{"page":"\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/resources-c03aa079.css\" /\u003e\n\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/lp_boclips_stylesheets-517835be.css\" media=\"all\" /\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-title='How wild birds in Alaska are tested for the H5N1 virus' data-url='/boclips/videos/5c54c428d8eafeecae166a69' data-video-url='/boclips/videos/5c54c428d8eafeecae166a69' id='bo_player_modal'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='boclips-resource-page modal-dialog panel-container'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='react-notifications-root'\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-header'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-type'\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fai fa-regular fa-circle-play'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\nVideo\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch1 class='rp-title' id='video-title'\u003e\nHow wild birds in Alaska are tested for the H5N1 virus\n\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-actions'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='mr-1'\u003e\n\u003ca class=\"btn btn-success\" data-posthog-event=\"Signup: LP Signup Activity\" data-posthog-location=\"body_link_boclips\" data-remote=\"true\" href=\"/subscription/new\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGet Free Access\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"\"\u003e for 10 Days\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-body'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-info'\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-label='Hide resource details' class='rp-hide-info' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u0026times;\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Expand resource details' class='rp-expand-info fai fa-solid fa-up-right-and-down-left-from-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Compress resource details' class='rp-compress-info fai fa-solid fa-down-left-and-up-right-to-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-rating'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='resource-pool'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-label'\u003ePublisher:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-name'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='text'\u003e\u003ca data-publisher-id=\"30356011\" href=\"/search?publisher_ids%5B%5D=30356011\"\u003eCurated Video\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-description'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='short-description'\u003e1. Wide of birds in water 2. Close-up researcher looking for birds3. Wide view of salt marsh area, scientists preparing to catch shore birds 4. Close-up researcher looking for birds5. Mid view of birds walking on marsh 6. SOUNDBITE:...\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='full-description hide'\u003e1. Wide of birds in water \u003cbr/\u003e2. Close-up researcher looking for birds\u003cbr/\u003e3. Wide view of salt marsh area, scientists preparing to catch shore birds \u003cbr/\u003e4. Close-up researcher looking for birds\u003cbr/\u003e5. Mid view of birds walking on marsh \u003cbr/\u003e6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Bob Gill, Project leader Shorebird research, Alaska Science Centre, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) \u003cbr/\u003e\"We are here trying to capture certain species targeted as likely candidates to carry H5N1 influenza.  We drive this ranking system through a number of factors, whether the birds go to Asia, this particular one does.  Whether they associate with habitats that might be more conducive to the virus than others, the population size, from all that we came up with a ranking and Alaska had 28 species of shorebirds.  Or 28 species of birds, excuse me, we have 10 species of shorebirds among those 28.\"  \u003cbr/\u003e6. Various views researcher getting birds out of nets \u003cbr/\u003e7. Close-up sandpiper \u003cbr/\u003e8. Various views sandpiper being inspected, weighed and swabbed by researchers \u003cbr/\u003e9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Bob Gill, Project leader Shorebird research, Alaska Science Centre,USGS:\u003cbr/\u003e\"The primary thing we are trying to do is get a cloacal swab from the bird to detect the presence of the H5N1 virus. That is what is driving all of this, but in addition to this we take measurements on the bird so we can age and sex it.  We pull a feather that will help us determine the birds origin - where it is coming from and where it is going to - and we take blood which will also help resolve some of these same issues, it will allow us to sex the bird genetically and molecularly.\"   \u003cbr/\u003e10. Mid view of Gill releasing bird\u003cbr/\u003e11. Various views of pectoral sandpiper being measured, results recorded \u003cbr/\u003e12. Close-up cloacal (common cavity into which the intestinal, genital, and urinary tracts open in vertebrates such as fish, reptiles, birds) swab being taken \u003cbr/\u003e13. SOUNDBITE: (English) Paul Slota, U.S. Geological Survey:\u003cbr/\u003e\"We are pretty confident that if it is in wild birds that we've got a plan that will detect it.\"\u003cbr/\u003e14. Various views birds being measured\u003cbr/\u003e15. Mid view shorebirds in water\u003cbr/\u003e16. SOUNDBITE: (English) Paul Slota, U.S. Geological Survey:\u003cbr/\u003e\"It has caused great loss in poultry in Asia and parts of Europe and Africa and we need to follow through to ensure that we watching for it in this country so we can give early warning to our agriculture industry.  We also want to learn more about the virus how it flows through birds, if birds.  If birds can actually carry the high path (pathogen- agent that causes disease) virus, that is not known at this point in time.  It is very unclear when a high path virus gets into birds what happens to the virus and what happens to the birds, so those are the reasons we are looking.  It is also a public health concern because some people have died in south-east Asia and that is obviously a very, very important concern on the part of public health.\"\u003cbr/\u003e17. Wide view of marsh area\u003cbr/\u003e18. Wide and close-up netting\u003cbr/\u003e19. Close-up bird being released\u003cbr/\u003e20. Various views male sandpiper being tested\u003cbr/\u003e21. Close-up, pull back bird being released to wide view of marsh \u003cbr/\u003eScientists across the United States are preparing for a possible outbreak of the deadly H5N1 avian flu virus. \u003cbr/\u003eFrom Alaska to Iowa researchers are putting on lab coats or wet weather gear in a country-wide effort to determine if, and when, the disease will reach the shores of the US. \u003cbr/\u003eIt comes as more than three hundred health policy and industry leaders from around the globe gather in Seattle to discuss global health care issues on June 20. \u003cbr/\u003eThe threat of bird flu, and the US response to a possible outbreak, is expected to feature on the agenda. \u003cbr/\u003eThe search for the first wild bird carrying a deadly flu virus to North America is under way on a lonely stretch of coastal salt marsh on the outskirts of Alaska's largest city, Anchorage.\u003cbr/\u003eBiologists are ankle-deep in mud and yellowed marsh grass, trying to net and test two types of shorebirds. \u003cbr/\u003eBoth are known to visit regions where flocks have caught the dangerous H5N1 virus that has spread across Asia and even into Europe and Africa.\u003cbr/\u003eThe focus now is on two species, the long-billed dowitchers and pectoral sandpipers, just two of the 28 bird species that come to the great avian mixing zone that is Alaska. \u003cbr/\u003eIf bird flu can be carried long-distance by wild birds, experts hope to see it first here, before the autumnal migration through other states.\u003cbr/\u003eOf course no one knows if the H5N1 flu will arrive on the wings of a migratory bird.\u003cbr/\u003eOr if it will reach North America this year. \u003cbr/\u003eBut if it does, US federal wildlife officials want to stop it from spreading through many bird species and threatening domestic poultry.\u003cbr/\u003eBird flu has killed or led to the slaughter of millions of chickens and ducks in Asia. \u003cbr/\u003eIt has infected more than 200 people who had very close contact with poultry. \u003cbr/\u003eOf the known human cases, about half of the victims have died.\u003cbr/\u003eThe big fear is that this virus will mutate into a virulent form that can easily infect people and spread among them.\u003cbr/\u003eBut for now the mission at hand is swabbing dowitchers and sandpipers (breeds of birds) to get faecal samples that will be tested for bird flu. \u003cbr/\u003eThe project is so massive, Alaska biologists have faced a swab shortage. \u003cbr/\u003eNationwide, the goal is to sample 75,000 to 100,000 wild birds.\u003cbr/\u003eThe long-billed dowitcher is a 10-inch gray shorebird with long legs.\u003cbr/\u003eIt breeds in high-latitude coastal wetlands in Alaska, Canada and the Russian Far East.\u003cbr/\u003eThose that breed in Russia, range near H5N1 outbreak areas in Asia, and mix with birds that could then be infected.\u003cbr/\u003eThey then pass through Alaska in spring and autumn.\u003cbr/\u003eHalf of the world's pectoral sandpipers breed in Alaska or Canada, the other half in Russia. \u003cbr/\u003eSmall numbers of Siberian birds winter in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand and have the potential to pick up the virus along the way.\u003cbr/\u003ePaul Slota of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) , who will be overseeing the testing of samples back at the USGS wildlife lab in Madison, Wisconsin, says birds in Alaska are going to be interacting with birds that are going to be moving back in the United States. \u003cbr/\u003eHe is confident hat if it (H5N1) is in wild birds then at they've got a plan to detect it.\u003cbr/\u003eEach May, some pectoral sandpipers make a stop on the Anchorage salt marsh, a beach of mud, grass and brackish ponds that stretches a thousand feet to Cook Inlet.\u003cbr/\u003eBird tracks blanket the bottom of the shallow ponds. \u003cbr/\u003eBiologists have erected an 8-foot-tall, 45-foot-wide fine-mesh mist net. \u003cbr/\u003eOver the course of one day, the net captured more than 20 sandpipers in several varieties.\u003cbr/\u003eThe biologists quickly extract the birds, puts them into cloth bags and takes them to a table where Gill and other scientists use digital calipers (An instrument of two curved hinged legs, used to measure thickness and distances) to measure beaks, wings and legs.\u003cbr/\u003eGill takes a bird, bands its leg, takes a blood and feather sample, and holding the bird upside down, swabs for a faecal sample. \u003cbr/\u003eThe H5N1 virus replicates in a bird's intestines.\u003cbr/\u003eOther Alaska biologists at more than 40 remote sites will focus on waterfowl, seabirds and perching birds. \u003cbr/\u003eSeveral thousand hunter-killed birds also will be checked with the help of local subsistence hunters.\u003cbr/\u003eThe samples will be gathered from Alaska and sent to the USGS National Wildlife Health Centre lab in Madison, Wisconsin for testing. \u003cbr/\u003eThe scientists hope that their work on the frontiers of the US will alert the country's health 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