# 6190
NDTV or New Delhi Television, is a commercial broadcast network in India that features a good deal of English language programming.
Today they’ve uploaded a news video to their YouTube channel reporting on fresh concerns over the deaths of thousands of crows across several Indian states (see H5N1: A Murder Of Crows).
`Science reporting’ via the mass media often suffers from a lack of scientific specificity, and occasionally indulges in a bit of speculation as well.
I think it’s fair to say that this media report contains a bit of both. The opening monologue reads:
After remaining clean for five years, India saw an outbreak of avian influenza or bird flu in the eastern states early this year. But this time there is the threat of a possible new virus circulating in the environment. Over 6000 crows have died across several states. Only 20 samples have shown up positive for bird flu. The rest have died of unidentified causes. After ignoring the problem, the government is now moving quickly to work out an emergency outbreak plan to identify the virus and contain the epidemic.
You will find a short interview with FAO representative John Weaver, calling for an epidemiological investigation into these bird deaths and the testing for pathogens other than H5N1 that may be contributing to these crow deaths.
Bird flu virus changing DNA, 6000 crows dead
While an interesting report, a few caveats to consider:
The opening statement that `After remaining clean for five years, India saw an outbreak of avian influenza or bird flu in the eastern states early this year’ seems a dubious start, since India has reported outbreaks of the H5N1 virus to the OIE every year since 2006.
Similarly, the claim `Over 6000 crows have died across several states. Only 20 samples have shown up positive for bird flu. The rest have died of unidentified causes.’ gives the impression that all 6000 crows were tested for bird flu. Something I’ve not seen reported.
And lastly, the headline Bird flu virus changing DNA, 6000 crows dead - in the absence of genetic tests showing mutations - appears to be highly speculative (not to mention the fact that influenza is an RNA virus).
Despite these limitations, this report illustrates that more than three months after thousands of crows began dying mysteriously across several Indian states, we still know surprisingly little about the cause or causes.
