Increased West Nile Virus (WNV) reportage in the western hemisphere has been
happening for the last few years and it is not the only one on the move. At
a recent emerging diseases meeting at the Australian Animal Health
Laboratories there were quite a number of orange light diseases discussed
many of which are either bird or bat related. The Garnaut report highlighted
briefly the role of climate change in the movement of diseases and this was
an emphasis at this conference. However we should be very mindful that the
movement of H5N1 throughout the world has never been conclusively tied to
wild birds and most outbreaks have been tracked down to the legal and
illegal bird trade and the poultry industry. Birds, like bats are at real
risk of misplaced actions to reduce disease risks when the data indicates
they are victims rather than vectors.
The sampling of thousands of Charadriiformes (particularly godwits) both
here and in NZ has failed to find any of the main target viruses in birds
migrating through Asia to the tundra. There has also been limited work done
on pelagic migrants such as shearwaters with a similar negative result. Ciao
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