Is Avian Influenza a conservation issue

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Is Avian Influenza a conservation issue?
The H5N1 strain is!
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Why?

• Carried by birds
• Can be fatal to birds
• Avian in the name
• H5N1 strain can be lethal to humans
• If it arrives first in wild birds, they will be
  blamed
• Responses include culling and habitat destruction

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How will it arrive in North America?

• Wild Birds
• Poultry
• Fighting cocks
• Illegal imports
• People

Eurasian Wigeon
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Which wild birds carry AI?

• Most avian influenza viruses isolated from
  waterfowl, shorebirds, gulls, and terns.
• Most AI strains are low pathogenicity and rarely
  cause illness

Caspian Tern
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Is AI seasonal in birds?

• In ducks, most common in late summer and fall
• Other times of year
• Shorebird infection highest in spring

Black-bellied Plover
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Which birds carry H5N1in Eurasia?
29 Waterfowl 5 Gulls Shorebirds
5 Herons Storks 3 Doves Pigeons
7 Hawks 9 Gallinaceous Birds
4 Rails Coots 16 Song Birds
2 Cormorants 1 Flamingo 1 Grebe
1 Parrot 4 Owls 1 Ratite
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Which North American birds carry H5N1 in Eurasia?
Canada goose Gadwall Mute swan Common
merganser Tufted duck Wood duck Laughing
gull Great blue heron Rock pigeon Greater
flamingo Northern goshawk Peregrine falcon
Chukar Bobwhite quail Turkey Ring-necked
pheasant Coot Common moorhen House finch
House sparrow Eurasian tree-sparrow
European starling Great cormorant Budgerigar
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How will we know when it arrives in North
American birds?

• US Department of the Interior monitoring programs
• Landbird Migration Monitoring Network
• California Assembly Bill 875 Avian Flu Wildlife
  Surveillance Act

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Which birds move between Eurasia and N. America?

• Dunlin
• Sharp-tailed Sandpiper
• Bar-tailed Godwit
• Ruddy Turnstone
• Pectoral Sandpiper
• Rock Sandpiper
• Long-billed Dowitcher
• Pacific Golden-Plover
• Red Knot
• Buff-breasted Sandpiper

Dunlin
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Which birds move between Eurasia and N. America?

• Northern Pintail
• Steller's Eider
• Common Eider
• King Eider
• Spectacled Eider
• Long-tailed Duck
• Brant
• Aleutian Goose
• Snow Goose
• Emperor Goose
• Tundra Swan

Emperor Goose
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What is the risk of handling wild birds?

• Many birds carry AI
• Most strains are low pathogenicity and rarely
  cause illness
• H5N1 not detected in New World yet
• To date no human diagnosed contracting H5N1
  through contact with wild birds

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Is it okay to go birding?
Yes, but . . .

• Observe wildlife from a distance
• Avoid touching dead, diseased or even healthy
  wildlife
• If there is contact
• Wash hands with soap and water
• Do not rub eyes, eat, drink or smoke before
  washing hands

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Is there a risk from eating birds?
No evidence that properly cooked poultry or eggs
are sources of infection
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Is my bird feeder a source of infection?

• Song birds unlikely to carry H5N1
• Wash hands after touching anything splashed with
  feces
• Clean feeders baths with 10 disinfecting
  solution
• Clean outside use gloves

American Goldfinch
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What about hunters?

• Do not harvest or handle dead or obviously sick
  birds
• Wear rubber gloves while cleaning game
• Do not eat, drink or smoke while cleaning game
• Wash hands with soap and water or disinfecting
  wipes immediately after handling game
• Wash tools and work surfaces used to clean game
  birds with soap and water, then disinfect with a
  10 bleach solution
• Separate raw meat, and anything it touches, from
  cooked or ready-to-eat foods to avoid
  contamination
• Cook game birds thoroughly to an internal
  temperature of 155-165 F to kill disease
  organisms and parasites

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What about chickens in my yard?

• H5N1 not recorded in the New World
• Follow good hygiene as previously described
• USDA monitors potential infection of poultry
• Quarantine or culling of poultry flocks could be
  required to control H5N1

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What happens when H5N1 arrives?Guidelines for
poultry workers in infected areas

• Follow hygiene precautions outlined above
• Wear coveralls, gloves, shoe covers, or boots
  that can be disinfected or discarded
• Wear a respirator and protective eyewear
• Monitor your health for clinical signs of
  influenza infection
• Contact your healthcare provider if you develop
  fever, flu-like symptoms or conjunctivitis

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Conservation Implications

• Wild birds have been demonized
• Politicians have called on hunters to wipe out
  migrant birds
• Governments reportedly reviving plans to drain
  wetlands
• Nests of birds (e.g., Barn Swallow) have been
  destroyed

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Does culling work?

• Not feasible
• Survivors would disperse to new places
• Healthy birds would become concentrated and
  stressed
• More prone to infection
• Would cause disease to spread

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Does habitat destruction work?

• Wetland draining would destroy all the vital
  ecosystem functions
• Like culling, would disperse and concentrate
  birds, spreading the disease

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The best science, as well as common sense,
indicates that these actions are impractical, and
could even result in an increase in the spread of
the virus by causing birds to disperse more
widely. Position statement of American Bird
Conservancy, World Health Organization, and
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
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Red-breasted Goose
90 of the world population of 88,000 confined to
five roosts in Romania and Bulgaria
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Bar-headed Goose
5-10 of all Bar-headed Geese perished in the
outbreak at Lake Qinghai, China in spring 2005
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Dalmatian Pelican
Breeds in colonies in freshwater wetlands and
coastal lagoons World population of 15,000 is
confined largely to the Baltic and Black Sea
regions
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International Efforts to Protect Wild Birds

• 19 March 2006 - Conference of the Parties to
  Convention on Biological Diversity - scientific
  assessment of the impact of avian flu on wildlife
  and biodiversity
• April 2006 UN Environmental Programme
  Convention on Migratory Species convening task
  force on avian influenza to seek better
  information on the cause f the spread of the
  disease

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Threats to Wildlife

• Mortality
• Culling
• Habitat destruction
• Species of Concern
• Snowy Plover
• Least Tern
• Brown Pelican
• Aleutian Cackling Goose
• And more