The incident raises another problem for zoos—how to deal with the difficult task of protecting not only their birds but also staff and visitors.
Although human cases are uncommon, scientists worry that the H5N1 strain might mutate into a form that easily spreads among people, triggering a worldwide flu epidemic.
In San Francisco, Jenkins said, procedures to protect people would include not allowing customers who recently handled live chickens into aviaries and removing certain birds from display and quarantining them.
Killing infected animals would be a last resort, he said.
Dominic Travis is an epidemiologist at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, Illinois.
He says a new, in-depth bird flu response plan for U.S. zoos is currently being reviewed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the American Zoo Association (AZA).
If approved, the plan will assist the 210 AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums in developing local protocols to protect their birds and other animals.
Travis, who was instrumental in creating a West Nile virus surveillance program, would like to create a similar measure for bird flu.
U.S. zoos would send blood and tissue samples from sick or dead birds to laboratories for testing. The results would be stored in a database used to track the disease.
So far three laboratories—at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York; the University of California, Davis; and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities—have expressed interest in participating in the program.
But first, Travis says, someone would need to foot a two-million-U.S.-dollar-funding package to get the surveillance system up and running.
Minimal Risk
The Phoenix Zoo in Arizona, which attracts more than a million visitors each year, already routinely screens captive and wild birds for diseases such as West Nile.
Also, new birds added to the institution's collection are quarantined for 30 days. During that time a series of tests are run to detect illnesses, says Janis Joslin, the zoo's director of animal health.
If the avian flu were to hit the region, she says, even more precautions would be taken.
For example, the zoo would consider removing free-roaming chickens from the children's area, closing walk-through aviaries, and disinfecting the tires of trucks delivering bird feed.
Still, Joslin believes the chance of visitors contracting the virus from an infected zoo animal is slim. Most human cases, she notes, have so far occurred in people who had close physical contact with poultry.
"I think the risk is pretty minimal," she said. "But we'll take the precautions, because we do worry about our collection and the people who work and visit here."
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