(MY) migratory birds

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It wasn't the migrants - New Straits Times

 

KUALA LUMPUR: 22. 3 .06

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Migratory birds flying north did not spread the H5N1 bird flu virus to Penang.

 

Malaysian Nature Society executive director Dr Loh Chi Leong said

tests on more than 2,000 migratory birds came back negative.

 

He said this was because the birds spent winter in Australia, which

was free of the flu, before flying to Malaysia.

 

The birds include Eurasian curlews, redshanks, golden plovers, terns,

egrets and gulls.

 

" If these birds were infected, then we would be seeing many such dead

birds around. But we don't see that, " he added.

 

The only migratory birds capable of resisting the disease and

spreading the virus are ducks and geese.

 

" Yet these are not the species of birds that fly to our part of the

world, " he added.

 

Migratory birds flying to Malaysia later head north towards Siberia and Japan.

 

Areas like Tanjung Tuan and Kuala Gula are used by the birds for

feeding and resting during migration.

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Officers zero in on Kinta Nature Park - New Straits Times

 

 

BATU GAJAH: 22.3.06

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Seeking the origin of the virulent H5N1 which has spread throughout

Perak, the Department of Veterinary Services is concentrating its

efforts on the Kinta Nature Park, 3km from here.

 

 

The 950ha former mining pond houses a thriving community of wild birds

such as purple herons, black-crowned night herons, cattle egrets, grey

herons, little egrets and another 130 species which flock to the park

during their annual migration cycle.

 

Yesterday, a team of veterinary officers from Ipoh, assisted by

Wildlife Department staff, collected six samples from different

species and sent them to the Ipoh-based Veterinary Research Institute

to find out if the wild birds were carriers of the lethal virus.

 

The yet-to-be-gazetted Kinta Nature Park is only 5km from Kg Changkat

Tualang, Gopeng, where the H5N1 virus was detected last Thursday. As a

result, thousands of birds were culled in an operation within a one-km

radius of the village.

 

The veterinary team had to use shotguns to bring down the birds at the

park to enable them to take the faecal samples before burying them.