OWSTON'S CIVETS AFFECTED BY BIRD FLU VIRUS

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Last Updated: Wednesday, 19 April 2006, 10:46 GMT 11:46 UK

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Bird flu's 'risk to biodiversity'

By Helen Briggs

BBC News science reporter

 

 

 

[image: Owston's civets] The Owston's civet is prized by bushmeat

restaurants

*The spread of bird flu poses serious risks to biodiversity, say scientists

who have detailed an outbreak of the virus in Owston's civets.*

 

The mammal is a small, endangered carnivore that lives in the forests of

Vietnam, Laos and southern China.

 

Three animals died at a conservation centre in northern Vietnam last summer.

It is not known how they contracted the virus, as they do not eat poultry.

 

The scientists report the cases in a journal of the UK's Royal Society.

 

The team - from the UK, Vietnam and China - call for better monitoring of

the H5N1 virus in wild animals.

 

" H5N1 could pose a risk to a variety of wild birds and mammals, " lead author

Diana Bell, of the Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation at the

University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK, told the BBC News website.

 

" We need to be screening wild birds and mammals in those countries where the

virus has been present for some time.

 

" We mustn't be totally anthropocentric in our focus on H5N1. It doesn't only

kill humans and poultry; it also kills a wide variety of wild birds and

carnivorous mammals. "

 

*Biodiversity threat*

 

H5N1 has killed birds in at least 11 of the 27 avian orders, including

gulls, storks, pigeons, eagles, cranes, pelicans, parrots and owls.

 

It's not known how the civets were infected

It has also infected tigers, leopards and domestic cats fed contaminated

meat, and ferrets and mice in laboratory studies.

 

Dr Bell's team warns that the disease poses a threat to bird and mammal

biodiversity in many Asian countries that are " global hotspots " for

conservation.

 

" This report illustrates the ease with which this influenza A H5N1 virus can

cross species barriers and reinforces the pandemic concern engendered by its

progressively increasing geographic range, " they write in the Proceedings of

the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

 

The civets that died were part of a conservation scheme in Cuc Phuong

National Park that coordinates an international breeding programme for the

species.

 

QUICK GUIDE

 

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Owston's civet (*Chrotogale owstoni*) is listed as globally threatened and

is losing numbers to hunting and trapping.

 

Its meat is prized by bushmeat restaurants, its body parts by traditional

medicine makers and its skin by taxidermists in Vietnam and China.