What do zoos have to do with avian flu?

A pandemic doesn't have to break out for the birds in zoos to catch the disease, and transmit it to humans. In America, some zoos plan to hide their birds away if avian flu turns up in the U.S. The WHO guidelines require culling all birds with avian influenza, but it's against federal law to kill threatened or endangered species, which many zoo-birds are. "These birds are valuable. Many of them are threatened and endangered,'' Robert Jenkins, zoo director of Animal Care and Conservation, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "You can't waltz in and euthanize them, willy-nilly.'' For more information about how zoos are preparing for avian flu, see the American Zoo and Aquarium Association guidelines, released in November 2005.