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Movement of Bird Flu from Asia to North America Via Birds Confirmed

by Rajashri on October 31, 2008 at 4:21 PM Bird Flu News

Evidence for the movement of Asian forms of avian influenza to Alaska by northern pintail ducks has been uncovered by an international team of researchers.

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Scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) joined forces with researchers at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska and the University of Tokyo to study the role of migratory birds in the transfer of avian influenza viruses between Asia and North America.

Published by the journal Molecular Ecology, their study showed that about half of the low pathogenic avian influenza viruses found in wild northern pintail ducks in Alaska contained at least one of the eight gene segments that were more closely related to Asian than to North American strains of avian influenza.

The researchers said that it was a highly pathogenic form of the H5N1 avian influenza virus that spread across Asia to Europe and Africa over the past decade, causing the deaths of 245 people and raising concerns of a possible human pandemic.

"Although some previous research has led to speculation that intercontinental transfer of avian influenza viruses from Asia to North America via wild birds is rare, this study challenges that," said Chris Franson, a research wildlife biologist with the USGS National Wildlife Health Center and co-author of the study.

He revealed that northern pintails were chosen as the focus of the study due to the fact that they are fairly common in North America and Asia, they are frequently infected by low pathogenic avian influenza, and they are known to migrate between North America and Asia.

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Movement of Bird Flu from Asia to North America Via Birds Confirmed

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