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The 7th International Symposium on Avian Influenza in Poultry and Wild Birds will be held at the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education, Athens, Georgia, USA, on April 5-8, 2009. Oral and poster presentations will focus on poultry and wild birds including pathobiology, virus reservoirs and ecology, molecular basis of virulence, vaccines and diagnostics, phylogenetics and molecular epidemiology, risk assessment, transmission, national and international control strategies, economics, updates on recent highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreaks and impact on human health with a focus on occupational and exposure risks. For more information please visit the conference website.

The second joint AICAP/CEIRS Influenza meeting will be held on June 23-25, 2009 at the University of Minnesota (more details to come).

In May 2003, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) revised its international standard on avian influenza (AI) concerned with the risk that the spread of AI may present to the international community, particularly from the perspective of economic and public health.

Uncontrolled AI in the U.S. could paralyze the industry and compromise our position as the leading exporter of poultry in the world. Fully aware of the devastating consequences that such situation could bring, the USDA sought to develop and maintain an active network that effectively monitors influenza activity in poultry across the country.

In January 2005, the USDA's Cooperative State Research Education and Extension Service (CSREES-USDA) funded the first nationwide research, education and outreach network known as Avian Influenza Coordinated Agricultural Project (AICAP). The first 3-year phase of our program resulted in significant achievements:

assembled the first continent-wide network to study the ecological and biological characteristics of avian influenza viruses isolated from wild birds;
integrated research and education into a unique program available to a range of poultry producers;
shown that quail can change and expand the host range of avian influenza viruses, and found that quail respiratory and intestinal tracts have human-like sialic acid receptors that could partially explain the emergence of avian influenza strains with the capacity to infect humans;
developed a comprehensive program that has been delivered in 33 states and in Canada and Brazil to train producers and veterinarians on the depopulation and composting of flocks with avian influenza;
developed a testing component for rapid diagnosis of avian influenza in birds; and
developed promising vaccines for mass immunization of birds.

Our success story has been recently rewarded. On June 2, 2008, Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer announced that USDA is continuing its commitment to avian influenza research by renewing the AICAP with another $5 million for three years.

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