By Derek Spellman
dspellman@joplinglobe.com
Several dozen people attended a workshop Thursday in Joplin about how local agencies would respond to a highly pathogenic form of bird flu.
Representatives of state and local health departments, state departments of conservation and agriculture, and local law-enforcement and animal-care agencies gathered to discuss different scenarios in which there would be an outbreak of that type of bird flu in animals or humans. No cases of such a virus have been reported in the United States, but the virus’ spread in Asia, Europe and Africa has prompted health officials to devise plans for its detection and containment.
“We want to be ready in case it does (enter the country),” said Howard Pue, a manager from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services who conducted the workshop at Missouri Southern State University.
The virus is naturally found in certain species of waterfowl and shorebirds, and generally poses a low risk of infection in humans. But, cases have been reported in other countries after people came into contact with infected poultry or with surfaces contaminated by the secretions and excretions of infected birds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Health officials say there is a concern about whether wild birds could carry the virus into the United States, and its potential impact on domestic poultry and humans. Potential routes by which the virus could penetrate the United States include the illegal movement of domestic or wild birds; the migration of infected wild birds; contaminated products brought into the country by a person; and bioterrorism.
The workshop included discussions about different ways of monitoring the wild bird population for signs of the virus, confirming a reported case and containing a potential outbreak.
Pue said many of the agencies represented at Thursday’s workshop already have discussed their individual responses to an outbreak of bird flu. The goal of the workshop was to bring multiple agencies together to avoid any overlap and to detail the different roles.
“We wanted people to understand each other’s roles and responsibilities,” he said.
Terms
The virus under discussion at Thursday’s workshop is technically called the influenza A virus, also called H5N1 virus. A total of 329 confirmed human cases of H5N1 have been reported to the World Health Organization since 2003.
