Kruger Park News Archive
BirdLife International has issued a statement on the bird flu virus H5N1 that seems to be spreading, causing more outbreaks of the deadly flu in China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia and other parts of Asia. They say that migrating waterbirds may be spreading the disease, but that the culling of these animals to control the disease is not feasible.
At present, the flu strain can be passed from birds to humans, but human-to-human transmission has yet to occur. The chances of catching the disease from a wild bird is considered to be remote, but BirdLife is encouraging better biosecurity between domestic and wild birds and infected water sources.
They have called for strict worldwide controls on the movement of poultry and wild birds. BirdLife believe that the highly pathogenic flu strain developed in poultry, and was passed into wild birds.
