Wild Birds Likely NOT a Bird Flu Vector

Bad news for chickens and other domestic fowl:

Scientists have been unable to link the spread of the virus to migratory patterns, suggesting that the thousands of wild birds that have died, primarily waterfowl and shore birds, are not primary transmitters of bird flu.

If that holds true, it would suggest that shipments of domestic chickens, ducks and other poultry represent a far greater threat than does the movement of wild birds on the wing.

It also would underscore the need to pursue the virus in poultry farms and markets rather than in wild populations of birds if a possible pandemic is to be checked, U.S. and European experts said.

Bird scientists are now saying that despite this fall's fears that wild birds were spreading the H5N1 it appears that they play a minor role; the strain may have evolved specifically to exploit domestic poultry.

What this means for human transmissal of the virus is not clear. All we know right now is that it still does not transmit human-to-human.