Saturday 3-15-08, The Molokai DispatchCommunity asked to keep reporting dead birds
Community members from across the state helped form a network to monitor for the arrival of two potentially harmful diseases, bird flu (avian influenza, H5N1) and West Nile Virus. Neither of these diseases is present in Hawai‘i, but they could arrive, and early detection could potentially minimize impacts to people, domestic animals and wildlife. Last year, citizen monitoring and reporting of dead birds resulted in nearly 500 calls and online reports across the state. Of these, nearly two hundred birds were deemed appropriate for testing, and all results were negative for these viruses.
“Dead bird reporting is an important part of Hawai‘i’s monitoring effort to find these diseases as soon as possible, while there may still be a chance to eradicate them here,” said Laurence Lau, Deputy Director for Environmental Health at the Hawai‘i Department of Health.
