Avian Influenza

The Wildlife Program is highly engaged in the joint federal-state program for early detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in wild birds.  At the direction of the White House Homeland Security Council Policy Coordinating Committee for Pandemic and Avian Influenza, the Department of Interior and Department of Agriculture developed this program to detect the arrival of HPAI in the United States migratory bird populations. USGS, led by the Alaska Science Center, has been collecting and analyzing biological samples from wild birds since early 2006, with emphasis on Alaska, Hawaii, and the Pacific Flyway states. Samples are analyzed at the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, WI. The USGS has also developed and maintains the interagency data management system for HPAI early detection, a system that serves as a single database for USGS, USFWS, USDA, and State wildlife agency wild bird HPAI surveillance results.

In addition to surveillance, USGS is involved in a number of research activities in areas of Asia and Africa where H5N1 is present in migratory bird populations. Scientists from the Western Ecological Research Center (WERC) are cooperating with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and host nations to track the long range movements of migratory birds and assessing their potential to carry the virus over long distances (see the In the Spotlight right-side feature for more information on this). In China, scientists from WERC and the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center are collaborating with the Chinese Academy of Sciences to examine the relationships between domestic poultry and wild bird populations and determine the pathways through which the virus may pass between these two groups. Lastly, USGS scientists from the Fort Collins Science Center and the National Wildlife Health Center have provided technical support for avian influenza surveillance efforts in Thailand and Laos, respectively.

	USGS pages on Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) USGS National Wildlife Health Center http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/avian_influenza/index.jsp USGS Alaska Science Center http://alaska.usgs.gov/science/biology/avian_influenza/index.html USGS Western Ecological Research Center http://www.werc.usgs.gov/sattrack/index.html USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/ Other U.S. Government Resources on Avian Influenza Department of the Interior http://www.doi.gov/issues/avianflu.html Centralized Federal Information on Avian Influenza, Managed by the Department of Health and Human Services http://www.avianflu.gov/ Fish and Wildlife Service http://www.fws.gov/home/avianflu/ Centers for Disease Control http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/index.htm World Health Organization http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/en/ National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza http://www.whitehouse.gov/homeland/pandemic-influenza.html