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MID TWP – D & # 39 Huge flocks of hungry birds roam the sands of Delaware Bay the tiny greenish eggs that an army of horseshoe crabs lays each spring
It's a marvel of d & # 39; ecology as shorebirds that migrate from South America to the Arctic, an essential stop to their survival for this mbad crab spawning. spots for bird flu – a boon for scientists looking for clues about the evolution of the flu so that they can better protect the peo "Finally, we would like to be able to predict what would be the next pandemic "said influenza pioneer Robert Webster of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
These humble beaches turn into a mixing bowl for the flu. between mid-May and early June, as thousands of shorebirds and gulls gather and exchange viruses. Researchers are cautiously moving around breeding crabs to pick up evidence – feces of birds potentially infected with the flu.
"We trained our eyes for this, that's for sure," said Pamela McKenzie, a St. Jude researcher. last month looking for the freshest samples to go on the ice for further testing.
For a few weeks each spring, the humble beaches of Delaware Bay become one of the hotspots of bird flu. A team from the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital tests bird droppings by looking for clues about the course of influenza. (June 28)
AP
Not any splat will do the trick. Too dry, and tests may not be able to detect viruses. Too big, and it is probably not of the kind that bears the most flu here, the red turret calico motif.
Why test birds? "That's where all the flu viruses come from," said Richard Webby, director of St. Jude's Center for Excellence in Influenza Research and Surveillance, a program funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health. National Institutes of Health
. From left to right, Karlie Woodard, Patrick Seiler and Pamela "width =" 540 "height =" 405 "data-mycapture-src =" https://www.gannett-cdn.com/media/2018/07/01/ SNJGroup / Vineland / 636660781972057014-AP18176637495494.jpg "data-mycapture-sm-src =" https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/8dd645c1974889eadcee3d5b680c2b63f1fe0ff0/r=500×340/local/-/media/2018/07 /01/SNJGroup/Vineland/636660781972057014-AP18176637495494.jpg"/>
From left to right, Karlie Woodard, Patrick Seiler and Pamela McKenzie gather bird droppings near the crabs at Kimbles Beach in Middle Township Township. (Photo: Jacqueline Larma, AP)
Whether it is typical winter misery or a pandemic, every strain that infects humans "has begun whatever part along the family tree in the waterfowl tanks "
Wild birds usually do not get sick, they simply exchange influenza viruses e they carry in the intestine. But from time to time, strains of wild birds kill domestic chickens and turkeys and threaten pigs or even people.
Jude's annual study at Delaware Bay provides insight into little-known efforts around the world – including trials of migrating ducks in China and Canada and live poultry markets in Bangladesh – to track circulation and changes in bird flu.
And nowhere else in the world have scientists found as many shorebirds carrying various influenza strains as when red knots, cut stones and other species make migratory stopovers in this bay between New Jersey and Delaware.
Most cases of bird flu are not easily transmitted to the population, says McKenzie, who does not even wear gloves while she sneaks along a beach before the tide fails. spreads
. McKenzie, who oversees global surveillance of bird flu in St. Jude
The United States stocks just vaccines for worrying strains on a case-by-case basis.
"This must happen only once," Webby said. "The good virus comes and goes into the good population that flies over the good turkey farm that comes at the right time of year when the good farmer picks up the wrong bird – and we have problems."
Webster, now a virologist emeritus at St. Jude, made the link between birds and human flu decades ago when he found seabirds in Australia carrying antibodies against the strain that caused the pandemic of 1957. In 1985, his pursuit of avian flu led to the Delaware Bay
. Today, scientists know that if two types of flu infect a single animal at the same time, say that a pig catches a strain of chicken and a human strain. But concerns about bird flu as a threat to poultry farms and humans have increased since a strain named H5N1 spread directly to people in the late 1990s in Hong Kong's crowded life . poultry markets. Cousins of this virus have sprung up, as well as another influenza named H7N9 that since 2013 has infected more than 1,500 people in China through close contact with infected chickens.
These are viruses very different from what St. Jude finds in Delaware Bay shorebirds, Webby said. For some reason, viruses carried by Asian and European birds rarely arrive in America, but it's important to look at – and understand the normal ebb and flow of different strains, so that it's more obvious when something happens. [19659030] Karlie Woodard, in the foreground, places samples in a cooler "width =" 540 "height =" 405 "data-mycapture-src =" https://www.gannett-cdn.com/media/2018/ 07/01 / SNJGroup / Vineland / 636660781953776466-AP18176637312494.jpg "data-mycapture-sm-src =" https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/0bec1af8db5fbc8d0a06f0f1306adc9634ac64fe/r=500×347/local/-/media /2018/07/01/SNJGroup/Vineland/636660781953776466-AP18176637312494.jpg"/>
Karlie Woodard, in the foreground, places samples in a cooler while her team at the Children's Research Hospital St Jude collecting bird droppings at Kimbles Beach in the Middle Township. (Photo: Jacqueline Larma, AP)
