Migratory Birds and Influenza in Alaska

I live in alaska and was reading around on H5N1, wanted to see how alaska might fair. I wasnt to happy with the results...


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"None of the viral isolation and subtyping to date has detected H5N1, although 30 of the 290 samples tested positive for other bird flu virus strains, the researchers said.

But next year the news may not be so good, they noted in a statement. They also urged the government to tighten the monitor network on wild migratory birds before the virus enters the United States.

"With a virus like H5N1 emerging in an area like Southeast Asia and spreading toward Europe if it doesn't reach Alaska this year, those birds that go back may very well pick it up and bring it to Alaska next year to an environment where that H5N1 might mix with other strains it hasn't seen before," said Jonathan Runstadler, leading scientist of the project."


I think this could be a big problem for the people in alaska this comming summer. Im sure that some of the birds that fly to alaska in the summer will fly to the lower 48 states.....Could this comming summer be the time when the main outbreak happens in the US?

What do you think?

Here is a picture of the Flyways migratory birds use. There are more pics on the source website you can check out.


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