Movements of Wild Birds and Emerging Disease Risk from Hong Kong

In December 2008, an international team from the United Nations-FAO, World Wildlife Fund Hong Kong, the University of Hong Kong Department of Microbiology, , the Asia Ecological Consultants Ltd, and the US Geological Survey (Western Ecological Research Center), deployed satellite transmitters to study the migration and disease ecology of northern pintail and Eurasian wigeon caught at the Mai Po reserve, a designated Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention. This information will help expand our knowledge of waterfowl movement patterns from more southern wintering grounds.

The objectives of this research were to: 1) capture and mark pintail and wigeon to examine their migration routes and respective breeding grounds; and 2) sample for avian influenza.