Satellites used to help in bird flu fight
Somewhere in the skies over Eurasia, wild swans are soaring on their annual migratory routes, carrying with them the hopes of an international research team.
The birds are the test subjects of wildlife scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Mongolian Academy of Sciences and the nongovernmental Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
The creatures have been equipped with solar-powered satellite transmitters that will convey signals to the scientists, allowing them to track the birds on their migratory journey.
“We are marking swans with very small GPS [global positioning system] transmitters that are similar to navigation systems on cars,” said John Takekawa with the USGS Western Ecological Research Center in California, “but that also transmit the data through weather satellites so we can track their movements.”
The project, part of the Wild Bird Global Avian Influenza Network for Surveillance (GAINS) program, is designed to create a better understanding of how wild birds might play a role in the intercontinental transmission of viruses, according to a joint USGS-FAO press release issued September 6.
GAINS, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, has been carried out as the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus has traveled from Southeast Asia to more than 50 countries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
“We are working to understand the role wild birds may play in the spread of H5N1,” said Scott Newman, international wildlife coordinator for avian Influenza for FAO.
“Although poultry and bird trade are probably the primary routes of movement,” he added, “migratory birds are likely involved in some areas.”
Using google’s earth software you can view the updated path of these birds using our Whooper Swan Tracking Map link under bird flu map links on our home page www.avianinfluenza.org.
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