- Note - We received the following email exchanges between
Dr. Patricia Doyle, PhD and Hugh Montgomery, Executive Director of IDHS
(Institute for Defense and Homeland Security). Many listeners - especially
those in the poultry industry - were deeply concerned by the H5N1 report.
We are most grateful to Dr. Patricia Doyle for researching the allegation
and reveailng the claim to be without merit as presented. -ed
-
-
- From: Patricia Doyle, PhD
- Sent: Tue 1/25/2005 3:18 PM
- To: Hugh Montgomery
- Subject: re Falcon Suspected of having HPAI A H5N1
-
- Respectfully, Mr. Montgomery: I have become aware of
the alleged case of a peregrine falcon suspected to be HPAI type A H5N1
positive and found in the US.
-
- Can you give me some further details about the falcon?
-
- Has the falcon been confirmed positive for the virus
and what tests have been completed. Has Plum Island been doing the testing?
What other labs are involved?
-
- Do we have any information on the falcon, i.e. place
of origin?
-
- The very first case of HPAI A H5N1 in Hong Kong was a
Peregrine Falcon. When I heard about a Peregrine Falcon found in the US
and suspected of having HPAI A H5N1 I assumed the case was confused with
the Hong Kong case dating back to January 2004.
-
- Please advise with any details that you have at this
time.
-
- Patricia Doyle
- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD
-
-
- From: Hugh Montgomery
- To: Patricia Doyle, PhD dr_p_doyle@hotmail.com
- CC: Leslie Williams
- Subject: RE: Falcon Suspected of having HPAI A H5N1
- Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005
-
- Apologize for brevity, but away from office and reading
remotely. Unaware of falcon confirmed positive in the US. Confusion with
January 2004 case? If you hear differently, would appreciate your letting
us know.
-
- Thanks,
- Hugh Montgomery
-
-
- -----Original Message-----
-
- From: Patricia Doyle, PhD
- Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2005 5:46 PM
- To: Hugh Montgomery
- Subject: RE: re Falcon Suspected of having HPAI A H5N1
-
- Thank you for your response. I heard Dr. Joseph Resnick
on a late night national talkradio show Sunday night-Monday morning stating
that the US found H5N1 bird flu in a dead Peregrine Falcon in the eastern
US. Resnick specified the dreaded Asian bird flu type A H5N1. He referred
to an email from you as his source for the statment.
-
- I have sent out tons of emails to colleagues in the
Poultry industry, Plum Island and othe wildlife labs, USGS, FWS, wildlife
pathologists, and of course, to collegaues at Promed. Everyone replied
with the same response, "no case of A H5N1 in a peregrine falcon in
the US."
-
- Needless to say, we are all very interested in knowing
about a case of H5N1. Keeping the lid on such an event would put the poultry
industry at risk, as well as wildlife and human lives. If we know about
a disease we can prepare and give it our best fight. We also avoid panic.
-
- I believe that Dr. Resnick might have confused the case
of a peregrine falcon found in Hong Kong on Jan. 26, 2004 confirmed to
have H5N1. At that time, authorities could not figure out how the Peregrine
falcon became infected with H5N1.
-
- I don't believe that Dr. Resnick's background is medical
or wildlife epidemiology and I assume that he might also be confusing confirmed
avian influenza cases in the US. The cases, thus far, that are confirmed
in the US have not been H5N1. It is quite possible that he does not understand
the different strains of Avian Influenza or the importance in differentiating
between them.
-
- In any event, please do keep me updated as to any US
cases, and I will keep you updated when I receive information on any.
-
- Patricia Doyle
-
-
- From: Hugh Montgomery
- To: Patricia Doyle, PhD dr_p_doyle@hotmail.com
- Subject: RE: re Falcon Suspected of having HPAI A H5N1
- Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005
-
- Dr. Doyle,
-
- Much appreciate your response. I met Dr. Resnick once,
when he visited my office on January 6th. I can find no record of, nor
do I recall sending an e-mail to him. It is possible that the Asian Peregrine
Falcon case came up in the discussion as an example of potential animal
transmission of disease. If so, the discussion must have been misunderstood,
and then taken well out of context. I am aware of no H5N1 cases in the
US.
-
- FYI, funding is appropriated in the 2005 DOD budget for
IDHS' Environmental Bioterrorism Detection Program to begin the process
of linking the national wildlife hospitals into the DOD Epidemic Outbreak
Surveillance network as a first line of defense.
-
- Many thanks,
- Hugh Montgomery
-
-
-
- Here is the article of the January 26, 2004 Hong Kong
Case of Peregrine Falcon Found Infected with H5N1. The article was posted
on my message board. It is my theory that the person who first broke information
about a US case of an infected Peregrine Falcon might have been confused
with the Peregrine Falcon case found in Hong Kong. - Patricia Doyle
-
-
- Dead Falcon In Hong Kong Found To Be Infected
With Bird Flu
-
- By Keith Bradsher
- NY Times
- January 22, 2004
-
- HONG KONG, Jan. 21 -- A dead
peregrine falcon found near two chicken farms here was infected with the
avian influenza virus, agricultural officials here said Wednesday. The
dead falcon was the first sign that the disease, which is spreading in
chicken flocks in Vietnam, South Korea and Japan, may also be present in
China.
-
- Hong Kong officials said they would respond by stepping
up the monitoring of chicken farms for the disease, with inspections continuing
through the Chinese New Year holidays beginning on Thursday.
-
- World Health Organization officials have been alarmed
about the spread of the influenza virus, the A(H5N1) strain of bird flu.
They have described the scale of its spread as "unprecedented"
and warned that the disease could evolve to spread from person to person,
and not just from birds to people.
-
- Thailand and Laos have also reported large scale deaths
of chickens in the last several days. While both have insisted that the
problem is bird cholera, Thai officials said Wednesday that they were testing
three people for possible bird flu.
-
- The W.H.O. has confirmed five cases in people in Vietnam,
all of whom apparently contracted the disease from chickens and all of
whom have died.
-
- Testing of wild birds began last March in Hong Kong after
two residents became infected with the virus and one died. Agricultural
officials have collected more than 6,000 samples from wild birds since
then and found no infections until the falcon.
-
- An agricultural worker found the falcon's body on Monday
less than seven miles from the border between Hong Kong, a special autonomous
region of China, and Shenzhen, an adjacent Chinese city. But Lai Ching-wai,
Hong Kong's assistant director for agricultural inspection and quarantine,
said experts could not guess where the bird had become infected.
-
- A dozen peregrine falcons live in Hong Kong year-round,
typically foraging within a 15-mile radius of their favorite roosts. But
another 30 to 40 falcons winter here after migrating from breeding grounds
as far away as Siberia. Agricultural officials here have not been able
to determine whether the dead bird was migratory or resident.
-
- Mr. Lai said that the migratory falcons do not travel
to South Korea or Japan, which have been slaughtering chickens in response
to outbreaks of bird flu there. China, Mongolia and Russia " along
potential flight paths to Siberia " have not acknowledged having any
cases of bird flu.
-
- Roy Wadia, a spokesman in Beijing for the World Health
Organization, said that the agency had asked the Ministry of Health there
a few days ago about the disease in China but had not received a reply.
-
- The Chinese Agriculture Ministry announced Monday that
it was requiring local officials to report daily whether they had detected
any cases of bird flu. China has also banned poultry imports from countries
where flu infections have been found.
-
- Pathologists are conducting tests to determine whether
the falcon here died of the virus or some other cause. While bird flu is
lethal to domesticated fowl and has an estimated 30 percent mortality rate
in people, wild fowl appear to be less affected and sometimes can spread
the disease until they die of other causes.
-
- Hong Kong has had a half dozen outbreaks of flu in local
birds since 1997, when 18 people were infected and six of them died. The
recurrence of the disease here has fanned suspicions that it is present
in southern China, although Chinese officials have denied that.
-
- http://www.nytimes.com/
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