US government expands bird flu tests in Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Alaska, the resting spot for many migratory birds from Asia, will be the target of expanded tests to detect whether bird flu has reached North America, a government official said on Thursday.

Alaska is considered North America's most likely point of entry for the deadly H5N1 avian influenza, because it stands at a crossroads of wild waterfowl and shorebird migration to and from Asia.

At least 6,000 wild migrating birds will be tested from across Alaska in the spring and the fall, said Rick Kearney, who is helping run the Department of Interior's flu-testing program.

"Alaska would be that place where the virus arrives in North America and is transferred from one type of waterfowl to another and migrates to the lower 48 (states)," said Kearney, wildlife program coordinator for the U.S. Geological Survey.

"Until it shows up someplace else, this is the point, the place where the most intensive effort is going to be."

In 2005, government agencies tested more than 1,000 live wild birds to see whether the H5N1 virus strain was present and the University of Alaska Fairbanks tested an additional 3,000 live birds over the past few years, Kearney said.

The tests did not uncover any cases of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has killed 80 people in Asia since late 2003.

Government officials expressed concern that birds migrating from Asia to Alaska this spring would bring the virus with them and eventually spread the virus to domestic poultry or some other receptor.

The Department of Interior, Agriculture Department and local organizations also plan to test an additional 7,000 birds harvested by hunters in the spring and fall, Kearney said.

The H5N1 virus remains primarily a virus of birds, but experts fear it could change into a form easily transmitted from person to person and sweep the world, killing millions within weeks or months.

So far, most human cases can be traced to direct or indirect contact with infected birds.