thanks to volunteers who capture and treat the elusive animals for diseases, before releasing them into the arid, forbidding, hard-to-access wilderness.

In a remote part of Trinity County, a student in a master's program at Cal is developing and testing a wildlife habitat model to boost populations of Columbian black-tailed deer.

These are examples of hundreds of local conservation projects undertaken and funded each year by hunters who contribute to the Safari Club International Foundation. Hunters who double as environmentalists? You bet.

>>>Full Article

Animals Won't Be Killed to Contain Spread of CWD
Rocky Mountain News
2006 March 29
Todd Hartman
Photo courtesy Rocky Mountain News

The Colorado Division of Wildlife is giving up on the controversial practice of killing deer and elk to help contain the spread of chronic wasting disease.

The decision is a sharp reversal from policy adopted during the height of fears over the fatal brain- rotting ailment, when it appeared that Colorado's multimillion-dollar hunting economy might be decimated.

The agency's lead scientist on CWD and an early proponent of culling, Mike Miller, said data collected over the years don't show that thinning herds has had any significant effect on the rate of the disease in the wild.

"We're not afraid to acknowledge that some of the things we had tried aren't working as well as we'd hoped," Miller said. "It's never fun. I would be much more comfortable to sit here telling you what does work."

>>>Full Article

Making a Ferret Sneeze for Hints to the Transmission of Bird Flu

Making a Ferret Sneeze for Hints to the Transmission of Bird Flu
New York Times
28 March 2006
Denise Grady
Photo courtesy of New York Times

One way to collect nasal secretions from a ferret is to anesthetize it, hold a petri dish under its snout and squirt a little salt water up its nose so that it will sneeze into the dish.

At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ferret sneezes are frozen in tiny vials and locked up in a high-security chamber called an enhanced biosafety Level 3 laboratory. It takes a fingerprint scan to get in, and an iris scan to open the freezer. Scientists wear scrub suits, gowns, double gloves and hoods, breathe filtered air and open vials only by reaching into a safety cabinet designed to keep germs from escaping into the air.

The vials are in this lab because the animals have been exposed to A(H5N1), the notorious avian flu virus that has swept across Asia, Europe and Africa, wiping out flocks of poultry and sometimes killing people as well. Researchers at the disease centers and in other labs are studying the transmission and virulence of bird flu in ferrets and mice, trying to answer questions that take on more urgency as the virus advances.

"We have never had a situation like the world is experiencing today, such an unprecedented spread among poultry," said Dr. Timothy Uyeki, an epidemiologist and influenza expert at the disease centers. "The geographic spread is unprecedented, and the mortality unprecedented as well, and this virus has been clearly confirmed to transmit directly from poultry to people and to cause severe and fatal illness."

Includes multimedia graphic depiciting the Anatomy of a Virus and Evolution of a Virus

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Study; Culling' Doesn't Reduce CWD

Study; Culling' Doesn't Reduce CWD
DailyIndia.com
27 March 2006

Colorado Division of Wildlife managers say they've determined culling random deer doesn't seem to reduce the prevalence of chronic-wasting disease.

The wildlife officials told the Boulder (Colo.) Daily Camera the state will halt the culling operation this year.

Officials have been systematically killing randomly selected deer in herds suffering from CWD for four years to prevent the spread of the disease.

Chronic-wasting disease is similar to mad cow disease, in that it creates sponge-like holes in the animals' brains, causing them to lose weight, stagger and die.

The wildlife experts told the Daily Camera culling is simpler than just killing infected deer, since testing live animals requires taking a tonsil biopsy -- which isn't a quick or easy procedure.

Division of Wildlife field coordinators selected 16 tests sites for the culling experiment. In eight sites they used random culling, while in the other sites they did not. But after four years, the researchers said they found no discernible difference between the two areas.

State officials said they were continuing a partnership with Boulder's Open Space and Mountain Parks Department to study infected animals without killing them.

>>> ARTICLE

Disease Emergence and Resurgence: The Wildlife-Human Connection [Free Online Book}

Disease Emergence and Resurgence: The Wildlife-Human Connection
Milt Friend
USGS National Wildlife Health Center


The context for this book focuses on providing an understanding that disease emergence and spread often are outcomes of human actions, rather than the result of events for which society has no control.

>>>BOOK CONTENTS

Avian Influenza and Monitoring Sea Birds [News]

New Study Describes Key Protein from Highly Pathogenic H5N1 Avian Flu Virus and
How it Might Mutate
NIH News
16 March 2006

The recent spread of deadly H5N1 influenza A virus among birds in Asia, Europe, and Africa has been the focus of much attention and concern worldwide—largely because of the danger that the virus will mutate into a form that will become easily transmissible from person to person.

In a March 16 article published online by Science, a research team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute in California reveals the structure of an H5 protein from a highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 avian influenza virus and compares this structure to the same proteins from other pandemic influenza A viruses, including the deadly 1918 virus. Further, they discuss a potential route whereby H5N1 might mutate and acquire human specificity. The work also describes the application of a new technology called glycan microarrays, which can be used to determine whether H5 proteins from various strains of H5N1 target human or bird cells and map how their specificity is changing.

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Helping Hands For 'Other Nations'
The Cape Codder, Townhome.com
17 March 2006
Dune Denizen

"These birds practically never come ashore during the winter. They eat, sleep, live, and meet together at sea. When you see a sea duck on the beach, you can be sure something is the matter with him ..."

Henry Beston, "The Outermost House"

Last week, a common eider was captured at High Head Beach in North Truro. A normal common eider would ordinarily have no problem escaping from a human being, because they spend most of their lives miles from shore.

This bird, however, was not normal. He was able to take only a few steps before collapsing, and put up little to no resistance when apprehended. Forty minutes later, he was in the confines of Wild Care's Eastham facility, being tended to. "It's a good thing he was brought in," said the Wild Care attendant.

Apparently, this is a regular occurrence with the folks at Wild Care and other such facilities, not just on Cape Cod, but in the northern hemisphere. Eiders and other marine birds, the attendant explained, are often brought ashore and beached, because they become ill. Most of them die. There's no concrete explanation as to why just yet, she said, but it's a pretty good bet that man is the source of the problem.

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Experts Suspect Peanuts Caused Sandhill Crane Kill

Experts Suspect Peanuts Caused Sandhill Crane Kill
The Wichita Eagle
19 March 2006
Michael Pearce

Biologists say a field of moldy Texas peanuts led to the death of about 100 sandhill cranes at the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge.

Dave Hilley, refuge manager, said his staff noticed indications something was wrong on March 9.

Several cranes appeared weak and off-balance. An abundance of predators was another indication.

"We had a lot of eagles about that time, and we noticed five different groups of eagles feeding on carcasses on the Big Salt Marsh," Hilley said. "We got out our air boat and ATVs and searched where the cranes had been staying."

They found about 40 carcasses, and evidence where about another 60 sandhills had been scavenged by eagles and coyotes.

The condition of the live birds clued biologists they may have been suffering from some kind of paralysis from poisoning.

>>> FULL ARTICLE

Avian Influenza and CWD [News]

'Most Wanted' Birds Likely to Transmit Bird Flu
ABC NEWS
13 March 2006
Rhonda Schwartz and Maddy Sauer

Scientists in Alaska Gear Up for Unprecedented Testing

In an effort to detect likely carriers of the deadly H5N1 avian flu virus, U.S. government wildlife experts in Alaska are gearing up for an unprecedented program that surveils and tests migratory birds coming from Asia this spring.

ABC News has obtained a draft of a U.S. government study that ranks the migratory birds that pose the greatest concern. Scientists analyzed dozens of bird species that migrate between Asia and Alaska to determine the probability of each species contracting the deadly virus in Asia and bringing it to Alaska this summer. They ranked the birds according to the following criteria:

• Proportion of the species that winters in or migrates through Asia
• Contact with a known "hot spot" or source
• Habitats in Asia that increase likelihood of exposure to avian influenza
• Size of the population that travels to Alaska
• Ability to obtain a representative sample of significant size

The Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Cold Bay, Alaska, is one of the westernmost points in the state where scientists will begin sampling in April. Scientists from several federal and state agencies, including the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have joined forces in the widespread testing effort.

Click here to see images of the seven migratory bird species from Asia that scientists are most interested in testing for avian flu virus at the Izembek Refuge this spring (images courtesy U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service).

>>> ARTICLE

>>> VIEW 'MOST WANTED' BIRDS

With CWD Rates Static, Practice of Culling Deer and Elk will Stop
Grand Junction Sentinel
14 March 2006

With statewide infection rates of chronic wasting disease in big game not showing much change a half-decade after the Colorado Division of Wildlife began killing infected deer and elk, the practice will stop.

The infection rate of deer continues to be anywhere from less than 1 percent up to 10 percent of the local populations, with the heaviest infections on the Front Range in what’s known as the endemic area.

Meanwhile, elk show markedly lower signs of infection, from less than 1 to about 2.6 percent of the local population. Most of the CWD occurring in elk is found in the northwestern quarter of the state.

The DOW has made the decision to halt culling of suspected CWD-infected animals a half-decade after the treatment was considered the easiest way to stop the disease from spreading to wild animals and domestic livestock.

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Avian Influenza Confirmed in a Wild Bird in Denmark: Danish authorities Applying Precautionary Measures
EUROPA
15 March 2006

The Danish authorities have informed the European Commission this morning of a confirmed case of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5 in Denmark in a common buzzard (Buteo buteo) found dead during the weekend in an area called Svinø Strand in southern Zealand. This location is close to a nature reserve and situated approximately 90 km from the German island Fehmarn. Samples will be sent to the Community Reference Laboratory for avian influenza in Weybridge for further tests to determine if this is the Asian strain of the H5N1 virus.

The Danish authorities have informed the Commission that they are applying the precautionary measures set out in the Commission Decision on certain protection measures in relation to highly pathogenic avian influenza in wild birds in the Community. The Decision sets out the measures to be applied in any EU Member State which detects a case of avian influenza H5 in wild birds which is suspected or confirmed to be the Asian strain of the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus.

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USGS Testing Wild Birds for Avian Influenza

News Release
U.S.Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey

Release Date: March 9, 2006

Contact
Catherine Puckett, 352-284-4832, cpuckett@usgs.gov
Leslie Derauf, 608-270-2401 or 2402, LDierauf@usgs.gov

USGS Testing Wild Birds for Avian Influenza

After conducting tests on samples taken from migratory waterfowl during the past eight months, scientists at the U.S. Geological SurveyÂ’s National Wildlife Health Center report they have found only common types of avian influenza viruses that are expected in North American wild birds.

The tests did not detect the highly pathogenic form of H5N1 avian influenza, the particularly virulent strain that has spread throughout a large geographic area in Asia, Europe and Africa. To date, the highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 has not been detected in the United States.

However, because of the migratory movements of wild birds and the increasing number of countries that have discovered highly pathogenic H5N1 in their migratory birds, the USGS and its partners in 2006 will aggressively monitor and test for avian influenza in wild birds as part of an expanding federal, state and regional detection effort.

Under the national testing program this year, field specialists and wildlife biologists from several federal and state agencies, universities and non-governmental organizations plan to collect between 75,000 and 100,000 samples from migratory birds. U.S. Department of Agriculture laboratories will screen the majority of those samples; the USGS National Wildlife Health Center expects to screen about 11,000 of those samples in 2006.

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Chesapeake's Rockfish Overrun by Disease

Chesapeake's rockfish overrun by disease
The Washington Post - posted by MSNBC
11 March 2006
Elizabeth Williamson

Epidemic hits species hailed for revival, then weakened by polluted

WASHINGTON - A wasting disease that kills rockfish and can cause a severe skin infection in humans has spread to nearly three-quarters of the rockfish in the Chesapeake Bay, cradle of the mid-Atlantic's most popular game fish.

The mycobacteriosis epidemic could carry profound implications for the rockfish, also known as striped bass. The fish fuel a $300 million industry in Maryland and Virginia, but because the bacteria kill slowly, effects on the stock are only now emerging.

The disease also sends a grim message about the entire bay ecosystem. The rockfish remains bay conservationists' only success story -- a species nearly wiped out, then revived by fishing limits.

But as the number of rockfish surged, the fish remained in a body of water too polluted to support the level of life it once did. That made them vulnerable to a malady researchers did not see coming -- a signal, some scientists say, that controlling fish harvests is no longer enough to ensure long-term survival of a species.

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H5N1 Infection Found in a Stone Marten in Germany [News]

World Health Organization
08 March 2006

Officials in Germany have today confirmed H5N1 infection in a second mammalian species, the stone marten. This finding marks the first documented infection of this species with an avian influenza virus. Previously, H5N1 infection was confirmed in Germany in three domestic cats.

The marten was found alive, but showing signs of severe illness, on the Baltic island of Ruegen on 2 March. The animal was euthanized. Tests conducted at Germany’s Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut for Animal Health confirmed infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus.

The ill animal was found in the same heavily affected area of the island, near Schaprode, as three dead domestic cats. Tests conducted at the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut subsequently confirmed that all three cats were infected with the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus. The stone marten is a predatory nocturnal mammal with feeding habits similar to those of domestic cats. As with the cats found on Ruegen island, the marten is presumed to have acquired its infection after feeding on an infected bird.

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Why Are Swans Dropping Like Flies? [News]

Why Are Swans Dropping Like Flies?
Slate
2006 March 8
Daniel Engber
Photo courtesy of Slate

Avian influenza fells the big birds first.

Avian influenza continued its advance across Europe this week: On Monday, health officials in Poland reported evidence of the virus in a pair of dead swans. On Tuesday the Bulgarian government pledged to sanitize the area where four infected swans had been discovered. The highly pathogenic H5N1 strain has also turned up in dead swans in Austria, Bosnia, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iran, Italy, Serbia, and Slovenia. Why do we keep finding bird flu in swans?

They seem to be susceptible to the disease, and it's easy to notice when they die. Scientists don't think swans are being infected at a higher rate than other waterfowl. In fact, migratory ducks are considered somewhat more likely than other birds to carry the disease. But ducks are also less likely than swans to exhibit symptoms of the flu.

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More Avian Influenza [News and Report]

With Avian Flu Spreading, U.S. to Expand its Testing
07 March 2006
USA Today
Anita Manning
Photo courtesy: USA Today

The U.S. government, bracing for the possibility that migrating birds could carry a deadly strain of bird flu to North America, plans to test nearly eight times as many wild birds this year as have been tested in the past decade.

Starting in April, samples from 75,000 to 100,000 birds will be tested for the virus, mainly in Alaska, as part of a joint effort of the departments of Agriculture and Interior, along with state Fish & Wildlife agencies. That's a jump from the 12,000 birds tested since 1996, the USDA's Angela Harless says.

The expanded program, which will include birds in the Pacific islands and on the West Coast, reflects growing concern that the virus, highly pathogenic A (H5N1), which has spread across Asia and Europe, could arrive in North America as soon as this spring and be carried into the western continental USA by fall.

"I would expect" the virus to arrive in North America, USDA Secretary Mike Johanns says. It could enter in other ways, he says, including smuggling of infected pet birds or fighting cocks, but the chance that it could be carried in with the spring migration "is definitely a possibility."


>>> FULL ARTICLE




OIE Report: Disease Information
March 2006; Vol. 19 - No. 9

This report includes updates on avian influenza test results in wildlife from different countries.


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Avian Influenza - Migratory vs Poultry [News]

Bird Flu: Migratory Birds Returning North Could Spread Virus
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
28 February 2006
Jan Jun
Photo courtesy: Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty

Migratory birds are just beginning their annual spring voyage back to Northern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia from their wintering grounds in Africa and southern Asia. This year, the flocks are being followed by ornithologists and bird watchers with some apprehension. Could the migration make the bird-flu outbreak worse by spreading the virus across the continents?

Two big questions concerning the countries of the former Soviet Union are on the lips of many international bird experts. When will the annual spring migration of wild birds reach those countries? And could they bring bird flu with them?

Dr. Richard Thomas, an expert at BirdLife International, a global bird-conservation organization, says the annual spring migration of wild birds from their wintering grounds in Africa back to Europe and Asia is just beginning.

"The first birds are arriving in Southern Europe, Spain, and they will gradually move their way north," Thomas says. "It will be quite a few weeks before these birds make it into Central Asia and Russia and so on, because it's very, very cold there still. And the first birds there won't be arriving until April and May."
"What we've not seen over the last autumn and winter is we haven't seen any dead waterfowl in Southeast Asia, which you would have predicted if it's migrating birds that were carrying the virus to and from Russia, to Southeast Asia."


Thomas also explains that for the Central Asian birds the European route is not the only one. There is another stream of birds returning from wintering grounds in Southern Asia.

"There will be plenty of birds that have been wintering in South Asia, the Indian subcontinent. Lots of waterfowl winter in Bangladesh, for example, and there will be birds that have wintered in Southeast Asia, as well. They will be all heading up into Russia and Siberia over the next few weeks," Thomas notes.

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Migratory Flocks Unlikely to Bring Bird Flu to Cape
Cape Cod Times
2006 March 6
Eric Williams

Don't be afraid of the bird feeder.

Despite the recent acceleration of bird flu cases across Eurasia, including several cases of what appears to be wild birds carrying the H5N1 avian influenza strain, experts still think it unlikely Cape Cod residents could become infected from contact with a migratory bird.

''There really doesn't seem to be any evidence to support the fact that it is a point of concern,'' said Wayne Petersen, an ornithologist with the Massachusetts Audubon Society.

There are no documented cases of human H5N1 disease resulting from contact with wild birds, according to the U.S. Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center Web site. The only documented cases of transmission to humans are from poultry.

For Cape Codders, that means bird-feeding and bird-watching, popular pastimes here, can continue as long as common-sense precautions are taken - precautions that were advised as a matter of course before the current bird flu outbreak. And it remains unlikely that a wild bird could infect poultry living in our area.

>>> FULL ARTICLE

Bird Flu Could Migrate to U.S. [News]

Bird Flu Could Migrate to U.S.
Baltimore Sun
2006 March 5
Frank D. Roylance

Scientists identify Alaska as possible gateway for virus to enter Americas; focus put on wildfowl

As spring approaches in the Northern Hemisphere and millions of birds begin their ancient long-distance migrations, scientific evidence is mounting that the deadly Asian strain of H5N1 "bird flu" virus is flying with them.

If so, the virus may soon wing its way into Alaska - where biologists are establishing an unprecedented surveillance network as part of an aggressive, $29 million early warning campaign with a new focus on birds in the wild. Until now, scientists' greatest focus has been on domestic flocks.

From Alaska, scientists fear, the virus will spread into all the Americas and ultimately become a global presence - raising the odds it will mutate and touch off a new human flu pandemic.

"I think it is more likely than not that we are going to see [H5N1] bird flu in the Western Hemisphere," said Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of the department of preventative medicine at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.

"Whether it takes place during this migratory season or the next is uncertain," he said. But "I wouldn't be at all surprised if we get some introduction of the virus during this ... season."

Scientists already suspect wild swans of carrying the H5N1 virus last month onto an island in northern Germany, where more than 100 of the graceful birds were found dead.

>>> FULL ARTICLE

Avian Influenza

Birdflu Detected in Ukrainian Zoo - Officials [News]
Reuters AlertNet
27 Feb 2006


KIEV, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Parrots and pheasants have died of bird flu at a zoo in southern Ukraine, prompting officials to slap a quarantine on the facility's bird enclosures, officials said on Monday.

But Ukrainian media quoted veterinary officials as saying the strain of flu detected was the H5 type -- and not the particularly dangerous H5N1 strain. Cases of H5N1 have already been detected in Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula.

"We have recorded deaths of birds -- three or four pheasants and several parrots in two of the enclosures at Odessa zoo," a spokesman for the zoo in the Black Sea port said by telephone.

"A quarantine has been set up in all enclosures. The zoo has been declared a zone of heightened risk."

>>> FULL ARTICLE

Do Migratory Birds Spread Avian Flu? [News]
Voice of America
28 February 2006
Andrew J. Baroch
Photo courtesy: Reuters AlertNet

International health officials continue to report new outbreaks of the dangerous H5N1 strain of avian flu among domestic and wild birds, and among a small but growing list of human victims. There are concerns that migratory bird populations could be hastening the spread of the disease. Those concerns are growing as tens of millions of wild birds begin their spring migrations to the United States and other regions all across the northern hemisphere.

Nearly 100 people have died since the H5N1 outbreak in southeast Asia in 2003, mostly due to close contact with infected birds. Health officials worry the virus could one day mutate and be passed easily between humans -- which is why they're trying to stop its spread now among birds.

Many experts suspect that migratory birds are the main culprits in the steady advance of the disease to the west from Asia into Europe and Africa.

>>> FULL ARTICLE AND LINKS TO BROADCAST

H5N1 News and Resources about Avian Influenza [News]

News articles and resources from different sources are collected and posted here on this news blog.

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Doc Martin - H5N1 and Wild Birds Forum [Editoral]

Intersting discussions about the connection between the conservation of wild birds, the business of poultry and the spread of avian influenza.

>>> TO BLOG

GRAIN Report Says Global Poultry Industry is the Root of the Birbird Flu Crisis [News]

Grain
26 February 2006
Photo courtesy: Grain.org

Small-scale poultry farming and wild birds are being unfairly blamed for the bird flu crisis now affecting large parts of the world. A new report from GRAIN shows how the transnational poultry industry is the root of the problem and must be the focus of efforts to control the virus.

The spread of industrial poultry production and trade networks has created ideal conditions for the emergence and transmission of lethal viruses like the H5N1 strain of bird flu. Once inside densely populated factory farms, viruses can rapidly become lethal and amplify. Air thick with viral load from infected farms is carried for kilometres, while integrated trade networks spread the disease through many carriers: live birds, day-old-chicks, meat, feathers, hatching eggs, eggs, chicken manure and animal feed.

"Everyone is focused on migratory birds and backyard chickens as the problem," says Devlin Kuyek of GRAIN. "But they are not effective vectors of highly pathogenic bird flu. The virus kills them, but is unlikely to be spread by them."

For example, in Malaysia, the mortality rate from H5N1 among village chicken is only 5%, indicating that the virus has a hard time spreading among small scale chicken flocks. H5N1 outbreaks in Laos, which is surrounded by infected countries, have only occurred in the nation's few factory farms, which are supplied by Thai hatcheries. The only cases of bird flu in backyard poultry, which account for over 90% of Laos' production, occurred next to the factory farms.

"The evidence we see over and over again, from the Netherlands in 2003 to Japan in 2004 to Egypt in 2006, is that lethal bird flu breaks out in large scale industrial chicken farms and then spreads," Kuyek explains.

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