A. Avian influenza (AI) is a disease caused by a virus that infects domestic poultry and wild birds. Some forms of the flu are worse than others. Wild birds--including shorebirds and waterfowl--are natural reservoirs for more than 140 avian influenza viruses.
AI strains are divided into two groups based on their "pathogenicity," or the ability of the virus to cause disease:
A. Several years ago, one particularly virulent form of bird flu emerged. It's caused by a strain of virus known as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1, and has sickened and killed birds in Asia, Africa and Europe. Domestic birds, particularly chickens, are more susceptible to this particular avian influenza virus. Although highly pathogenic H5N1 is a bird virus, more than 200 people in Asia, Europe, and Africa—most as a result of direct contacted with infected poultry—have been infected and 115 people died from the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus.
There are a number of ways that the virulent bird flu virus could reach North America—wild bird migration, illegal smuggling of birds or poultry, travel by infected people or people traveling with virus-contaminated articles from regions where highly pathogenic H5N1 already exists.
A. Avian flu viruses are transmitted among birds through respiratory secretions and fecal droppings.
A. First, U.S. public health officials stress that the virulent bird flu virus is primarily a disease of birds, not humans.
Second, there have been no known cases of humans contracting the avian influenza virus from wild birds anywhere in the world.
Third, even if an early detection of the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus is found in wild birds in Montana, or some other state, it would not signal the start of a flu pandemic among people in North America.
Fourth, the risk to bird watchers and hunters is minimal since the virus does not transmit easily to humans. However, FWP recommends hunters and others follow several common sense precautions when processing or handling game.
A. FWP expects to detect several common and mild strains of avian influenza once the surveillance begins in late July. There are more than 140 strains of avian influenza and wild birds often contract the flu. This summer and fall, FWP will look for one strain—highly pathogenic H5N1—that erupted in domestic birds in Asia, Europe and Africa. When another strain of avian influenza is found, that doesn't mean the highly pathogenic H5N1 has been or will be detected.
A. No. To date, the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus has not been found in North American wild or domestic birds.
A. General studies of avian influenza in wild birds have been underway in Alaska for several years, with no positive cases of the virulent virus detected to date. Surveillance in Alaska should provide a means of detecting highly pathogenic H5N1 if it enters North America from wild birds either migrating from Siberia or other parts of Asia or mixing with birds from breeding grounds in Alaska.
A. In addition to FWP, other members of the Montana team include APHIS, Wildlife Services; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; the Montana Department of Agriculture, which monitors the health of domestic poultry; and the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, which monitors human health.
A. Federal funding will cover costs of bird and environmental sampling.
A.The Montana team will seek to sample about 2,400 birds—including tundra swans, snow geese, pintails, mallards, and selected shorebird species. Sampling will begin in late July with a majority of the effort focused within the Pacific Flyway, generally located in the western portion of Montana.
Biologists and technicians will sample live birds during normal waterfowl banding operations that take place each summer as well as from urban waterfowl flocks using baited walk-in traps. In addition, 1,000 fecal samples will be collected and processed during the migration period from areas where waterfowl and shorebirds concentrate.
Montana's plan also includes getting help from hunters and the testing of harvested ducks, tundra swans, and snow geese through field checks.
Dead and sick waterfowl or shorebirds will be investigated and sampled. Some wetlands commonly experience botulism outbreaks in late summer, resulting in isolated waterfowl and shorebird die-offs. These events will be investigated and provide opportunities for sampling.
Beginning in July, about the time birds migrating waterfowl arrive in Montana, citizens will be able to report sick or dead birds via a toll free phone number, or online at FWP's Avian Influenza website.
For more information, on wild birds and avian influenza visit FWP's Avian Influenza website. For information on pandemic flu preparations visit Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services.
