What is the role of wild birds in spreading High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza H5N1?
Outbreaks of H5N1 in 2006 among wild birds in Europe and the Middle East showed that wild birds are capable of carrying the virus some distance after infectionat least during the diseases incubation period, which may be several days. One important, unanswered question is how easily infected wild birds can pass the disease on. Data from Croatia show that waterfowl sharing the same ponds as infected swans remained free of the disease; but a sick swan housed with chickens at an Austrian animal rescue centre did pass the infection on. Earlier outbreaks show a very different pattern to recent incidents in Europe. They do not show the trails of dead birds following migration routes that we would expect if wild birds had been spreading the disease across continents. Numbers of dead wild swans have not been found in Asia, for example. Some countries on flight paths of birds from Asia remain flu-free, whilst their neighbours suffer repeated infections. There is no correlation between the patter
Recent outbreaks of H5N1 in 2006 among wild birds in Europe and the Middle East show that wild birds are capable of carrying the virus long distances after infection—at least during the disease’s incubation period, which may be several days. One important, unanswered question is how easily infected wild birds can pass the disease on. Data from Croatia show that waterfowl sharing the same ponds as infected swans remained free of the disease; but a sick swan housed with chickens at an Austrian animal rescue centre did pass the infection on. Earlier outbreaks show a very different pattern to recent incidents in Europe. They do not show the trails of dead birds following migration routes that we would expect if wild birds had been spreading the disease across continents. Numbers of dead wild swans have not been found in Asia, for example. Some countries on flight paths of birds from Asia remain flu-free, whilst their neighbours suffer repeated infections. There is no correlation between th
