03/15/06 Bird Flu Update

What's new with the bird flu. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. HAZELTINE: We are doing targeted surveillance on live wild birds. We're concentrating on Alaska. We are also putting more emphasis on investigating disease outbreaks in wildlife around the country that we significant mortality rates with. That's Department of Interior biologist Sue Hazeltine. HAZELTINE: Through the National Wildlife Health Center we will be beefing up our rapid response capability through partnerships with the states and the tribes to wildlife disease outbreaks and mortality events. We'll be providing on-site training for partners that want to do these investigations and go out and look for these events. And we're enhancing our analytical facility so we'll be able to provide a much faster response in terms of diagnostics. According to the World Health Organization there have been a total of 177 confirmed cases of Avian Influenza and 98 deaths worldwide. Most of those deaths have been reported in Viet Nam. A new report by the Department of Health and Human Services doesn't mince words and says it is only a matter of time before we discover infected birds in America. The migration patterns of the wild fowl that carry the virus make its appearance here almost inevitable. In the U.S. almost all chicken flocks are being tested on a routine basis for the disease. Should any of the highly pathogenic strains show up in a flock, the entire flock will be destroyed and all flocks within a two-mile radius will be held for weekly testing. None of the chickens from an affected farm will go into the food chain. Hazeltine says there is a risk from other animals as well and the spread to humans. HAZELTINE: We have evidence that poultry spread this strain directly to humans. It's not an easy connection but we do have evidence of that. And also that poultry and wildlife exchange this strain back and forth. So that means we have a higher potential for this organism to mix in different species, recombine, perhaps the possibility of mutation and that raises everybody's concern about it's ability to acquire the ability to move human to human. For the latest information on Avian Influenza visit the official website being managed by the Department of Health and Human Services. www.pandemicflu.gov.