Preps in Alaska for testing for avian flu

1:27 p.m. May 15, 2006

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – A key element of the nation's multimillion-dollar bird flu early-warning system is sealed in 2-inch plastic tubes filled with murky brownish liquid and broken cotton swabs.

A Federal Express box containing 115 of the tubes arrived at a federal laboratory here from Alaska late last week.

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The plastic vials hold bird droppings smeared on cotton swabs. The samples come from waterfowl on Adak, a wind-blasted volcanic island in the Aleutian chain, and from Anchorage International Airport.

They are the first of 50,000 fecal samples that will be analyzed this year at the National Wildlife Research Center, a U.S. Department of Agriculture facility in the foothills west of town. The lab received $1.1 million for the project and hired four technicians to work full time on it.

The goal of the effort, part of a multipronged wild bird monitoring program that recently received $29 million in supplemental federal funding, is to quickly detect when the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus enters the United States – if, in fact, it does.

“This is the most intense, coordinated effort that we have ever had – on a nationwide basis – for a wildlife disease, so our likelihood of detecting it is pretty good,” said Larry Clark, assistant director of the research center.

“The hope is that this becomes essentially a nonevent, but we would be derelict if we did not do things to assure that we're prepared,” he said.

H5N1 is a bird virus and rarely affects humans. It has spread through parts of Europe, Asia and Africa, but has not been found in the Americas. Bush administration health officials said in March, however, that H5N1 is likely to arrive in this country this year.

Since it first appeared in Hong Kong in 1997, the H5N1 virus has caused 208 reported cases of human illness, including 115 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. In nearly all cases, the illnesses resulted from extensive, direct contact with infected birds.

Health officials are concerned the virus could mutate into a form that passes easily from person to person, a change that could trigger a global flu epidemic, or pandemic. At a Denver meeting in March, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said “we are overdue and we are underprepared” for such a pandemic.

But no one knows if the dreaded H5N1 genetic transformation will happen or not.

The current focus of U.S. wild bird surveillance is Alaska, a crossroads of migratory flyways where waterfowl from Asia mingle with North American birds during the summer. Many investigators say Alaska is the place H5N1 is most likely to enter the country.

Teams of biologists plan to trap and test 75,000 to 100,000 wild birds this year, starting in Alaska and gradually moving southward as the birds migrate.

Other crews are walking along Alaska shorelines frequented by waterfowl, sampling fresh droppings with cotton swabs.

They insert the soiled cotton tips into vials filled with a liquid that stabilizes and protects viruses, then snap off the swabs' wooden shaft and screw the plastic caps in place.

The tubes are sealed in plastic bags that are then duct-taped and placed, along with chemical ice packs and absorbent pads, inside a cooler. The cooler is then packed inside a cardboard box.

All 50,000 of the fecal samples will be sent to the Fort Collins laboratory for initial screening. If tests reveal the possible presence of a highly pathogenic form of avian influenza, such as H5N1, the samples will be forwarded to the USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, for confirmation.

“Basically, this lab is a screening lab for environmental samples, and we're the only ones doing it,” Clark said.

At the Fort Collins lab, the Federal Express packages are unsealed, and bar codes on each plastic vial are scanned. Data about each collection site, including its longitude and latitude, are entered into a computerized data base.

Then a chemical process extracts avian influenza gene fragments – if they are present – from the samples. The fragments are tagged with a fluorescent dye so that suspected “high path” forms, such as H5N1, glow when illuminated by a light beam.

Once the test is completed, the samples are incinerated.

Any positive results will be announced promptly by federal health officials in Washington, said National Wildlife Research Center spokeswoman Gail Keirn.

The vast majority of the fecal samples are expected to come back negative, said laboratory manager Jeffery Hall, a virologist.

“We're looking for a very rare event,” Hall said.

Workers in his lab wear eye protection, latex gloves and lab coats to guard against the virus.

The big challenge for Hall's team will come in August, September and October, when 80 percent of the fecal samples are expected to arrive. The lab must complete its testing 48 hours after a shipment is received.

“Dealing with 50,000 samples is a challenge, and the 48-hour turnaround is, too,” Hall said. “But we'll get it done. It's doable.”

H5N1 could make it into the United States on the wings of an infected bird. But a jetliner could bring it even sooner, said Laurie Baeten, a wildlife veterinarian with the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

There is growing evidence that international trade in smuggled poultry – including live birds and bird parts – is spreading the bird flu virus, she said.

“I think all the scientists are in agreement that H5N1 is going to make it to the United States,” she said Friday. “It's just a matter of when and how and what level of impact it will have.”