Calling all Raptor Ringers
This is addressed to all raptor ringers and all ringers on Safring’s database who have ringed Lesser Kestrel (Falco naumanni), Amur Falcon (Falco amurensis) or Red-footed Falcon (Falco vespertinus) in the past five years.
This season the newly rejuvenated Migrating Kestrel Group under the leadership of Anthony van Zyl, is launching an all-out effort to ring as many birds of these species as possible. If you would like to participate, please respond to Zephné Bernitz, ringing convenor for the MKG. If you have any good ideas (or even bad ideas!) on how to trap these birds for ringing, please share them with us.
Secondly, we are appealing to all ringers and rehabilitators who handle these species in the coming months, to participate in a sampling campaign for Avian Influenza virus. Onderstepoort Research Institute is doing surveillance for Avian Influenza virus and is particularly interested in sampling migrating kestrels because their breeding grounds overlap so neatly with the area where Avian Influenza is active in Asia and Eastern Europe. If there is any chance that you will be catching these species this summer, please send me a stamped, self- addressed padded envelope not less than 20 cm long, and I will send you some sampling kits and full instructions. Sampling is very simple and non-invasive. Using sterile technique (that is, only touch the handle of the sampling swab), remove the swab that looks like a long cotton bud from the sealed sample tube with a twisting action, insert the cotton tip into the cloaca of the bird, give it a twirl, replace it into the tube, add some buffer (supplied) and refrigerate (place in a cooler box with some ice bricks) until the sample can be couriered to Onderstepoort at their expense (no cost to ringer). The risk to the ringer is neglible, as the virus, if present, is not easily transmissible to humans. However, common sense dictates that no chances should be taken. The kit should include gloves and masks for personal safety. Hands should be washed with soap and water after handling ALL birds, especially before eating. Samples are useless unless properly marked and refrigerated (not frozen). Detailed instructions will be included in the kits.
I look forward to hearing from many of you.
Visit the Migrating Kestrel Project on the website www.kestreling.com
Zephné Bernitz.
Dr. Zephné Bernitz
B.V.Sc (Pret)
P.O. Box 1276
Middelburg
Mpumalanga
1050 South Africa.
Tel & fax: +27 13 2451438 Home
Tel & fax: +27 13 2435266 Office
Cel: 0836322970
e-mail: bernitz@iafrica.com