Monday, March 20, 2006
North Dakota Wildlife refuges to test for bird flu
Wildlife refuges to test migrating ducks and geese for bird flu.
Speaking on behalf of the Audubon National Wildlife Refuge in north central North Dakota, Lloyd Jones said, “A whole series of tests will occur,”. “The Fish and Wildlife Service is coordinating with the Department of Agriculture, with surveillance activities through the fall to collect samples from birds taken during banding to hunter-harvested birds.”
Each year at North Dakata Wildlife refuges, ducks and geese are banded to keep track of the birds migrating habits. During this year’s banding process, swab samples will be taken from captured wild birds and sent to a national wildlife health lab in Madison, Wis., to determine if any of the birds carry a strain of bird flu known as H5N1.
This comes less than a month after US officials stated that the bird flu has a very good chance of coming through Alaska around spring and the rest of the US around fall.
Kevin Johnson, a Fish and Wildlife Service biologist in Bismarck, said scientists are learning that bird flu could come to the U.S. through a number of ways.
“It’s not just migratory birds,” he said. “It could also arrive through pets, illegal trading or poultry.”
A national testing program under way since last August is being expanded, and officials say up to 100,000 samples of migratory birds will be tested.
“At this point for North Dakota, there is no concern,” Johnson said.
North Dakota is just one state among many, in the bird migration route, that will be watching for birds infected with the bird flu virus.