Satellites to Track Bird Flu Virus Spread

A U.S.-led team of scientists is using satellite data to predict avian influenza’s spread and create an accurate early warning system.

The international team, led by Professor Xiangming Xiao of the University of New Hampshire, was recently awarded $1.55 million for a 4-year project by the U.S. National Institutes for Health to develop quantitative analysis and modeling capacity for better understanding the relationship between man-made environmental change and transmission of infectious agents.

The project will use environmental remote sensing data from Earth observing satellites in combination with research in epidemiology, ornithology and agriculture to provide a better picture of how the bird flu virus survives and is transmitted among poultry and wild birds.

The study will focus on China, where outbreaks of the virus have been prominent.

The strength of our group, and of this proposal, is that over the last few years we’ve been able to pull a lot of information out of satellite observations that can help unravel the complex risk factors involved in avian flu ecology, said Xiao.

Xiao’s team includes scientists from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and research institutes in Belgium and China.