Subject: [Tweeters] Bird Flu
Date: Nov 13 15:24:18 2005
From: Jason Rogers - hawkowl at hotmail.com


Birders,

Preparing for an influenza pandemic--regardless of what political reasons
there may be for doing so--makes sense in the current situation.

For starters, the current H5N1 virus is a particularly lethal and hardy one
with the ability to infect a relatively wide range of mammalian species.

Secondly, the World Health Organization has stated that "recent events make
it likely that some migratory birds are now directly spreading the H5N1
virus in its highly pathogenic form. Further spread to new areas is
expected." While some of these migratory birds are killed by the
virus--it's estimated that between 5% and 10% of the world population of the
Bar-headed Goose perished in the recent outbreak of H5N1 in China--others
may be able to serve as reservoirs for it while showing no sign of
infection. Waterfowl are among the birds most likely to serve as these
reservoirs, and I needn't remind birders that there are waterfowl species
that migrate between eastern Asia and western North America.

Finally, unlike during the influenza pandemics of the last century, we now
have a situation where tens of millions of North Americans are causing
disease epidemics among wild birds by supplying them with artificial food.
It isn't difficult to draw parallels between poultry farming practices in
Southeast Asia--which appear to have allowed the H5N1 virus to mutate from a
low-pathogenic form into the virulent one that is causing so much
concern--and recreational birdfeeding practices in North America. Let's not
delude ourselves with the notion that birders sanitize their feeders/feeding
stations several times a day in an effort to simulate the conditions under
which wild songbirds feed in nature. It doesn't happen, and that's not
going to change. But could songbirds host and spread a disease
traditionally associated only with poultry or waterfowl? Yes. We've
witnessed this in the spread of mycoplasmal conjunctivitis across North
America. It goes without saying that if birders were to facilitate the
spread of the current H5N1 virus by attracting wild birds to feeding
stations, the number of opportunities for it to further mutate into a form
capable of being passed effectively from person to person would increase.

We have every reason to be on alert.

Regards,
Jason Rogers
Banff, AB
hawkowl at hotmail.com