WASHINGTON - Ducks have a flu season just like people do, and they are unlikely to be sick in the spring. So authorities must keep their guard up even if the government's mass testing of migrating birds, beginning now in Alaska, does not spot the deadly H.5N1 bird flu strain right away. That is a key warning from a new review, being published recently, of what scientists know - and do not know - about how waterfowl constantly incubate influenza, and how much of a role wild birds play as H5N1 hopscotches around the globe. And it is one that federal wildlife officials are taking into account as they allocate how many birds to test now, as ducks are other migratory species start flying into Alaska's breeding grounds from Asia, and how many to test later in the year.
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