The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission along with the U.S. Department of Agriculture are wrapping up a five-year avian influenza monitoring project.
The project was designed to determine if migratory birds carried the Asian strain of the highly avian flu virus to the U.S. and luckily no sign of the virus was found in the more than 450,000 samples taken nationwide, including 5,200 plus samples from Florida.
Biologists started the project in 2006 in an effort to rapidly detect and quickly respond should avian flu reach the U.S.
There have been no reported cases of avian influenza in humans in the United States but a number of people in other countries became sick or died from that virus after extensive, direct contact with infected poultry.
In Florida, much of the success of this project came from the voluntary participation of duck hunters who allowed biologists to sample the birds they harvested.
Biologists collected nearly 3,000 samples at hunter check stations in several of Florida’s wildlife management areas.
The remaining Florida samples came from bird die-off investigations.
While avian influenza has not been found in the U.S., officials ask that hunters and outdoorsmen report any bird die-offs so they can be investigated .
Observations of die-offs can be reported on-line at MyFWC.com/Bird.
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