US boosts surveillance for avian flu

PHILADELPHIA -- From his poultry shop in Philadelphia's low-income Kensington neighborhood, Tony Tranh sells about 300 live birds each week, mainly to poor Asian and Hispanic immigrants.

He used to sell 600 live chickens, guinea hens, ducks, and pigeons a week, but that was before the avian flu scare.

''The people are scared," said Tranh, the owner of Mac's Poultry.

Not without reason. The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture temporarily closed two of Philadelphia's five live-bird markets last year after mild strains of the avian flu virus were detected during routine inspections. Those strains were different from the lethal H5N1 strain, and posed no threat to humans, the agency said.

But as the deadly H5N1 strain moves through Europe and parts of the Middle East and Africa, federal and state agriculture officials are taking no chances. They've increased avian flu testing at live-bird markets in 21 states, including Pennsylvania, New York, California, Texas, and Florida.

The heightened surveillance is occurring as the United States prepares, beginning in April, to increase avian flu testing of wild birds that are making their seasonal migration through Alaska after wintering in Asia.

The nation's $53 billion chicken industry also began a self-funded effort recently to test all commercial chicken flocks for avian flu before the birds are sent for processing. Officials hope that these early detection efforts will help avert an H5N1 outbreak, which could devastate the nation's health and economy.

The virus is on the move worldwide, spreading to 14 additional countries in February: Iraq, Niger, Nigeria, Italy, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Iran, Austria, Germany, Greece, Egypt, India, Azerbaijan, and France. It's killed millions of birds and more than 90 people worldwide.

H5N1 is spread from bird to bird and, more rarely, from bird to human. Health specialists fear that it will mutate to a form that passes easily from human to human and cause a worldwide pandemic.

The live-bird markets historically had been a weak link in the fight against bird flu because they'd been a persistent source of low-grade strains of the virus such as the recent outbreak in Philadelphia. While those strains are passed only from bird to bird, they too could mutate into more dangerous forms and move from human to human.

US chicken sales haven't been affected by the flu scare, but a recent survey by the Harvard School of Public Health suggested that 46 percent of people would stop eating chicken if bird flu hits the American poultry industry.

Those concerns, in part, helped spark the industry's nationwide testing program, which began in January. So far, 94 percent of the commercial farms that raise chickens for large companies such as Tyson and Perdue are participating. Those farms account for nearly all the chicken sold in the United States, said Richard Lobb, a spokesman for the National Chicken Council, a trade association that represents the US commercial chicken industry.

Federal law requires live-bird markets to be tested at least four times a year, but many states test more often. The New York City area's nearly 100 live markets are checked six to eight times a year, said Jessica Chittenden, a spokeswoman for the New York state Agriculture Department.

The Pennsylvania Agriculture Department leads the nation in flu surveillance, testing more than 240,000 samples a year. Tranh said state workers conduct unannounced inspections at least once a month.

In his store, Julie Dinh, a 35-year-old Vietnamese woman, bought three chickens that she'll use for soup. Dinh said she wasn't worried about avian flu because the H5N1 virus hadn't reached the United States. ''It doesn't scare me," Dinh said, and ''We eat a lot of chicken."

Tranh, however, knows that others are worried. He's considered whether to post his shop's negative test results in the window to assure customers that his birds are safe. ''My store is different," he said. ''My store is clean."

But cleanliness isn't the main problem, Lobb said. Live markets allow birds from a variety of farms to intermingle, increasing the chances that an infected fowl can pass the disease to other birds, store employees, and customers.

The chickens used by large processors such as Tyson Foods and Perdue Farms typically are born in hatcheries and taken to the farms when they're a day old, Lobb said.

On the farms, the birds are raised in giant enclosed buildings, protected from contact with wildlife and humans.

Farmers are encouraged to wear protective clothing when they enter the chicken houses, and all vehicles and equipment that transport and handle the birds must be disinfected.