Wildlife of Pakistan: Wildlife News (2005)

Can UAE falcons pose avian flu threat to Pakistan?

The News,

12/8/2005

http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/dec2005-daily/08-12-2005/national/n1.htm

Three peregrine falcons drugged with anesthetic are perched quietly on the floor of the Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital awaiting their turn to be checked for avian influenza.

They were confiscated at Abu Dhabi airport where their owners tried to smuggle them in with forged documentation, according to the hospital.

Although no cases of bird flu have been reported yet in the United Arab Emirates, authorities in the country’s oil-rich capital Abu Dhabi are taking no chances.

An elaborate prevention programme has been rolled out and a contingency plan involving the army drawn up to face the threat of the disease, which has killed nearly 70 people in Asia since 2003. All exotic birds and raptors such as falcons have been banned from entering the country and authorities are keeping close tabs on the comings and goings of the local stock of falcons using a mandatory registration system.

Emiratis, who are passionate falconers, can only train their falcons inside the country and are forced to practice the sport itself in places like Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Morocco as Asian destinations are off limits this year due to the risk of bird flu. The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has surfaced in neighboring Kuwait as well as in China, Croatia, Romania, Indonesia and elsewhere since October.

"Falconers and falcons have close contact. The falcon is like a child for them, it’s part of the family," says German doctor Margit Muller, director of the falcon hospital, located in the desert town of Sweihan near Abu Dhabi.

She says falcons can catch avian flu if they fly behind or hunt infected birds, a real risk given that the UAE is on the path of migrating birds and given the possibility that some falconers may not abide by the rules. "There is a possibility, we cannot rule it out," says the Bavarian vet, recruited four years ago to head the state-owned hospital, the largest of its kind in the region. In addition to treating nearly 4,000 falcons a year, the hospital has a quarantine facility for suspect birds of prey and a sophisticated laboratory to test for avian flu in all birds.

Muller says the laboratory currently runs almost 1,000 test samples per day from all over the UAE, but can double that if need be. "This gives us the chance to detect it in a few hours even if it’s H5N1," she says over the shrieks of a falcon being treated in a nearby room. "This in my eyes is one of the most important things: not only to know if you have avian influenza but really to detect if it is pathogenic (contagious) for humans."

Muller says the UAE is taking the lead in the Gulf in terms of its readiness to tackle the threat of bird flu. A national committee is heading the effort, which so far has involved closing down live poultry shops inside cities, inspecting farms, training municipal and health workers on how to deal with the disease and launching a public awareness campaign.

Migrating birds are also being tested and quarantine facilities to house suspect birds are being built around coastal areas and at airports, says Majid al-Mansuri, the committee’s secretary general. "We are taking our precautions. We are not in danger," he says. He dismisses the threat of bird flu from falcons, arguing that unlike most Far Eastern countries, residents of the UAE rarely come into contact with live poultry, which is bred at state-of-the-art farms outside city limits.

Mansuri says the only threat to the UAE would be an Asian bird flu pandemic given the country’s dependence on low-income workers from southeast Asia.