photo by Rob Flynn, USDA Agricultural Research Service USDA veterinary medical officers evaluate tissue sections (top monitor) from chickens infected with Hong Kong H5N1 influenza. The bottom monitor displays a photo of chicken legs showing physical damage resulting from the flu virus.

The USDA’s Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory (SEPRL) in Athens, Ga., conducts extensive research on avian influenza and is collaborating with the Georgia Tech Research Institute on its development of an interferometric optical waveguide sensor to detect the disease in poultry.

For more information on SEPRL research, see seprl.ars.usda.gov/default.htm.

courtesy U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Avian influenza has been a major problem in the U.S. poultry industry since the 1960s. It is primarily spread by infected migratory aquatic birds – which rarely fall ill from the virus – that leave droppings around poultry farms. The feces can enter chicken houses on the shoes of workers, or be blown in by wind after it dries.

– GTRI and USDA researchers

photo courtesy GTRI

– J. Craig Wyvill, division chief, GTRI Food Processing Technology Division

courtesy U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

"Avian influenza outbreaks typically occur along the flight path of migratory birds, including the East Coast of the United States, particularly in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia near the Chesapeake Basin. The disease has also occurred among poultry flocks in Texas and California. When an outbreak is detected, the only way to control an epidemic – because there is no vaccine yet – is to destroy millions of poultry farm birds, causing a dramatic economic impact on the industry and ultimately consumers. One outbreak in Virginia in 2002 caused more than $130 million in losses."

– U.S. Department of Agriculture

photo courtesy GTRI

– U.S. Department of Agriculture

– U.S. Department of Agriculture