Avian influenza, also known as bird-flu, is dominating headlines in some parts of the world. The first cases of the deadly H5N1 swain of the virus have been confirmed in Europe and there have been new outbreaks in Asia. Bird-flu is here to stay, according to the World Health Organization, and countries are revising their procedures on how to prevent, or at the very least delay, a human pandemic. In areas where the virus has already been confirmed, like Romania, most efforts focus on trying to keep domestic birds away from wild local birds like swans, and migrating birds like geese. In the wetlands of the Danube delta thousands of hens, ducks and geese have already been slaughtered.
Some ornithologists plead that we’d better not demonize the wild birds. Bird flu began among poultry in south-east Asia, almost certainly because of the way people treat domestic birds, cramped together in small cages. They infected the wild birds, which are now bringing the virus to Europe and Africa. Poultry are catching it, and sooner or later, so will humans. It’s coming full circles. So don’t blame the birds. Blame human cruelty.
On a lake in Mined, not far from the delta capital Tulcea, two pigmy cormorants,10 domestic ducks, egrets, black-headed gulls, and swans, lots of swans. Sleeping. They shouldn’t be sleeping now. It’s the middle of the day! Perhaps they’re sick. Swans have borne the brunt of the bird-flu outbreak here so far. They were weak anyway, because of the floods which have struck Romania this Spring and Summer. Swans thrive in water not much deeper than one metre. They plunge their long necks under water to feed. With water levels unusually high, the swans have take refuge this year in fish farms, where many shallow, man-made pools offer rich pickings. But other birds, domestic and wild, gather there too-and such concentrations of birds, experts say, create a perfect environment for spreading disease. In the second confirmed bird-flu cluster in the delta,137 swans have died, on a fish farm in the village of Maliue. In the third cluster, near the Ukrainian border,15 swans have died so far.
The number may not be huge, but this is undoubtedly the tip of the avian influenza iceberg. Bird-flu is already present in Romania’s neighbors, Ukraine, Moldova, and Bulgaria. White-fronted geese can travel 500 kilometers in a single day! Scientists should concentrate on a vaccine to prevent the virus in birds, and not put all their efforts into the human version.
According to experts from the World Health Organization, the virus will remain for a long time in the region. More cases of bird-flu will be discovered, And each time, a major quarantine operation will have to be launched. To kill poultry, to closely observe those who have come into contact with sick birds, and seal off the area. People throughout this wetland region will just have to learn a new way of life. And so will their hens and ducks and geese.
Like the tale of the Sultan’s gold coin, no one can say how this story will end.