Friday, September 22, 2006
Testing of Montana birds reveals flu — not the dangerous kind
HELENA — Samples taken from some ducks in Montana indicate a type of bird flu that is not a threat to human health and typically does not harm birds, federal and state officials said Thursday.
Tests on samples from Northern pintail ducks found no evidence of the H5N1 strain of flu that has infected birds in Asia, Europe and Africa and has killed at least 141 people. H5N1 has not been detected in the United States.
A Colorado State University laboratory tested 66 samples taken from Northern pintail ducks in Montana, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Interior Department said in a news release. Sixteen of the 66 were sent to the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Iowa for more tests. Some tested positive for H5, some were positive for N1 and one sample was positive for both. Results of further testing on that sample will be available within three weeks, officials said.
Even finding H5 and N1 together would not signal health concerns, but the sample is of research interest, and therefore the additional testing was ordered, the USDA said.
The Montana findings were announced because of a federal commitment to make information from national bird-flu surveillance public even if it is not cause for concern, the agency said.
The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks collected the samples last Friday at Benton Lake, near Great Falls, during routine work in which bands are placed on migratory birds to help track their movement.