# 1108
The debate over the role of wild birds vs. domesticated birds in the spread of avian flu has teetered back and forth for a couple of years now. Every few months we seem to get an announcement declaring one side or the other relatively innocent, or guilty.
Today, the UN apparently is placing the majority of the blame on domesticated birds; poultry mostly, often raised in squalid and unsanitary conditions, and moved surreptitiously across borders.
Sep 3, 6:35 AM EDT
U.N. says domestic birds mainly to blame for spreading bird flu, not wild birds
By MICHAEL CASEY
AP Environmental WriterBANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Samples from 350,000 healthy wild birds in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas have tested negative for bird flu, offering further proof that spread of the virus is mostly contained in domesticated poultry, the United Nations said Monday.
But experts at a three-day workshop on the issue said increased and better coordinated surveillance of wild bird populations was necessary, given that individual birds from 90 species have been found to carry the deadly H5N1 virus. Most of those were either sick or dead birds.
"We know from global wildlife surveillance (that) 300,000 to 350,000 healthy, wild birds have been sampled looking for this virus. It hasn't been found," Scott Newman, the international wildlife coordinator for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, said of the survey results taken between 2005 and 2007.
"We know now that we haven't found a species that even suggests that it would be a reservoir for this disease," he added.
The problem, of course, is that H5N1 has certainly been found in wild birds. Genetic sequencing has shown that the viruses popping up today in wild birds in Europe and Africa match those very closely that were first seen in China and Mongolia. Wild birds are obviously part of the equation.
The question is: How big a part?
These UN experts aren't quite ready to exonerate wild birds altogether. They are still urging monitoring and testing, particularly in areas where wild and domesticated birds may intermingle.
So the debate rages on, with no clear cut answers. Today, the focus is on domesticated birds. Last year, after the explosive growth in geographic range of the virus, migratory birds were on the hot seat. Tomorrow, or next month . . . we'll just have to wait and see.
This debate may never be solved, when quite obviously, both wild and domestic birds play a role.
