It's the domestic portion of a much larger project to find out what flu viruses circulate among Alaska's wild migratory birds, and whether any of those strains include the dangerous H5N1 bird flu from Southeast Asia.
So far, Gerlach has taken samples from about 350 birds at three fairs, including 130 fowl entered into competition at the Alaska State Fair in Palmer on Aug. 23. Owners volunteered their animals.
"I wanted to go ahead as state veterinarian and sample our domestic population (to) find out if there were any circulating viruses," Gerlach said Thursday. "There's no doubt, our interest from the state end is to identify any highly pathogenic strain."
No one has discovered the H5N1 flu in Alaska's wild or domestic birds yet, and the state has few large poultry operations.
More sampling will take place Tuesday when 4H Club kids and adult producers check in their prized poultry at the main animal barn on the Palmer fairgrounds.
Chickens and turkeys are generally stoic during the test -- which involves swirling a Dacron-tipped swab inside each bird's anal cavity, he said.
But ducks and pigeons, with much smaller "cloacal vents," tend to squawk.
"The kids get a kick out of that," Gerlach said. "They think it's really funny to have a grown man take a Q-Tip and put it up their duck's behind."
The surveillance is serious business, however. The H5N1 strain is endemic among poultry in five countries, with more than 100 million birds killed. It has also killed 57 of the 112 people confirmed with the disease, almost always after direct contact with infected birds, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The virus showed up in western China and Siberia this summer, apparently carried by migrating waterfowl. Alaska is the Pacific Ocean's major migratory crossroad, where species from Asia and North America mingle in summer.
If the deadly H5N1 strain mutates into a form that could pass easily among people, health officials fear it could trigger a pandemic, with millions of deaths across the globe.
Gerlach is collaborating with other scientists in a project coordinated by University of Alaska Program on the Biology and Epidemiology of Avian Influenza. Biologists have so far collected samples from 4,085 geese, ducks and other wild birds across the state and hope to collect 5,000 samples by the end of the season, said spokeswoman Marie Gilbert.
Initial testing of the samples is now under way at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, she said.
Daily News reporter Doug O'Harra can be reached at do'harra@adn.com.
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