Avian Influenza Research Project

Avian Influenza, or bird flu, came to the world's notice as a human health issue in late 2005, when domestic birds in Asia became infected and their handlers became infected as well. Many suspected that the Avian Influenza was spread by migratory birds. Some focused on migratory waterfowl while LaMNA and its cooperators focused on migratory landbirds.

Photo courtesy Don Virgovic, USFS

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In the spring of 2006, LaMNA, The Institute for Bird Populations, and UCLA's Center for Tropical Research began coordinated landbird sampling in North and South America during the breeding and non-breeding seasons at banding stations. Cooperators take cloacal swabs and pull tail feathers for later analyses. Since then, over 30,000 viral samples and 16,000 feathers have been collected at LaMNA, MAPS (Monitoring and Avian Productivity and Survivorship), and MoSi (Monitoreo de Sobrevivencia Invernal) stations.

The goals of our research are to catalogue the occurrence and distribution of avian influenza sub-types, identify transmission paths in North American migratory landbirds, and to further the goal of developing custom vaccines against Influenza A.

For further details:

• NEW! Update on Avian Influenza Research from UCLA.
• click here for details on LaMNA's participation in Avian Influenza research;
• see UCLA's Center for Tropical Research's Avian Influenza research pages ;
• browse our list of reports and web pages on Avian Influenza; or
• contact C. John Ralph or Linda Long for more information about participating in this project.