Hi all

With the "legal" and illegal trade in wild caught
birds now being exposed as the main carrier of Avian
Influenza around the globe it's time the BirdLife
"partnership" aroused its members to tell (not ask)
Cambridge and Sandy to do something.

While we cannot expect any change out of the CITES
secretariat or TRAFFIC we, the caring birdwatching
public, should expect better from the institutions we
are told are "saving the birds".

Edward, many thanks for this.

Taichi, we need an English text from Japan. We have to
stir these conservation bureaucrats into action.

We do not want Governments attempting mass slaughter
of wild birds and it's about time this offensive trade
was stopped once and for all.

Neil

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From: tkato@kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Sender: BirdsinRussia@yahoogroups.com
Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2005 11:07:17 +0900 (JST)
Subject: [BirdsinRussia] Re: bird trade and avian
influenza
Reply-To: BirdsinRussia@yahoogroups.com


Re: bird trade and avian influenza

The BBC news provides an enlightening possibility:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4438838.stm
"Doubts over bird flu tests raised"

Responding to the report, the Taiwanese government
said:
"There is a good possibility that profit-driven
traders smuggled Mesias (Finch species) from China to
Taiwan, using our avian
flu-free country as a front from which they laundered
these birds to the UK and other countries."

It sounds like a very promising possibility.
Practically the same thing happened in 1998 (though I
am not aware if there is an English language report on
this).  A consignment of songbirds from Hong Kong
(which was then H5N1 affected) was sent, illegally, to
Japan via Malaysia, using Malaysia as a false area of
origin for the birds. Legal action was immediately
taken by the Japanese government.  At that time, Japan
imported a large number of 
wild birds labeled as "originating from Malaysia",
which was AI Virus free and so a legal area of origin.

The URL of the engaged NGO (The National Wild Bird
Poaching Countermeasure of Japan):
http://tatsutomi.co.jp/mittairen/ (Japanese only)

The above story is described in detail in the
following book:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4062721635/250-2392309-4205055
(Japanese, author: Kimio Endo)

Regards,
Taichi Kato 
  ----------

Neil and Liz Baker, Tanzania Bird Atlas, P.O. Box 1605, Iringa, Tanzania.
Mobiles: 0748-509906 and 0748-834273.
http://tanzaniabirdatlas.com
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