Subject: Message from Chairman on bird flu 主席關於禽流感的呼籲 [Print This Page] Author: HKBWS WY Time: 6/02/2008 14:53 Subject: Message from Chairman on bird flu 主席關於禽流感的呼籲
Dear HKBWS members and Hong Kong citizens,
This winter’s H5N1 outbreaks in HK have been very unusual. There were 2 Little Egrets in Tuen Mun Park, 1 Grey Heron in Lok Ma Chau, 1 Common Buzzard in Lantau Island, 1 Night Heron in Ocean Park, and now 1 suspected Great Egret in Tam Kon Chau. What so uncommon this winter is that the outbreaks involved mostly wild Egrets and Herons. I think there are sufficient preliminary evidences for serious concern of a more substantial outbreak in Hong Kong this month. Hong Kong is much more vulnerable to H5N1 attack on wild birds this year because:
1. The recent outbreak seems to involve wild birds. The link to poultry and wild bird trade is not there.
2. It seems that wild Egrets and Herons are particular vulnerable this year. Since Egrets and Herons are gregarious, the chance of a large-scale outbreak is very real.
3. The level of alert of HKSAR government and the press is low at present. After about 2-years of high level alert, fatigue has finally taken control. Recently Hong Kong citizens are quite insensitive to isolated cases of H5N1 outbreak.
Here I call on to HKBWS members and HK citizens to keep a very high alert level. If dead birds are found, please report to AFCD and ask them to check the bird for H5N1 virus. The mechanism the H5N1 virus transmission in HK this winter is still unknown. Unless there are more clues, it would be much harder to stop outbreaks in the future.
For HKBWS members, any abnormal behaviors of bird (such as sick birds) near egretry should be bought to the attention of the society (to me, Captain Wong, or Yu Yat Tung). I hope the society can work together to provide some monitoring that could help to stop the outbreak of H5N1 in HK.
HF Cheung
Chairman,
Hong Kong Bird Watching Society
It is not stated exactly where the bird was found but it has taken the government one week to confirm that it was H5N1. Author: sdavid Time: 10/02/2008 15:20
Is it feasible that these birds may have preyed on diseased (released) smaller birds i.e. munias, particularly in areas such as Tuen Mun park?
The larger heron species(Grey Heron, Great Egret) and Buzzard would almost certainly prey on smaller birds I would think having seen Grey Herons prey on small mammals back in the UK. Not sure if the Little Egrets or Night Herons would prey on smaller birds though - perhaps others have seen evidence of smaller birds in the diets of the smaller ardeid species - I'd be interested to hear.
I think the Society and members have an important part to play in the monitoring/reporting/education of this subject, to echo comments in other threads. Author: wcaptain Time: 11/02/2008 09:23
Just a factual information for sharing.
NH do eat small birds (Crested Bulbul/Munias) but their diet is mainly fish and frogs. GH and GE are basically fish-eating waterbirds.
About the flu, it is not surprised to see few individuals dead due to the flu. We probably have >7000 egrets and herons here. So, the % is still very low.
Captain Author: wmartin Time: 11/02/2008 16:01 Subject: How to infect a heron or egret?
Indeed intriguing re just how these herons/egrets have been infected.
If not scavenging bird corpses (with Grey Heron before, I've wondered re scavenging dead chickens tossed into creeks),
then perhaps from water - but why so few individuals, why not ducks (which we know can readily catch n spread wild bird flus - Anatidae evidently being chief reservoirs of these wild flus)?
From fish, with sufficient virus in stomachs?? (maybe after eating poultry manure, offal from infected poultry?) Author: cgeoff Time: 12/02/2008 10:04
It is important to know how many landbirds have been tested by AFCD this winter. If the incidence of testing these is similar to that last winter, then it would be valid to say there has been a shift in occurrence. However, I suspect AFCD is testing fewer passerines this winter.
I also wouldn't be surprised if the bird market stallholders are being more careful in how they dispose of sick birds.
As Captain points out, the incidence among waterbirds is still very low, albeit slightly higher than previous years.
With regard to ensuring an appropriate perception of the risk among the public is maintained, it doesn't help matters that public parks and Ocean Park have remained open despite bird flu cases, while Mai Po is closed down.
Geoff
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