Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program

Avian influenza, also referred to as bird flu, has emerged as a worldwide public health concern.

We’re talking about a strain of avian influenza, which is the highly pathogenic H5N1. It really came to bear when the outbreaks started occurring in Southeast Asia and started moving through into Europe.

Dave Morrison is waterfowl program leader for Texas Parks and Wildlife. Although only about than four hundred cases of the flu have been reported in humans since the late 1990s…

This is not necessarily a disease of people; it’s a disease of birds, first and foremost. And migratory birds are a reservoir.

Health officials worldwide are scrutinizing migrating waterfowl as potential carriers of highly pathogenic H5N1. While the biggest outbreaks have been clustered in Southeast Asia…

A lot of the birds that migrate from Southeast Asia potentially come into contact with birds that migrate and nest and breed in Alaska. So in that overlap of birds, there could be some transmission of the disease with birds that filter from Alaska into Canada and the United States.

Tomorrow: Monitoring efforts in Texas.

That’s our show…supported by the Sport Fish and Wildlife restoration program… working to increase fishing, hunting, shooting and boating opportunities in Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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