That highlights the need for a surveillance program such as we're starting in North America.

We haven't bet the farm on just Alaska. We have people all over the place. We are training wildlife biologists, rangers and, in some places, the public health officers as to what to look for.

We should check the large amount of air traffic and air cargo between the United States and Asia through Alaska. We should investigate each outbreak like a crime scene.

We also worry that birds will stop off in some of the U.S. territories in the Pacific like Guam, and Hawaii.

There are tools we can use. It is not true that nothing can be done once H5N1 is back into wild birds.

Initially, wild birds are primarily victims. Someday they may become vectors. We don't know how that will play out. What I would like to see is the virus stopped before it gets to America so we don't see the last reel of this film played out in North America.