Migratory birds not responsible for bird flu

Accra, May 10, GNA - Dr Erasmus Owusu, Acting Executive Director, Ghana Wildlife Society (GWS) on Thursday refuted allegations that birds that migrated to the shores of Ghana during winter in Europe were responsible for the outbreak of bird flu in Ghana.

He said although there had been evidence around the world that wild birds were responsible for the outbreak of the virus in some European countries, this had not been the case with Ghana.

"We have been collaborating with the Veterinary Services, the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission and the other research agencies to find out if any of the birds that migrated to Ghana had any of the bird flu strain, but have till date not found any," he told journalists at a press conference in Accra.

The press conference was to draw attention to World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD), a global event, scheduled to take place on May 12 under the theme: "Migratory Bird in a Changing Climate".

The day is a global initiative devoted to celebrating the beauty of migrating birds and for promoting their conservation worldwide. The day would be marked in Ghana by bird watching at the Ramsar sites across the Greater Accra Region, by patrons of the GWS, Club members, tourists and people from all walks of life and the screening of a film "An Inconvenient Truth" at the GWS.

Mr Owusu said the GWS had since last year been taking and monitoring blood sample of the migratory birds that visited the country, especially within the wetlands to ensure that they did not have any strain of the bird flu and so far all the reports had proved negative. "Where the bird flu was first detected in Ghana was no where near the Ramsar site where the birds are found," he said, adding, "surveillance is still being carried out and the samples were being sent to countries in Europe to ensure that the migratory birds were not the vectors for the transmission of the bird flu.

Mr Owusu said the need to mark the WMBD in Ghana was very essential so as to draw attention on the need to conserve the birds so that they did not become extinct as was becoming the case. He cited the Roseatte Terns as a case of near extinction, which was halted through conservation efforts instituted by the GWS and Bird Life International both NGOs.

The Roseatte Terns are migratory birds identified to have flown from the United Kingdom to Ghana during wintertime, but diminished in numbers when they went back after the season, especially due to trapping and capture by some Ghanaians. "The goal of WMBD 2007 is to try to focus attention on the plight of migratory birds and to highlight the way they are being affected by climate change in the same way as all living things.

"Climate change has severe consequences for these nomads of the skies: it causes the loss of essential bird habitats, changes migration patterns and increases the competitions for food between migrating birds and residents," he said.

Dr Chiambeng Paulinus Ngeh of the Birdlife International, West African sub-Regional Office based in Nigeria, praised Ghanaians for not showing any panic during the announcement of the bird flu outbreak. This, he noted, was a clear indication of how well the education had been taken by the populace.

He urged Ghanaians to take the issues of conservation more seriously, especially in relation to migratory birds since such birds could offer extraordinary opportunity for international collaboration. Dr Ngeh said factors responsible for declines in migratory birds were often not clear, but named land use change owing to, agriculture, deforestation and desertification as some of the single main threat affecting 60 per cent of all threatened and near threatened species. 10 May 07