Not yet locally relevant, but worth knowing about. From an article in 
today's New York Times:

ROME, May 10 - The flocks of migratory birds that winged their way south to
Africa last autumn and then back over Europe in recent weeks did not carry
the H5N1 flu virus or spread it during their annual journey, scientists have
concluded, defying health officials' dire predictions.

International health officials had feared that the disease was likely to
spread to Africa during the winter migration and return to Europe with a
vengeance during the reverse migration this spring. That has not happened -
a significant finding for Europe, because it is far easier to monitor a
virus that exists domestically on farms, but not in nature.

"It is quiet now in terms of cases, which is contrary to what many people
had expected," said Ward Hagemeijer, an avian influenza specialist with
Wetlands International, an environmental group based in the Netherlands that
studies migratory birds.

In thousands of samples collected in Africa this winter, H5N1 was not
detected in a single wild bird, officials and scientists said. In Europe,
there have been only a handful of cases detected in wild birds since April
1, at the height of the northward migration.

The number of cases in Europe has decreased so dramatically compared to
February, when dozens of new cases were found daily, that experts believe
the northward spring migration played no role. There was one grebe in
Denmark on April 28 - the last case - as well as a falcon in Germany and a
few swans in France, according to the World Organization for Animal Health,
based in Paris... [article continues]



Janet Millenson
Potomac, MD (Montgomery County)

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"Look at the birds!" -- Pascal the parrot