November 04, 2005

Bird flu and your bird feeder

The ornithology lab at Cornell University, one of the nation's leading places for research on wild birds, has this advisory about bird flu.

Summary: there is not much to be concerned about in terms of catching anything from wild birds. If it spreads into humans, than human-to-human transmission will be the problem.

It is unknown if the avian H5N1 virus can cause significant mortality in songbirds. If H5N1 does make it to North America and is spread in populations of wild birds, long-term surveys such as Project FeederWatch will help us assess the impact of the virus.

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