Tracking Avian Flu
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Is the U.S. Government taking the best possible approach to monitoring the possible entry of the H5N1 virus into North America? Not according to a prominent researcher into bird migration patterns.
Aired January 21, 2008
Related story: Don't doubt this bird
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Transcript
Research shows monitoring could miss the entry of the H-5-N-1 virus into North America.
From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I'm Brendan Lynch.
A. Townsend Peterson leads teams of globetrotting scientists who track avian flu. He says the government plan to detect avian flu in North America overemphasizes testing water birds in Alaska.
Peterson: If you take a careful look at bird migration in North America, you probably wouldn’t want to, excuse the pun, but ‘put all your eggs in one basket’.
Peterson, University distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, says the Alaskan testing focus works for one set of Asian birds. But other birds are missed.
Peterson: 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. We should be considering the entire costal regions and that the monitoring scheme should be much more based on hard data instead of supposition and just eyeballing the situation.
Peterson says a better system would monitor birds up and down both coasts of North America. Also, he says tests overlook land birds because waterfowl carry the flu at a higher rate.
Peterson: But that seems to have evolved into the idea that only water birds are the reservoir of avian flu. As near as I can tell, there are no data behind that. It’s just that prevalances are higher. What gets forgotten is that numbers are lower. So, how many bird-fulls of virus are out there in the world flying around? It could easily be more land birds than water birds.
These gaps in surveillance could slow the response to a serious public health risk.
Peterson: It has every possibility of turning up in North America, but it hasn’t essentially gotten in the door yet, that we know of. These are rare events and it can take time. But I see no reason why anybody would believe that it can’t happen.
For more on tracking H-5-N-1, log onto Research Matters DOT K-U DOT E-D-U. For the University of Kansas, I'm Brendan Lynch.
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KU researcher doubts U.S. program to track avian flu in wild birds
LAWRENCE — A University of Kansas investigator closely following the spread of the avian influenza known as H5N1 said that U.S. government monitoring efforts easily could miss the entry of the virus into North America.
