Tag: bird flu

Watching Wild Birds for Avian Flu

The US government is testing wild migratory birds for a deadly strain of avian flu. The GLRC’s Rebecca Williams reports, so far, no wild birds have tested positive:

Transcript

The US government is testing wild migratory birds for a deadly strain of
avian flu. The GLRC’s Rebecca Williams reports, so far, no wild birds have
tested positive:


Researchers have tested 13,000 wild birds in Alaska. They’re worried
that wild birds could carry the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu as they
migrate from Asia to North America and infect other birds in Alaska. The
virus has killed more than 140 people in Asia, Europe and Africa.


Gale Kern is with the US Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services
Program:


“We still don’t know how effective wild birds are at carrying the virus long
distances. I think we need to remain diligent and really keep up our
surveillance efforts because we just really don’t know a lot about this
particular strain yet.”


Kern says biologists will now focus on testing birds in the lower 48 states
as fall migration south begins.


Agencies also consider poultry imports and smuggled pet birds ways the virus
could get into the States.


For the GLRC, I’m Rebecca Williams.

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Scientists Propose Sharing Bird Flu Data

A group of flu scientists and health officials want to end secrecy over avian flu data. The group says some scientists and governments are keeping flu data hidden. The GLRC’s
Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

A group of flu scientists and health officials want to end secrecy over avian flu data. The
group says some scientists and governments are keeping flu data hidden. The GLRC’s
Lester Graham reports:


Some data on avian flu outbreaks are restricted by governments, or kept private within small
groups of researchers, or the information hoarded for years by scientists who want to be
the first to publish in academic journals, according to correspondence published online by
the journal Nature.


Seventy top flu scientists and health officials propose sharing all data through what
they’re calling the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data. The consortium
and its data will be open to all scientists provided they agree to share their own research.


Any articles published in academic journals would have to credit the use of other
researchers’ data. The idea is to more quickly allow scientists and health officials world-
wide to better understand how avian flu viruses spread and evolve before they reach
pandemic levels.


For the GLRC, this is Lester Graham.

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Pet Health Records to Help Track Bird Flu?

Health experts say the medical records of cats and dogs could serve as an early warning system for diseases such as avian flu. The GLRC’s Rebecca Williams has more:

Transcript

Health experts say the medical records of cats and dogs could serve as an
early warning system for diseases such as avian flu. The GLRC’s
Rebecca Williams has more:


The health records of thousands of dogs and cats throughout the country
are tracked by the National Companion Animal Surveillance Program.


Larry Glickman helped design the system. He’s an epidemiologist at
Purdue University. He says it was originally designed to track anthrax or
plague outbreaks in pets. Glickman says now, the system could be used
to monitor pets for avian flu symptoms.


“What we’re concerned with in the U.S is for example, a pet animal like a
cat will come in contact with a bird that is sick or even died of avian
influenza, then the cat will pick up that virus and will become infected,
and the very same day it might climb in bed with people and transmit
that virus to people.”


Glickman says the system can pinpoint areas where quarantines are
needed… to slow the spread of disease in both pets and people.


For the GLRC, I’m Rebecca Williams.

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