2008 Woodie Awards
Bird Flu May Hit America
News Services
Issue date: 4/3/06 Section: Web Content
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One day in the next few weeks, flocks of wild birds from Asia will wing northeast across the Bering Strait to Alaska, where they will join other birds heading north from their winter homes in the United States and points south.
As they embark on their annual spring migration, Asian ducks and geese may be carrying some unwelcome baggage - the highly virulent H5N1 avian-flu virus - that they could pass on to their American neighbors.
The deadly bug has killed millions of birds and almost 100 humans since it appeared in China about 10 years ago. It has been detected in 40 countries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, as well as in its Asian homeland. A new outbreak is reported almost every week.
According to the University of Alaska's Institute of Arctic Biology in Fairbanks, "Alaska could provide an unusual mixing ground for the evolution of new strains of bird flu - strains that could spread to lower latitudes and possibly jump to other species, including humans."
So far, the virus has not reached North or South America, but experts say its arrival is only a matter of time.
"It is certainly within the next six to 12 months; it could be earlier," David Nabarro, the coordinator of the United Nations bird-flu program, told a news conference March 8, according to Reuters.
"Spread to new geographical areas can be anticipated when migratory birds begin returning to their breeding areas," the World Health Organization warned last month.
Although H5N1 still mainly affects birds, scientists fear that the fast-spreading virus might mutate to a form that passes easily among people, threatening a worldwide pandemic.
The flu danger is multiplied when the virus jumps from wild birds to domestic chickens and ducks living near people. The transfer happens when visiting and local birds share a water hole or feeding ground. A bit of mucus, blood or feces can carry the virus from one bird to another.
"The virus is able to spread from wild birds to poultry and vice versa. The infection can go in either direction," said Hon Ip, the director of the Diagnostic Virology Laboratory at the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Center in Madison, Wis. "If H5N1 does arrive in Alaska, wild birds are the likely suspect."
As they embark on their annual spring migration, Asian ducks and geese may be carrying some unwelcome baggage - the highly virulent H5N1 avian-flu virus - that they could pass on to their American neighbors.
The deadly bug has killed millions of birds and almost 100 humans since it appeared in China about 10 years ago. It has been detected in 40 countries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, as well as in its Asian homeland. A new outbreak is reported almost every week.
According to the University of Alaska's Institute of Arctic Biology in Fairbanks, "Alaska could provide an unusual mixing ground for the evolution of new strains of bird flu - strains that could spread to lower latitudes and possibly jump to other species, including humans."
So far, the virus has not reached North or South America, but experts say its arrival is only a matter of time.
"It is certainly within the next six to 12 months; it could be earlier," David Nabarro, the coordinator of the United Nations bird-flu program, told a news conference March 8, according to Reuters.
"Spread to new geographical areas can be anticipated when migratory birds begin returning to their breeding areas," the World Health Organization warned last month.
Although H5N1 still mainly affects birds, scientists fear that the fast-spreading virus might mutate to a form that passes easily among people, threatening a worldwide pandemic.
The flu danger is multiplied when the virus jumps from wild birds to domestic chickens and ducks living near people. The transfer happens when visiting and local birds share a water hole or feeding ground. A bit of mucus, blood or feces can carry the virus from one bird to another.
"The virus is able to spread from wild birds to poultry and vice versa. The infection can go in either direction," said Hon Ip, the director of the Diagnostic Virology Laboratory at the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Center in Madison, Wis. "If H5N1 does arrive in Alaska, wild birds are the likely suspect."