Scientists follow the flu virus in a huge migration of birds

Jacqueline Larma

Each spring, rotating stones and migrating sandpipers stop at Delaware Bay to feast on eggs of crab. It's one of the world's hotspots for bird flu.

Huge hungry flocks of birds roam the sand of Delaware Bay every year in search of the small greenish eggs laid by the horseshoe crabs.

It's a marvel of ecology: shorebirds migrate from South America to the Arctic. It's also one of the hotspots of bird flu in the world – a windfall for scientists looking for clues about the flu's evolution to better protect people.

Jacqueline Larma

Karlie Woodard places bird poo samples in a cooler. Back at the lab, scientists follow the evolution of the virus.

"Ultimately, we would like to be able to predict what would be the next pandemic," said pioneer flu Robert Webster of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

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for the flu between mid-May and early June, as thousands of shorebirds and gulls gather and exchange viruses. Researchers take care to bypass nesting crabs to gather evidence – bird droppings potentially infected with the flu.

Jacqueline Larma

Nowhere else in the world do scientists n & # 39; 39 found as many shorebirds carrying various influenza strains in this bay between New Jersey and Delaware

"We trained our eyes for this," says St. Jude. Researcher Pamela McKenzie leaned over the wet sand last month looking for the freshest samples to go on the ice for further testing.

Too dry, and tests may not be able to detect viruses. Too big, and it is probably not the case that bears the most flu here, reddish roulette calico pattern.

Why test birds? Richard Webby, who heads St. Jude's Center for Excellence in Influenza Research and Monitoring

Waterfowl, including wild ducks and migratory shorebirds, are considered the main reservoir of the flu. 19659022] Whether it's typical winter misery or a pandemic, every strain that infects humans "began somewhere along the family tree in the waterfowl tanks," Webby said

usually wild birds do not get sick. viruses that they carry in the intestine. But from time to time, strains of wild birds kill domestic chickens and turkeys, and also threaten pigs or even people

. Jude's annual study at Delaware Bay provides insight into little-known efforts around the world – including migratory duck trials in China and Canada and live poultry markets in Bangladesh – to track traffic and wildlife. 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 as she sneaks along a beach before the tide goes out

. change so quickly, what genes they inherit, "added McKenzie, who oversees global surveillance of St. Jude's bird flu.

" This only needs to happen 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. "

The research is "a way to stay a little ahead of the virus," said Marciela DeGrace of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "Understanding how this virus can change and how much it can change in a short period of time will be critical for us to make countermeasures like vaccines. "

                
                     – AP