Virginia testing for avian flu

Virginia will test birds for avian flu

Waterfowl, shorebirds focus of effort that starts next month

BY A.J. HOSTETLER TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Jul 17, 2006

Next month, wildlife officials will start searching for avian influenza among the millions of waterfowl and shorebirds that flock each fall to Virginia's coast, waterways and marshes,making them easier to catch. At least four other species will be tested as they arrive later from their summer breeding grounds up north.

In all, state and federal officials plan to sample some 800 waterfowl and about 800 shorebirds, mostly around the Eastern Shore, the Chesapeake Bay and rivers in eastern Virginia.

The samples will join a federal database that by the end of the year will number roughly 100,000, gathered by universities, private organizations, and state and federal agencies, including the departments of Interior and Agriculture.

"The resident mute swans are a good one to look at because they are highly susceptible," said ornithologist Dan Cristol of the College of William and Mary. "If one turns up positive, we will know that a migratory species brought it in and transferred it to a resident."

Virginia and other states are implementing wildlife-surveillance plans for avian influenza in addition to their public health preparations for any pandemic human flu.

The commonwealth's wide diversity of wetlands makes it a great autumnal getaway for birds heading south. That is one of the reasons Virginia is considered a primary sampling state, according to Bob Ellis, assistant director of the wildlife division for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Ellis led development of Virginia's plan, which will extend through the fall.

The state's surveillance program was developed in accordance with a federal strategy as well as a plan expected to gain approval this week at a meeting of the Atlantic Flyway Council, which includes state and wildlife representatives from Maine to Florida. Ellis, who chairs the National Flyway Council, also represents Virginia on the Atlantic Flyway.

"This is almost the cart before the horse, but we can't wait too long for the [Atlantic] Flyway plan," Ellis said.

Since 2003, the H5N1 virus has killed more than 100 people and millions of birds worldwide, sparking fears that the virus could mutate into a pandemic influenza.

Dozens of species of wild birds as well as domestic poultry have been hit by bird flu. So far, officials know of no U.S. bird infected by the H5N1 virus, nor has anyone in the country been sickened by it.

Federal officials this summer are monitoring Alaska and the Pacific Northwest as the likeliest region for the virus' entry from Asia into the United States. In Alaska alone, the U.S. Geological Survey has 50 camps to take samples from 27 species of shorebirds and waterfowl, said Paul Slota, who oversees laboratory testing of the samples at the National Wildlife Center.

But the virus could also come via the Atlantic Flyway, which stretches from Greenland to Canada and south through Virginia to Florida and Puerto Rico. American birds summering in Greenland mix with those migrating from Africa and Europe, where avian flu already exists.

The first infected birds could show up along the East Coast as soon as late August or September, experts say.

By then, game and wildlife officials will have fanned out along eastern Virginia's waterways. In some cases they will be capturing live waterfowl but more often seeking out birds harvested by hunters along the Chesapeake Bay and inland waterways.

About a dozen officials will participate, and additionally game officials will work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture on a separate sampling program of live shorebirds.

Partly because of manpower issues, Ellis said, the Virginia waterfowl plan relies heavily on hunters to provide birds for sampling.

Swabs taken from the waterfowl birds' windpipes and rectums will be tested by the state Agriculture Department's lab in Harrisonburg. The USDA will reimburse the game agency $100 per bird for the sampling process, Ellis said. USDA spokeswoman Gail Kiern of the National Wildlife Research Center said the state lab will be reimbursed at least $11,200 for its work.

Any results that indicate an avian-flu strain of the H5 or the milder H7 type will be considered a preliminary positive result of avian flu. The H7 strain has cost Virginia's poultry farmers millions of dollars in recent outbreaks.

The game department will then notify the governor, state and federal health and wildlife officials and the public of any preliminary positive results. The suspected sample will be sent to the USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, for further testing, which can take several days.

Most plans for states in the Atlantic Flyway will resemble Virginia's. Where they differ will generally be in the specific avian species, the sample number and location, chosen to cast the best dragnet for avian flu, said Paul Peditto, director of Maryland's Wildlife and Heritage Service.

The plan for Maryland, which began testing similar species around the bay this month, is similar to Virginia's, Peditto said.

However, it relies more on live-bird capture because to avoid duplicating Virginia's efforts, Maryland is looking at other waterfowl, such as canvasback ducks that descend on the Chesapeake Bay, Ellis noted.

Cristol said that while he thinks migrating songbirds such as the blackpoll warbler or the gray-cheeked thrush also pose a risk in Virginia, "you can't test everything and waterfowl are the most likely carriers as far as we know."

"The $6 million question is, 'is 800 birds enough?'" he said. "Literally millions of birds move through [Virginia] in a season."

Federal officials estimate that they have a 95 percent chance of finding H5N1 even if it is present in as little as 1.5 percent of the sample bird population.

Wildlife veterinarian Jonathan Sleeman of Virginia's game agency said the target goal of 200 birds per species was developed using mathematical modeling based on the accuracy and sensitivity of the H5N1 test, random sampling and the increased prevalence of the disease and birds during fall migration.

Contact staff writer A.J. Hostetler at ahostetler@timesdispatch.com