By - Linda Gallagher

LANSING-Waterfowl hunters contemplating the 2006 goose and duck hunting seasons, need not be overly concerned regarding the recent discovery of a variety of avian flu in Michigan, said Steve Schmitt, the DNR’s disease specialist.

"Normal precautions, such as wearing gloves when field dressing the birds, avoiding contact with body fluids, and eating only thoroughly cooked wild fowl, are all that is needed," Schmitt said, noting that the variety of avian flu discovered in two wild mute swans in southeastern Michigan last week is of a low pathogenic type, meaning that the disease not only poses no danger whatsover to people, but most likely would not have been lethal to the infected birds themselves.

"There are many, many different types of avian influenza," Schmitt continued. "The type that we are concerned about which has gotten so much media attention in the last year or so is of Asian origin, while what these swans had was one of the much less dangerous North American varieties."

The swans in question were tested after being killed, along with 27 other birds, during a de-population effort in the state’s popular Pte. Mouilee waterfowling area on Lake Erie near the city of Monroe. "Only 2 of the 25 birds tested showed positive," Schmitt said.

Earlier reports of two Canada geese found with the disease were also erroneous, Schmitt said. "We have not found any evidence of any diseased geese at all, only the two swans, during our surveillance testing, which is getting underway all over the state, including northern Michigan and the UP."

More than 200 birds, including a variety of ducks and geese, have already been tested, he said.

Being done in cooperation with the Department of Agriculture using US Fish & Wildlife Service personnel as well as DNR staff, the widespread surveillance project will continue through this fall, Schmitt said. "We’ll be setting up strategic checkpoints near popular waterfowling areas where we will ask hunters to volunteer ducks and geese taken while hunting for testing."

Testing is also being done on waterfowl found dead for no obvious reason, and on live birds, the veterinarian said. "We already tested more than 100 Canada geese during spring banding efforts all over the state."

The discovery of the two diseased swans was made by personnel at Michigan State University's Diagnostic Center for Population and Animal Health, a part of USDA’s National Animal Health Laboratory Network. Similar to bovine TB and other testing done for animal diseases, the process is done in three steps, with the final and most conclusive diagnosis coming from the USDA Research Laboratory in Ames, Iowa. That information will be available in another few weeks, Schmitt said.

Low pathogen avian influenza is fairly common in North America, he continued. "Again, this is NOT of the strain that is any type of threat to either humans or domestic poultry of any kind. We have seen this particular strain before, on a number of occasions, as a part of routine occasional sampling. We were not overly surprised to hear this diagnosis. If testing were done more often, I’m sure it would show up a lot more."

The veterinarian added that he is more concerned about mis-information being circulated and causing possible panic among waterfowlers than he is about any possible threat of avian influenza. "Using the usual safe-guards, just as most hunters did when West Nile virus was a problem, will alleviate any chance of the transmission of avian influenza, which has only infected people on a few rare occasions, all of them incidences where people were living under crude, unsanitary conditions with poultry in the same area."

"Wearing gloves when field dressing, avoiding coming into contact with the bird’s blood, particularly if you have any open cuts or wounds, and making sure sure that the meat is cooked to at least 165 degrees is something that all hunters should do routinely, no matter what type of game species they’re handling," he said.