Monitoring Bird Health in the U.S.

The U.S. Department of the Interior and U.S. Department of Agriculture are part of a major interagency effort to monitor wild migratory birds in the United States and to test statistically significant samples of populations of various migratory bird species for the early detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza.

USDA and Interior's agencies, including the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have been working for the past several months with State of Alaska biologists to strategically sample live birds, hunter-killed birds, sentinel flocks (healthy domestic birds placed in an area where wild birds congregate and monitored to see if they get the virus) and the environment used by these populations for highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in Alaska. The Interagency Strategic Plan for monitoring wild birds focuses on Alaska because it is a flyway crossroads for migratory birds.

Testing also is being carried out in the Pacific Islands, elsewhere in the Pacific flyway and in other migratory bird flyways in cooperation with state and local agencies. This enhanced monitoring program is designed to provide an early warning to the agriculture, public health, and wildlife communities should migratory birds be found to carry the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus.

Working together, Interior agencies, USDA and state cooperators plan to collect 75,000 to 100,000 samples from wild birds in 2006. Those samples will be tested at the USGS National Wildlife Health Center in Madison , Wisconsin and other National Animal Health Laboratory Network facilities across the country. Suspected findings of highly pathogenic avian influenza will then be sent to the USDA testing center in Ames , Iowa for confirmation.

The Fish and Wildlife Service also works with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and USDA's APHIS at major U.S. air and seaports to inspect, examine and regulate wild birds imported for the pet trade, research and other purposes. Interior land management agencies, including the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Reclamation, are educating their employees and working with stakeholder and support groups, and preparing protocols to protect visitors and employees on public lands. Many of these lands provide nesting, migration and wintering habitat for waterfowl and other migratory birds.

As a primary safeguard, USDA maintains trade restrictions on the importation of poultry and poultry products from all affected countries. No birds can be imported from a country found to have the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain avian influenza in the commercial poultry population. In addition, all imported live birds must be quarantined for 30 days at a USDA facility and tested for avian influenza before entering the U.S. This requirement also covers returning U.S.-origin pet birds. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service works with USDA to communicate these trade restrictions to the pet bird trade community and incorporates them into decisions on permits it issues for wild bird trade. Additionally, USDA has increased its monitoring of domestic commercial markets for illegally smuggled poultry and poultry products.

For further information, contact Amber Pairis at apairis@fishwildlife.org.