USA TODAY International Edition
Israel keeps wary eye on migrating birds
Health of : cials fear spread of deadly virus
LATRUN, Israel — Israeli health and government of : cials believe that some of the 500 millionmigratory birds that pass through here twice a year could carry the strain of avian in M uenza that has ravaged M ocks in Asia and killed 62 people there since December 2003.
The deadly H5N1 strain of the virus is on the move, possibly carried by wild birds from Asia into Europe. As the birds start their annual journey south to Africa, where they winter, Israel — the main stopover for most of the M ocks — is a focal point for observing whether the disease will travel with the migrating birds.
“ There is no reason to believe that it ( the H5N1 virus) will not arrive here,” says Manfred Green, director of Israel’s Center for Disease Control. The sheer number of birds that light and feed here could increase the chance of infection in local poultry, Green says.
Like many health of : cials, he worries that once domestic poultry are infected, the virus could mutate from a strain transmitted from bird to bird and occasionally from bird to human, to one that can jump between humans and threaten millions of people worldwide.
Different strains of avian in M uenza, or bird M u, have caused millions of human deaths over the past few centuries. The 1918 in M uenza pandemic that killed up to 50 million people worldwide has been identi: ed as a bird M u.
The H5N1 strain : rst surfaced in humans in 1997 in Hong Kong, killing six people. The current H5N1 outbreak among poultry started in Headed for Africa: A M ock of migrating Eurasian Cranes takes off after feeding in a farmer’s : eld in Hula Valley in northern Israel. Health and government of : cialsworry that a bird with avian M u could infect domestic fowl. Israel is a stopover for many migrating M ocks. South Korea in December 2003. Millions of poultry have since been infected as the disease spread to Southeast Asia and China and recently to Turkey, Romania and Russia. If the virus mutates, it could kill 2 million to 7.4 million people according to World Health Organization ( WHO) estimates.
So far, there is no evidence of humanto- human transmission. Nor is it clear howthe virus moves from place to place, although wild birds are the prime suspects. Bird- watcher’s paradise
Israel is at the crossroads three continents. As a result, of as many as 500 million birds : ll the air lanes over the country twice a year. The migrations make Israel a birdwatcher’s paradise, a place to spot enormous M ocks of Spanish sparrows, White Pelicans, Griffon Vultures, Black Kites, White Storks, Barn owls, Eurasian Cranes, Honey Buzzards and several types of rare eagles.
The migrating birds need shafts of warm air created by hilly regions to gain altitude and then glide. The hot air pockets, called thermals, do not occur at sea. Many birds follow the narrow land bridges between continents found only in Israel and Panama, says Yossi Leshem, an ornithologist and director of the International Center for the Study of Bird Migration at Latrun.
Leshem has established a world- renowned bird- tracking center there. Using a juryrigged, Soviet-era radar purchased from Russia, Leshem tracks the massive M ocks of birds. Halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Latrun, a former British fortress, sits in the midst of many of the M ocks’ M ight patterns.
Green and Leshem, as well as WHO of : cials, suspect water fowl are the likely carriers of the H5N1 virus. Water fowl such as ducks, Leshem: Runs bird- tracking center.
geese and swans historically carry various strains
of bird M u, but rarely such
virulent strains as H5N1,
according to WHO.
Wild birds carrying the
virus can contaminate
domesticated chickens
and ducks by direct contact or droppings. “ Otherwise, how could a hen
in a closed coop in Turkey
get sick with a disease
found in another bird
from Taiwan?” Leshem
asks.
With new cases of transmission from poultry to humans reported as recently as last month — and three suspected cases under investigation Wednesday — much of the world is on alert and beginning to institute measures to combat the spread of the disease.
Israel has stockpiled 8 million courses of human M u vaccinations, more than enough for its 7 million people. Health of : cials here also are instituting measures — such as pens — to prevent domestic birds from having contactwith wild fowl. Efforts to identify sick birds
Early detection is critical. Leshem hopes his two radar stations ( at Latrun and Ben Gurion International Airport) and six banding stations — where satellite trackers are attached to birds — can monitor fowl that are at the highest risk of carrying the virus, such as gulls, raptors, ducks and starlings.
Every bird caught in Leshem’s banding stations is tested for disease. Each isweighed, banded with a tracker and — if healthy — freed. No birds have tested positive for the virus, but Leshem says at least a dozen additional banding stations are necessary. “ The faster you detect the virus, the quicker you can isolate it,” he says.
Israel has intensi : ed coordination with the Palestinian Authority and Jordan, its neighbors, to identify sick birds. Last week, Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian veterinary of : cials met to discuss a potential pandemic.
The Center for Disease Control’s Green says it could take “ months or years” for the H5N1 virus to mutate into a form that can be transmitted from human to human. He also says that even though Israel is prepared to vaccinate every citizen if the human form of the disease appears, a vaccine is not necessarily the best way to stave off a pandemic. He suggests simple hygiene like hand washing — or better yet, he says, a bowl of chicken soup.