Iowa lab stands ready in bird flu battle

By Bob Burgdorfer

AMES, Iowa (Reuters) – Dressed in lab coats, latex gloves
and protective eye wear, scientists at the National Veterinary
Services Laboratory in Iowa stand at the center of the U.S.
battle against avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu.

Should suspicions of bird flu arise in U.S. flocks or wild
birds, this is the nerve center where final testing would
confirm or refute the presence of the disease.

“Ours is the final word,” said Brundaban Panigrahy, head of
the laboratory’s avian viruses section.

If the more deadly bird flu strain, which is now only
overseas, is found, the Ames laboratory would alert Washington.

“Our laboratory serves as the reference laboratory for
USDA. Our laboratory confirms all outbreaks of avian
influenza,” said Dennis Senne, a microbiologist at the
facility.

On Tuesday, the laboratory, which is a unit of the U.S.
Agriculture Department, held an open house for the news media
that included demonstrations on treating chickens and eggs to
determine reactions to viruses.

Demand for the laboratory’s testing for bird flu has
increased following an increase in government funding to keep
the disease out or to fight it in a possible U.S. outbreak. The
greater funding has produced more surveillance, and that
surveillance has increased testing, said Beverly Schmitt,
director of diagnostics.

There are many strains of bird flu — some serious, some
not. It is the serious ones, particularly the deadly H5N1
strain, that have these scientists as well as the U.S.
government worried.

H5N1 has spread through Asia, Africa and Europe, and has
killed 124 people since 2003. It has never been found in the
United States, but scientists and agriculture officials believe
migratory birds or imported birds could bring it here.

Currently, the virus is spread from birds to people.
Scientists are worried the virus could mutate and spread from
people to people. If that happens, they believe millions would
be at risk.

The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that
limited human-to-human transmission of bird flu might have
occurred in an Indonesian family, which rattled financial
markets.

Concern has been growing about the case in north Sumatra in
which seven family members from Kubu Sembilang village died
this month. The case is the largest family cluster known to
date.

Meanwhile, China said on Wednesday it had confirmed an
outbreak of H5N1 among wild birds in remote far-western Qinghai
province and in Tibet. China has reported almost 40 outbreaks
of bird flu in poultry across a dozen provinces over the past
year.

U.S. HAS TACKLED LESS HARMFUL AVIAN FLU STRAINS

Should U.S. tests ever discover H5N1, the Iowa laboratory
would notify USDA in Washington and USDA would then inform the
World Organization for Animal Health in Paris.

“Our responsibility is to pass that information on to
(Washington) D.C.,” said Beth Lautner, the laboratory’s
director.

U.S. Congress recently approved $3.8 billion to fight bird
flu, and that funding has led to increased surveillance.

“We have increased our staff because we have greater demand
for materials to perform the diagnostic tests and also because
of increased testing because of the increased surveillance,”
said Schmitt.

The bird flu unit of the Ames facility is solely for
locating, identifying, and isolating the virus.

“We are not into vaccine production — that is another
area,” said Lautner.

Low-pathogenic flu strains, which are the less harmful
versions, have occurred in the United States. These outbreaks
have resulted in the destruction of flocks amid worries the
strain could evolve into a more dangerous one.

The previous outbreaks have helped the government prepare
for a more dangerous virus, Senne said.

“We have a lot of experience dealing with outbreaks in
poultry, either from flu or Newcastle disease,” said Senne,
referring to the highly contagious Newcastle virus which can be
fatal for poultry but causes, at worst, a minor illness in
humans. “We have the machinery, it’s well-oiled. We have a
plan. We can respond, and I think we are in pretty good shape.”