Can Current U.S. Program to Track Avian Flu in Wild Birds? Researcher Doubts Its Effectiveness

Can the U.S. government successfully track the spread of the H5N1 avian flu virus? Researchers at the University of Kansas doubt that we have the capabilities to track the avian flu virus. These researchers state that they way that the U.S. government's system has been set up is likely to miss the entry of this virus into North America, according to a recent press release.

The researchers at the University of Kansas are compromised of scientists who visit the far-reaches of the globe to track the spread of pathogens and the avian flu. Currently the majority of the U.S. governments plan to identify this virus, using the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Early Detection System, focuses on the wild birds that live in the waters of Alaska. The majority of birds that are to be tested for the H5N1 avian flu virus will come from this area.

This approach neglects other ways that the bird flu virus may enter North America, specifically neglecting pathways that exist from Eurasia. Indeed, by using their current approach, researchers state that the government is banking on this virus entering in only one manner, akin to 'putting all of your eggs in one basket.'

"There's another component of birds which spend the winter in America. They migrate north in the summer and basically consider western Siberia to be eastern Alaska. That component of birds migrates deep into the Americas, doesn't really stop in Alaska at all, and would be missed by the current monitoring plan," said A. Townsend Peterson, University Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and senior curator in the Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center.

They acknowledged that testing wild water birds in Alaska makes sense for those birds that are known to migrate to Alaska from Asia, being principally Asian birds to begin with. However, these are not the only birds that could be infected with the avian flu virus.

Rather, researchers suggest that the government track other birds that also migrate along the coastal regions of North America. They believe that monitoring these birds would provide more realistic data regarding the possible arrival of the avian flu H5N1 into North America.

Because there are gaps in how birds are tested and monitored, researchers are concerned that these holes may allow the H5N1 avian flu virus to enter North America unnoticed. Researchers have tested birds for the avian virus in China, Ghana, New Guinea, the Philippines, and they will travel to Bangladesh, Mongolia, and Peru shortly. They will map their findings to track the avian flu.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture provided funding for this research study. It has been published in the peer reviewed science journal, PLoS ONE.

Source:
http://www.newswise.com/p/articles/view/536228/