A team of Colorado scientists and physicians has received $2.6 million to study whether diseased chickens here and in other western states could transmit avian flu to humans.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded the three-year grant to Colorado State University veterinary sciences researchers.
The researchers will examine how interactions with chickens infected humans in Indonesia – and whether the same could happen here.
“The CDC recognizes that for diseases such as this, you can’t worry about just the people or just the animals. You have to worry about how they interact,” said Richard Bowen, principal investigator and a professor of biomedical sciences at CSU.
CSU scientists will work with physicians from the University of Colorado and The Children’s Hospital.
Bowen said the research will focus on small, “backyard farms” – which, unlike large commercial operations, are largely unregulated.
“We just don’t have a handle on how many there are. If we can characterize patterns of movement, then, if the flu does break out, we can have a better handle on how to control it,” Bowen said.
While several research efforts in the U.S. are monitoring migratory birds for traces of the deadly H5N1 flu strain, little effort has been directed toward studying disease patterns in chickens, he said.
In Indonesia, the “vast majority” of human cases have been linked to contact with chickens, Bowen said.
As of Oct. 16, the World Health Organization reports 72 confirmed cases of the virus in Indonesia. Of those, 55 have been fatal.
In the two most recent reported deaths – a 67-year-old woman Oct. 15 and an 11-year-old boy Oct. 14 – health investigators in Indonesia confirmed both had direct contact with dead chickens before getting sick.
Worldwide, the H5N1 strain of flu virus, known as avian influenza, has infected 256 people and led to 151 deaths in 10 countries in Asia and the Middle East.
The CSU-led research team will collect specimen samples from chickens here, as well as interview residents in Indonesia about illness in humans and chickens, and the interactions between the two, Bowen said.
Dr. Eric Simoes, a pediatrician at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and The Children’s Hospital and research team member, has already studied other viruses in Indonesia and has a network of sources in the country, Bowen said.
The greatest risk of spreading the disease comes from direct contact with diseased or dead chickens. Cooking the animal would most likely kill any virus, Bowen said.
Staff writer Karen Auge’ can be reached at 303-954-1733 or kauge@denverpost.com.
