US & Canada: Please post all North America bird flu articles here

[bikerduck]

WASHINGTON - The government's leading bird-flu scientist is more worried about the deadly virus arriving by plane than by fowl.
With migrating birds now carrying the H5N1 bird-flu strain, scientists have warned that an infected bird may reach the United States sometime this year.

But most of the human infections around the world have come from close contact with infected poultry, and U.S. chicken farms are insulated from migrating birds, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"I am worried less about a migrating bird coming here, infecting the chickens and chickens infecting people than I am about a virus that might evolve someplace else on the globe and get here on a jet plane" carrying a sick passenger, he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060329/ap_on_he_me/bird_flu_fauci_1

[bikerduck]

THURSDAY, March 30 (HealthDay News) -- If a bird-flu pandemic does hit the United States, it may well start in California and spread across the country in just two to four weeks.
And the best way to slow its spread would be to have workers stay at home.


That's the scenario drawn from results of a computer model created by researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health's Fogarty International Center. And while the results of that computer model should be interpreted with caution, it is based on data from ordinary flu epidemics for the last three decades, said study author Dr. Mark A. Miller, associate director for research at the center.


"The unique feature of this model is that it challenges conventional wisdom, which says that flu is spread by children bringing it back to the household," Miller said. "That may be true at the household level, but regionally it is spread by adults."


That's why measures to keep people at home could slow the spread of infection, Miller said. Another finding in the study is that states with large populations, such as California, are more likely to reach epidemic levels of the flu at the same time than less-populous states, where transmission tends to be more erratic, he said.


So California, the most populous state, would be the most logical place for a pandemic to start, Miller said. Another factor pointing toward California is that bird -- also called avian -- flu is expected to arrive from Asia, he said.


As for the speed of spread, the estimate is based on ordinary epidemics. "What we see is that epidemics with more pathogenic viruses spread more quickly, two to four weeks versus five to seven weeks for less pathogenic viruses nationwide," Miller said.


The findings appear in the March 31 issue of the journal Science.


The Fogarty researchers used epidemiological data on seasonal flu epidemics that have occurred yearly in the United States since 1972. They connected that information with data from the Census Bureau and the federal Department of Transportation, looking at variations in yearly epidemics from state to state and links with local flows of people to workplaces.


Bird flu is pathogenic, but it does not yet spread easily from person to person; close exposure to an infected bird is needed to cause a human infection. The danger will come when, and if, a mutation makes human-to-human transmission easy.


Since 2003, the H5N1 bird flu virus has been detected in 45 countries in Africa, Asia, and Europe. More than 100 people have died after coming into contact with infected poultry.


The model developed by the Fogarty researchers can go just so far in predicting what might happen if such a mutation occurs, Miller said. This model notably doesn't include previous pandemics, just ordinary epidemics, and a pandemic might have different characteristics, he said.


Still, the model can help plan for ordinary, predictable epidemics by showing how they start and spread, Miller said. It's also not the first of its kind, he said: "We did a similar model to explain the spread of measles."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20060330/hl_hsn/birdflupandemicwouldlikelystartincalifornia

[bikerduck]

CANCUN, Mexico (AFP) - The United States, Canada and Mexico agreed in a statement here to coordinate their response to any outbreak of bird flu in the region.
"Given the highly integrated nature of our economies, an outbreak of pathogenic avian flu or human pandemic influenza in any one of our countries would affect us all," read the statement, signed by US President George W. Bush, Mexico's President Vicente Fox and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the end of a two-day summit here.

The three leaders "have agreed to develop a comprehensive, science-based and coordinated approach within North America to avian influenza and human pandemic influenza management".

The plan calls for trilateral cooperation "in all stages of avian influenza and human pandemic influenza management: prevention; preparedness; response; and recovery".

US, Canadian and Mexican officials "will develop, as an immediate priority, incident management protocols to ensure that we are well prepared in advance of an outbreak in North America".

The three nations have "agreed to work together to accelerate research, development, production, and availability of human pandemic influenza vaccines, and develop a strategy to best facilitate the sharing of information to enhance the availability of vaccines to the region".

The H5N1 bird flu virus was first detected in Southeast Asia in 1997. Since 2003, about 200 people have been infected with H5N1, half of whom have died.

The disease so far is spreading by direct contact with infected birds, not by person-to-person transmission. However, experts fear the virus may mutate to a human variant, increasing the likelihood of a pandemic.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060331/hl_afp/healthfluuscanada_060331211914

[bikerduck]

WASHINGTON - In about three weeks, waterfowl, shorebirds and songbirds will start arriving in the Alaska Peninsula, the Yukon Delta and the westernmost Aleutian Islands to begin mating. That's when and where government scientists expect the first case of bird flu to show up in the Unites States.
To screen the birds for the deadly virus, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Alaska's Fish and Game Department are setting up more than 50 remote backcountry camps accessible mainly by float planes or boats.

More than 40 species of waterfowl and shorebirds are considered susceptible to infection by a highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus that's killed more than 100 people, mostly in Asia. It also has killed or led to the slaughter of more than 200 million chickens, ducks, turkeys and other domestic fowl in Asia, Europe and Africa.

Species migrating from Asia across the Bering Strait — considered the most likely carriers of the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus — include eiders, pintails, geese, long-tailed ducks, dunlins, sandpipers and plovers. There's also concern about gulls, terns and falcons.

Rick Kearney, wildlife program coordinator for the U.S. Geological Survey, described the $29 million surveillance program to collect and sample 100,000 birds — 15,000 to 20,000 in Alaska alone — as an early warning system for poultry producers and health officials in the lower 48 states.

"If we find it this summer, it could provide them with several weeks of warning," he said. "We're looking in all places, but we're looking most intently in the place we most expect to find it, Alaska."

Kearney is co-author of the joint surveillance plan created by the Interior and Agriculture departments and the state of Alaska for use in all 50 states.

The plan mentions that the H5N1 virus also could arrive in the U.S. through a smuggled chicken or duck, an infected traveler, black-market trade in exotic birds or even an act of bioterrorism, but it says the most likely carrier will be a migrating wild bird.

Government officials say there's no known case of virus being passed from a wild bird to a person and no one knows whether wild bird-to-person transmission is possible.

At each of the more than 50 camps in Alaska, several government biologists, volunteers and contractors stationed for days or weeks at a time will test living birds, those dead from unknown causes and hunter-killed birds such as those taken during Alaska Native subsistence hunts.

They'll collect the samples by swabbing both ends of a bird's digestive system for mucous and feces. At least 200 birds from each sample population are needed to detect the virus accurately.

After Alaska, surveillance priorities are a matter of geography: the Pacific flyway from the Canadian border to southern California and then east to the Central, Mississippi and Atlantic flyways.

The swabs will be sent to one of 40 veterinary labs around the country certified by the government as capable of testing them for the bird flu virus. Most are state-run or associated with universities.

Ground zero for the testing program is the Interior Department's National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis., which alone is expected to handle 12,000 to 15,000 samples.

It could be a week or so before sample results are known. From there, the plan calls for confirmatory testing to be done by Agriculture Department labs in Ames, Iowa, and Athens, Ga.

"If highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus becomes established in North America, the likelihood of rapid and diffusive spread across the continent is high," according to the surveillance plan Kearney co-authored with Thomas DeLiberto, wildlife disease coordinator for the Agriculture Department.

In that case, the plan calls for focusing on urban zoos, parks and lakes where the highest concentrations of people could come into contact with contaminated water and waterfowl. It also targets ponds, lakes and waterfowl management areas around the biggest poultry producers.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060413/ap_on_he_me/bird_flu_5

As Alaska and parts of Canada brace for the arrival of wild birds infected with H5N1, there will be many articles on this. Please post them here for now.

14 Apr 2006 01:28:21 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Yereth Rosen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, April 13 (Reuters) - Alaska Natives may be the the most likely people in North America to be exposed to the avian flu virus because they depend for food on wild migratory birds from Asia, a health care expert said on Thursday.

Alaska is a probable point of entry for the H5N1 strain of bird flu, because it is at the crossroads of wild waterfowl and shorebird migration to and from Asia.

Native Alaskans are likely to come in contact with infected ducks and geese, but the government's advice for avoiding infection, such as washing thoroughly when handling hunted birds, makes little sense for people living and working in a wilderness environment.

"I don't know anybody in any of the villages who has rubber gloves in their hunting gear, or hand sanitizer," said Patricia Cochran, executive director of the Alaska Native Science Commission, at a pandemic flu planning summit organized by federal and state agencies.

Full article:

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N13360805.htm

The State of Hawaii has made available its Pandemic Preparedness and Response Plan

http://www.hawaii.gov/health/family-child-health/contagious-disease/pandemic-flu/fluplan.pdf

[bikerduck]

MONTREAL (AFP) - A case of H5 bird flu virus has been detected in a Canadian poultry flock, and further testing will be done to determine whether it is the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, officials said.
The H5 virus, which is not highly pathogenic, was found on a goose from a small backyard poultry flock on the western end of Prince Edward Island, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said.

The agency said it would submit the sample to more sophisticated tests Saturday at its laboratories in Winnipeg.

Dr. Francois Caya of the ACIA said there were no immediate indications that the case of avian influenza virus was "highly pathogenic."

"But tests must be done to determine all that," he told AFP.

The virus was detected in a gosling in a flock of some 30 geese, chickens and ducks, which will be put to death this weekend, health officials said.

More than 120 people worldwide have died from the highly deadly H5N1 bird flu virus since it re-emerged as a threat in 2003, with most of the victims in Asia.

Health officials are paying particular attention this year to the European bird migration corridor, where the H5N1 virus has been detected in recent months.

To date no case of H5N1 has been detected in North American poultry stocks.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060616/wl_canada_afp/healthflucanada_060616233609

[bikerduck]

MONTREAL (AFP) - Tests have confirmed that a poultry flock in Canada has not been infected by the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu, an official at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said.
When asked whether he was sure that the deadly strain of bird flu was not what killed a goose on Prince Edward Island, the official, Jim Clark said: "Absolutely."

"Highly pathogenic (virus) would have completely different characteristics.

"And it would have been much more obvious in other birds" in the flock, he said.

Canadian officials announced Friday that the H5 virus, which is not lethal, was found on the goose from a small backyard poultry flock on the western end of Prince Edward Island.

But subsequent tests have yet to confirm that the goose was infected by the less dangerous H5 virus, according to Clark.

"All of the samples have completed their testing and they're all negative for avian influenza," he said in a telephone interview.

Clark believed the initial test results were probably accurate but that the samples may have been damaged during transport, he said.

Additional samples from the goose that died were being collected to conduct another round of tests, he said.

More than 120 people worldwide have died from the highly deadly H5N1 bird flu virus since it re-emerged as a threat in 2003, with most of the victims in Asia.

Health officials are paying particular attention this year to the European bird migration corridor, where the deadly H5N1 virus has been detected in recent months.

To date no case of H5N1 has been detected in North American poultry stocks.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060621/hl_afp/healthflucanada_060621005356

[Deepwater]

July 14 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. inspectors are probing the disappearance of four boxes of goose intestines smuggled from China, where bird flu is spreading.

The Department of Agriculture had tagged about 100 pounds of goose guts, a delicacy used in some Chinese recipes, for destruction before they disappeared last week from a Troy, Michigan, warehouse, officials said today. Agency inspectors previously found about 2,000 pounds of frozen poultry shipped illegally from China at the same warehouse.

Smuggling of poultry products poses a risk for avian influenza, which has infected 230 people in 10 countries in Asia and the Middle East, killing 132. Frozen products pose less risk because they aren't likely to spread virus to other birds, said Joseph Domenech, chief veterinary officer for the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, based in Rome.

``Nothing can be sure and everything can happen,'' Domenech said in a telephone interview late yesterday. ``This is smuggling and it's totally uncontrolled.''

Full Article:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_en&refer=us&sid=axMm4s4WerWI

[awakening2lite]

http://english.people.com.cn/200609/03/eng20060903_299230.html

Pennsylvania ducks test positive for low-risk H5N1 bird flu

U.S. Agriculture and Interior Departments said on Saturday that a low-risk strain of bird flu had been found in wild ducks in the state of Pennsylvania.

The mallards, sampled on Aug. 28 in Crawford County in northwestern Pennsylvania, tested positive for a low-grade strain of H5N1 bird flu.

The departments said in a statement, "Testing has ruled out the possibility of this being the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain that has spread through birds in Asia, Europe and Africa."

A second round of tests is being done at the National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa, to confirm if the virus is the low-pathogenic H5N1 bird flu.

The ducks were sampled as part of the U.S. government's efforts to test as many as 100,000 wild birds in addition to more than 50,000 environmental tests throughout the country.

The low-pathogenic strain of H5N1 has been found many times in North American wild birds, but poses no threat to people.

Source: Xinhua

============================
Question:

How do they test the birds? Do they have to kill them before performing the tests?

[bikerduck]

At first, officials report a single suspected human case of the bird flu in Los Angeles. By the fourth day, that person has died and officials begin scrambling to decide what to do.

No vaccine will be available for months and there is only a limited supply of antiviral medications. By day seven, officials start closing schools and employers are confronted with rising absenteeism.

By the 25th day, about 3,700 people have died in Los Angeles County, 59,000 residents are infected and the National Guard is called out to keep order.

That hypothetical scenario unfolded Wednesday as health experts and business leaders held their first broad exercise designed to prepare for a bird flu pandemic in the Los Angeles area.

"L.A. became the kind of epicenter of the pandemic and it moved across the United States," said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, the county Department of Public Health director, said after the exercise. "I think we handled it as well as could be expected."

But even as experts worked to develop emergency plans, they warned that little money has been provided and there is still confusion over the roles of federal, state and local governments during a pandemic.

Full Link

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_4478762

[bikerduck]

SAN FRANCISCO - Could you work from home for weeks at a time? How long could you hole up without needing to go to the grocery or drugstore? Would you be willing to wear a face mask and isolate yourself from others?
Harvard researchers are surveying Americans on questions like these as the government wraps up work on a plan to use primitive infection-control measures to deal with a killer flu outbreak until drugs and vaccine become available.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is pitching the plan at medical meetings and aims to send it out for review by the end of the year. State and local governments have asked for unusually detailed and specific advice on such matters as closing schools and canceling public events, one CDC official said.

Full Article
http://www.theolympian.com/101/story/45026.html

[David_Lohr]

Threat of bird flu persists

M c Clatchy Newspapers
10-22-06

WASHINGTON - Less than a year ago, Americans could barely turn on the television, surf the Internet or pick up a newspaper without finding a doomsday story about deadly avian flu.

Now, with the disease still centered in Asia and the failure of migratory birds to spread the illness to Europe and North America, the H5N1 virus has dropped out of the media spotlight. The dearth of coverage has prompted some to think that the threat of a pandemic has passed. Nothing could be further from the truth, however.

Full Story:
http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061022/NEWS/610220355

[SwFlorida]

Bird Flu Expert Selected to Head WHO


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/UN_WHO_LEADERSHIP?SITE=FLMYR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[bikerduck]

Americans profess an extraordinary willingness to co operate with public health officials if faced with a deadly worldwide outbreak of rapidly spreading flu, called pandemic flu, says a new survey - the first attempt to tap the public's intentions under such still-hypothetical circumstances.
"They'd be willing to stay away from malls, from the movies, from church," says Robert Blendon, professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health, which conducted the survey of 1,697 American adults. The survey was presented recently in Washington, D.C., at an Institute of Medicine workshop to help officials plan for a possible outbreak of pandemic flu.

About 94 percent of people said they'd stay home for seven to 10 days, and three-quarters said they'd stay home for a month. But although they'd be willing to keep their children home from school, to work from home if they could and to stay away from nonhousehold members, they had no idea how they'd be able to af ford missing work for very long. A majority of employed people, 74 percent, said they could stay away from work for up to 10 days, but more than half said they'd have serious financial problems if they couldn't work for a month.

"They believe they'd have to go to work, regardless of the health risk," Blendon said. "The financial side of this would be very serious."

Link
http://www.theolympian.com/105/story/50152.html

[bikerduck]

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Stocking up on food is as simple as a trip to the grocery store, a veritable land of plenty for Americans.

"It's so easy when you have three grocery stores in your vicinity," said Becky Jones of Omaha, who stocks up once a week for her family of three. "You think: how could you possibly not get what you needed?"

But will fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, bread, milk and other household staples still be available if the U.S. is hit with an anticipated bird flu pandemic? If state and federal officials urge people to stay away from public places, like restaurants and fast-food establishments, will they be able to get the groceries they need to prepare food in their homes?

For Jones, the prospect of not having access to food is frightening. She said most people, herself included, only have food on hand for three or four days.

Full Article

http://money.excite.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt_top.jsp?news_id=ap-d8ncaa6g0&

[icewater]

Boston (eCanadaNow) - The new bird flu vaccine from Novavax has shows a great deal of early potential as it managed to provide a great deal of protection against the H5N1 bird flu virus.

This causes shares of the company to skyrocket today gaining 22 percent.


Read More Here:

http://www.ecanadanow.com/science/health/2007/04/02/bird-flu-vaccine-novavax-shows-promise/

[bikerduck]

Protection against potential pandemic will be stockpiled

WASHINGTON - A bird flu vaccine won federal approval for the first time Tuesday as a stopgap measure against a potential pandemic until more effective vaccines can be developed.

http://www.theolympian.com/101/story/83556.html