Fly-tech shedding light on whooper whereabouts Satellite tracking migrating swans as part of avian flu project

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Buck Stanley
5 years ago
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1 Fly-tech shedding light on whooper whereabouts Satellite tracking migrating swans as part of avian flu project Three are heading off in a north-east direction into the Russian Federation, one is winging south further into Mongolia and the other six still hanging around lakes Khaichn Tsagaan Nuur and Ih Delger Nuur where they were caught, marked and fitted out with radio transmitters in mid-august. They are the ten whooper swans chosen for an innovative project to track their migratory journey from Mongolia to wintering grounds elsewhere the international scientific team made up of scientists from FAO, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the Mongolian Academy of Sciences (MAS) and the Mongolian Wildlife Science Conservation Centre (MWSCC) hopes the solar-powered global positioning system (GPS) satellite transmitters strapped to the birds backs will help shed light on how wild birds may be involved in the spread of avian influenza. On the ground, the scientists will pick up the traces of the birds movements from the radio signals emitted by their backpacks and bounced back to the ground from overhead satellites. The data on the whereabouts of the birds will then be translated into visual tracks on maps, giving detailed pictures of where and when they go ( Whooper swans were captured by the international team on the grassland steppe of far eastern Mongolia, near the borders of the Russian Federation and China. Each year, swans moult their feathers after the breeding season, and during that flightless period, the birds were captured by biologists in boats and on foot. Small, 70-gram solar-powered transmitters were attached to the backs of 10 of the 8-kilogram large swans with backpack harnesses. The harnesses are made of Teflon ribbon that deteriorates and falls off of the birds within a few years. To date, a few have taken off and headed out, in some cases a few hundred kilometres, in other cases a handful of kilometres. Most are still hanging around the capture area waiting until their feathers have grown in again, have regained some of their body condition lost during the breeding and molt seasons, and are capable of taking to the air for sustained flight. The whooper swan surveillance project, which is also part of the Wild Bird Global Avian Influenza Network for Surveillance (GAINS) programme ( funded by USAID, is a FAO effort to directly respond to recommendations drawn up following the FAO-OIE International Scientific Conference on Avian Influenza and Wild Birds in May in Rome. These included a call for better understanding of wild bird behaviour, precise migratory strategies, locations of aggregation and convergence, and interactions between wildlife and domestic species. The whooper swan research is providing information on migration routes and informs governments about potential threats from diseases such as highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). We are working to understand the role wild birds may play in the spread of H5N1, said Dr Scott Newman, International Wildlife Coordinator for Avian Influenza for FAO, seconded from WCS. Although poultry and bird trade are probably the primary routes of movement, migratory birds are likely involved in some areas. Whooper swans drew increased attention after large numbers perished in Mongolia in 2005 and in western China in 2005 and 2006 in areas where few poultry are present. Subsequent sampling of the dead swans by WCS scientists Drs Martin Gilbert and William Karesh, verified that some of the swans were infected with HPAI. The ten swans backpacked in the current project all tested negative for type A influenza, the family of viruses to which HPAI belongs, using a rapid strip test made available under a wild canary project funded by the Institute for Defense and Homeland Security. However, tracheal and cloacal swab samples have been sent the Ames laboratory in Iowa for confirmation. The whooper swan project is scheduled to run for one year, although some of the birds may drop out if their radio batteries die, electronic transmission fails or harnesses break.

2 Whooper swan with radio transmitter seconds after release (Photo: John Takekawa) Base camp for swan project team in the Mongolian steppes (Photo: Nyambayar Batbayar)

html) Cumulative tracking map of whooper swans as at 15

3 Capture location of whooper swans, mid-august 2006 (USGS, Cumulative tracking map of whooper swans as at 15 September (USGS,

4 Tracking map of one whooper swan as at 15 September (USGS,

5 Other photos from whooper swan project: (Photo: John Takekawa) (Photo: John Takekawa)

6 (Photo: John Takekawa) (Photo: Byung Sun Chun)

7 (Photo: John Takekawa) (Photo: John Takekawa)

OIE Situation Report for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza

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