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Fugleinfluenza afskrækker ikke Alaskas jægere - ran - 10-06-2006
Bird flu fear doesn't deter Alaska's hunters
Fri 9 Jun 2006 8:55 AM ET
By Daisuke Wakabayashi
BARROW, Alaska, June 9 (Reuters) - At the Apugauti ceremony to celebrate the capture of a bowhead whale during the spring, the men and women of the Patkotak whaling crew serve the traditional nigliq soup made with harvested geese, rice, onions and flavored with curry powder.
The salty rich broth and mikigaq -- whale meat and blubber fermented in blood -- represent the traditional menu for the ceremony and are delicacies of the Inupiat Eskimo subsistence diet which relies heavily on water fowl and other animals found in the Arctic climate of Barrow, Alaska.
Migratory geese and ducks, staples of the Inupiat Eskimo diet, are also among the 33 priority birds targeted by the U.S. government for its avian flu surveillance program in Alaska, a crossroads for wild birds from Asia.
The H5N1 avian flu virus has killed 128 people in nine countries, according to the World Health Organization, but it has not been found in North America.
"It adds an extra layer of complexity," said Noah Owen-Ashley, a biologist for Alaska's North Slope borough department of wildlife. "One of our jobs is to educate the residents about bird flu, but not scare them."
Federal and local officials must walk a fine line in dealing with native Alaska community regarding bird flu. Officials do not want to cause panic and must reassure subsistence hunters that it is safe to eat wild birds.
At the same time, they want to instill enough concern about the virus to receive cooperation to test harvested birds and encourage the need for increased safety.
However, some Alaska Native residents of Barrow, the northernmost city in the United States and home to the world's largest Inupiat Eskimo community, did not express any concern.
"It's not really scary, because our people have hunted these birds since time immemorial and we know our own animals and we know if one is sick," said Thomas Olemaun, executive director of the Native Village of Barrow.
"It's our tradition. We can't stay home and not hunt them, because we grew up eating" the birds, he said, adding that he harvested about 40 geese for his family during the spring hunting season. "It's way better than chicken."
GETTING THE MESSAGE OUT
Wildlife biologists and health officials are taking to local airwaves, community newspapers and the Internet to encourage people to handle game safely.
In an hourlong program on local public radio and translated into the native Inupiaq language, a group of officials recommended people cook meat and eggs from wild birds thoroughly and properly wash their hands and equipment after handling dead birds.
Some safety precautions like wearing goggles and rubber gloves when out hunting is simply not realistic, said Charles Brower, director of wildlife at the Native Village of Barrow.
"It's very hard to carry when you're out hunting. It's the last thing people take with them," said Brower, who is also a hunter and harvested nearly 60 birds during the spring.
Subsistence hunting is also a financial necessity for many residents in the northern reaches of Alaska.
Since Barrow is 350 miles (560 km) north of the Arctic Circle with no roads connecting it to other towns, food is very expensive in the city's few grocery stores. A gallon (3.8 litres) of milk can cost nearly $8.
"We eat what God has provided us for so many thousands of years and we're still living on it," said Brower.
.....nu OGSÅ ejer af en 243win :-)
Favourite Quote: Vi løser ikke vore problemer ved at tænke på samme måde, som da vi skabte dem.....(Albert Einstein)
Fugleinfluenza afskrækker ikke Alaskas jægere - ran - 11-06-2006
Alaska vil indsmale mellem 75000 og 100.000 fugle, for at teste om de har fugleifluenza:
Jun 9, 8:37 PM EDT
Bird Flu Scientists in Northernmost U.S.
By ANNE SUTTON, Associated Press Writer
BARROW, Alaska (AP) -- Nearly 350 miles above the Arctic Circle, a traditional Eskimo feast to celebrate a successful whale hunt is in the making. On the table, chopped-up chunks of wild fowl are ready for the pot - all except for a lovely king eider duck.
Before this duck is plucked and cooked, a government scientist will swab it to take a sample for bird flu testing.
Scientists have been posted in Barrow - the nation's northernmost city, set in a treeless expanse of tundra on the edge of the ice-bound Arctic Ocean - to look for early warning signs that migratory birds are bringing the deadly virus to North America.
No one knows when or if H5N1 avian influenza will arrive on U.S. shores, but if it does come by wild bird, experts want to know early on, before it can devastate the poultry supply, or worse.
The virus has led to the death or slaughter of millions of birds in Asia, Europe and Africa and killed more than 128 people who had close contract with sick birds. The bigger fear is that the virus could mutate into a form that could pass easily from human to human, sparking a pandemic.
But as Corey Rossi, district supervisor for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's wildlife services in Alaska, prepares to take a fecal sample from the duck with a swab, he relays the same message he has been giving since he arrived in Barrow a week earlier.
"I don't think we're going to find anything but we're looking just to make sure," he says. He tucks the cotton swab in a sterile vial to be sealed, labeled and sent on to a government lab while Laura Paktotak and her cousin pluck, chop and deliver the duck to the pot.
The testing is part of an effort to sample between 75,000 and 100,000 live and hunter-killed birds across the nation, of which 19,000 are to come from various points around Alaska.
U.S. Labs Ready Complex Bird Flu Testing
Barrow, population 4,800, is a place where a sharp wind whips the grit from the dirt roads, and snow flurries fly even in June. Because it is a crossroads for birds migrating back and forth from Asia and traveling to and from the Lower 48 states, Barrow is on the front lines of the early-detection plan - a fact that caused some consternation at first among people who live here and depend on wild fowl for food.
A public information campaign worked to ease those fears by telling hunters to cook game birds thoroughly and to use rubber gloves and exercise care when handling and cleaning their catch.
Frances Leavitt, a 41-year-old Barrow housewife, says she would never give up the foods she grew up eating. Hunting is a vital source of food in a community where a nice steak at the grocery store can go for $35 and milk is $7.50 a gallon.
Leavitt says that after the initial concerns about bird flu wore off, the subject became a joke among the hunters in her family. "They would say to each other, 'Are you going to go bird flu hunting now?'" she says.
Sampling hunter-killed birds is only a small part of the Alaska effort being waged by federal, state and local governments. Live birds also are being sampled, though that effort did not start out as smoothly as biologists hoped.
Rossi and crew spent two days trying to capture glaucous gulls at the local landfill. The idea was to fire a 50-by-60-foot net over them. The whale blubber bait failed to lure the skittish birds, which waited until later in the night to venture close.
And in a coastal marsh, biologists tried and failed to capture several species of small, quick shorebirds by stringing long nets. The birds flew up and over the mesh after a wind kicked up and set it rippling.
While the scientists persist, the Inupiat Eskimos continue to rely on nature's bounty.
More than 300 Barrow residents show up at the outdoor community festival, called an apugauti, for a bowl of duck soup and some mikigaq, a tangy black viscous mixture of fermented whale blood, blubber and meat that the children gobble up like candy. The elderly in fur-trimmed parkas and youngsters in hooded sweatshirts sit at long tables at a windy community playground.
"We are keeping our tradition and culture alive," says Susan Hope. "It brings out the best in everybody."
.....nu OGSÅ ejer af en 243win :-)
Favourite Quote: Vi løser ikke vore problemer ved at tænke på samme måde, som da vi skabte dem.....(Albert Einstein)