http://usinfo.state.gov/gi/Archive/2006/May/30-797758.html

Global Scientists Gather To Study Wild Birds and Disease
Role of migratory birds in avian influenza spread is a key issue

By Charlene Porter
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington – Animal health specialists from 100 nations are heading to Rome in search of an answer that has been puzzling biologists and epidemiologists for months: Why has a highly pathogenic avian influenza virus moved out of Southeast Asia to more than 50 nations in only a matter of months?

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the World Organisation for Animal Health are sponsoring the International Scientific Conference on Avian Influenza and Wild Birds May 30 and May 31.

“This will be the first time,” said U.S. wildlife biologist and veterinarian Dr. Tom DeLiberto, “we’ll actually be able to get the experts together in the same room to discuss what’s going on in each of our countries and exchange ideas and theories on the role of wild birds” in spreading the H5N1 bird flu strain.

DeLiberto is the national wildlife disease coordinator in the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and will be among the U.S. representatives attending the Rome meeting.

HOW THE VIRUS TRAVELS

The scientists plan to discuss a variety of issues about wildlife research and surveillance, but topping the agenda is the role of migratory birds in the movement of H5N1 so far and so fast.

“There’s no real good evidence that migratory birds have moved the virus into those countries,” DeLiberto said from the National Wildlife Disease and Emergency Response Program in Forth Collins, Colorado, during a telephone interview with the Washington File.

DeLiberto said the movement of poultry, poultry products or pet birds is the more likely means of transmission as H5N1 spread out of East Asia, through Central Asia, into Europe, the Near East and Africa.

The FAO has been monitoring the spread of the disease and finds no data that put the blame on migratory flocks. In fact, the actual appearance of the disease in growing numbers of countries through the first months of 2006 did not meet expectations of how widespread outbreaks might become.

Wild birds have been connected with the disease in Europe, the FAO says, but in Africa, it appears that poultry trade and traffic are the cause.

“Lots of questions remain without answers,” said FAO’s chief veterinary officer, Joseph Domenech, in a May 25 news release. “We therefore need to increase research and surveillance to better understand the epidemiology of the disease.”

DeLiberto said that the rapid spread of the virus has created a heightened awareness about the importance of biosecurity measures, such as isolating domestic poultry and avoiding the unwitting transport of virus through shoes or tires that might have been exposed to chicken dung in farmyards.

DIVERGENT CAPACITIES

Some of the approximately 300 scientists from 100 nations who will attend the Rome meeting come from nations that do not have the resources to employ a specialized staff of biologists devoted to wildlife research.

“Cambodia is an example,” DeLiberto said. “The agriculture scientists are doing double and triple duty, dealing with the disease in poultry, but also in wildlife and sometimes humans also.” Within those limited resources, DeLiberto says his agency is working to provide assistance, funding and expertise to help those countries establish a wild-bird surveillance program that suits their circumstances.

APHIS assistance to underdeveloped nations reaches beyond a two-day meeting in Rome. In cooperation with other international organizations and U.S. agencies, DeLiberto and colleagues are setting up professional workshops in Southeast Asia to help regional biologists develop better skills in wildlife surveillance.

APHIS scientists also soon will undertake two different collaborative projects, one in China and one in Mexico. In both cases, DeLiberto said, U.S. biologists will be working with foreign colleagues to better understand particular regional wild bird migratory behavior.

These assistance efforts are conducted under the emergency pandemic preparedness program introduced by President Bush in 2005. Along with broad programs to better protect the United States from the emergence of pandemic influenza, the U.S. plan also sets aside $334 million to help other nations to contain and control avian influence and prepare for the emergence of human pandemic influenza.