Wild Migratory Geese May Have Spread H5N1 Bird Flu

A study in PLoS ONE has given the first evidence of highly pathogenic H5N1 viral transmission between domestic farms and wild birds in Tibet.

AsianScientist (Mar. 26, 2011) – A collaborative study by the U.S. Geological Survey, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences has given the first evidence of H5N1 viral transmission between domestic farms and wild birds in Tibet.

Researchers attached GPS satellite transmitters to 29 bar-headed geese to document the migratory pathway of these wild birds.

The wild geese migrated in winter to a region outside of Lhasa, the capitol of Tibet, near farms where H5N1 outbreaks have occurred in domestic geese and chickens.

This study explains the 16 confirmed outbreaks of H5N1 virus in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau from 2003 to 2009.

“Every summer, more than 150,000 migratory birds use Qinghai Lake, which sits within the eastern portion of the Central Asian Flyway, which extends from India to Russia,” said John Takekawa, a wildlife biologist at the USGS Western Ecological Research Center.

This study also uncovered an undocumented migratory link between Qinghai Lake and Mongolia, further suggesting that Qinghai may be a pivotal point of H5N1 transmission.

Since 2003, H5N1 has killed 300 people, including 18 in 2010, and has led to the culling of more than 250 million domestic poultry throughout Eurasia and Africa.

The article can be found at: Prosser DJ et al. (2011) Wild Bird Migration across the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau: A Transmission Route for Highly Pathogenic H5N1.

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Source: United States Geological Survey.
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