Cooperative Extension Service Communications and Technology Department 3354 1000 E. University Ave. Laramie, WY 82071 (307) 766-2540 • fax (307) 766-3998 • www.uwyo.edu

 

For Immediate Release

 

Contact: Robert Waggener, Editor

Phone: (307) 766-3571

E-mail: robertw@uwyo.edu

 

Date: June 15, 2006

 

Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory will test birds for H5N1

            The Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory (WSVL) will test nearly 1,000 free-ranging migratory waterfowl for possible infection of the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1.

            “The testing will occur this summer and fall as part of a national surveillance effort to track the possible movement of the H5NI strain across North America should it be imported from Asia on the Pacific Flyway,” said Donal O’Toole, director of the WSVL, which is managed by the University of Wyoming College of Agriculture’s Department of Veterinary Sciences.

            The testing will be conducted by veterinary sciences department Assistant Professor Nicky Bratanich and her staff in the virology and diagnostic serology sections of the WSVL.

            Bratanich participated in a media panel with other state and federal agencies June 13 in Casper to explain how the state will undertake surveillance for the disease, O’Toole said.

            Other participants were from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wyoming Department of Agriculture, Wyoming Department of Health and Wyoming Livestock Board.

            “Dr. Bratanich’s laboratory will provide the state’s testing capability,” O’Toole said.

            Terry Creekmore with the Wyoming Department of Health said many of the samples sent to the WSVL will come from birds trapped live in Wyoming. After cloacal samples are taken, the birds will be released unharmed.

            “Other samples will come from hunter-killed waterfowl (mostly geese) this fall and birds found dead,” Creekmore said.

            Avian influenza is a general term used to describe a widely endemic viral infection present in wild populations of waterfowl and many other bird species at all times, according to the Wyoming Livestock Board.

            The emergence and spread of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 subtype in Asia over the past few years has elevated concerns about the virus reaching North America.

                Information about HPAI and Wyoming’s possible response is posted on the livestock board’s Web page at http://wlsb.state.wy.us/animalhealth/AI.htm.

###