Birds don't pay attention to flyways; neither should you

During previous outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in North America, the particular flyway where the cases were found often entered the conversation.

Roy Graber Headshot
(Bernard Mukarubibi | Freeimages.com)
(Bernard Mukarubibi | Freeimages.com)

During previous outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in North America, the particular flyway where the cases were found often entered the conversation.

However, Dr. Yuko Sato, poultry extension veterinarian for Iowa State University, cautions not to think that the risk of an infection is reduced if the outbreak is outside of your particular flyway. Sato spoke on March 10 during the Poultry Foreign Animal Diseases and Responses webinar, hosted by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS), in partnership with the Iowa State University Center for Food Security and Public Health (CFSPH).

North America is divided into four flyways: Pacific, Central, Mississippi and Atlantic. But migratory birds do not exclusively stay in any particular flyway, Sato said.

“Just remember that birds don’t really care what flyway they’re in,” she told her audience, which largely consisted of residents of Iowa and the Mississippi flyway. “They could be coming from the Pacific flyway, and also intermingle, and they can also come from the east Atlantic flyway, even though Iowa is not technically in that pattern.”

While there are presently no known cases of HPAI in North America, there are many active cases of avian influenza in Asia, as well as in Europe and Africa.

And those Asian cases could be of particular concern to poultry producers in the United States and Canada. Sato mentioned the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Alaska. Birds from that refuge use each of the four north American flyways, and while at the refuge, they can even comingle with birds from Asia.

Sato said that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is predicting that the migratory pattern that is being seen during the global HPAI outbreak is mimicking the avian influenza situation seen in 2015, which is yet another reason to be cautious.

“Always, always think about the possibility of high-path (avian influenza) coming back to North America,” said Sato.

View our continuing coverage of the global avian influenza situation.

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