As birds take flight, so do fears

[PhilipShore]

Knight Ridder Newspapers
As birds take flight, so do fears
Mar. 17, 2006

http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/nation/14122566.htm

- In coming weeks, many of the planet's birds will point their beaks northward in a vast migration to breeding grounds in higher latitudes.

Researchers are watching one group in particular - roughly 6.6 million birds of 42 species flying from Asia to Alaska - concerned that they will bring the virulent H5N1 strain of avian influenza.

This month, a government consortium is launching a $29 million campaign to capture and test as many as 100,000 birds in Alaska and throughout the United States, as other avian migrants head south.

The H5N1 flu has spread inexorably, creeping across three continents and infecting 177 people, 98 of whom died, the World Health Organization reported Monday.