Listen to this story:
During summer migration, millions of birds travel from Russia and other parts of Asia across the Bering Strait to Alaska, sometimes bringing viruses, including Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, more commonly known as bird flu, with them.
Dr. Lisa Kercher, a virologist and influenza researcher from St. Jude Children’s Hospital, is on the ground in Nome this week collecting data and connecting with locals to gain a better understanding of the disease and its impacts to subsistence hunters.
Science doesn’t always begin in a lab. Kercher began her outreach inside the entrance of the Alaska Commercial store, talking with locals about avian influenza, more commonly known as bird flu, and its impacts on wildlife.
“The first thing I have to do is explain why a children's hospital studies bird flu, right?” Kercher said.
Kercher is Director of Laboratory Operations at St. Jude’s Webby Lab, specializing in influenza research. But if you’ve ever seen one of their commercials, influenza might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about St. Jude’s work.
The hospital, she explained, focuses more broadly on “catastrophic diseases”, including respiratory illnesses such as influenza.
“One of the investigators [Dr. Richard Webster] that came to St. Jude very early on was the one that figured out that influenza, the reservoir for it, is in wild waterfowl,” she said. “That’s how St. Jude got into bird flu research.”
The highly-contagious H5N1 strain of avian influenza was first detected in Alaska in the spring of 2022, affecting both domestic and wild birds.
Though the risk of person-to-person transmission remains low, there is evidence of the disease spreading to mammals. In October 2023, a polar bear was found dead on the North Slope after contracting bird flu.
Kercher said St. Jude has expanded its research to communities that don’t have established surveillance programs for the virus to fill what she calls “research gaps”.
“A place like this is so important geographically to see the birds coming from Russia that are carrying Asian strains,” she explained. “Just monitoring that in real time would be such a leap forward to filling a gap in research that it would really move the needle on how we understand how the disease works.”
Kercher spent Monday afternoon near Safety, about 20 miles down the coast from Nome, in hopes of connecting with local hunters and collecting data on their harvests.
She’s impossible to miss on the side of the road, with a huge cardboard sign that reads “BIRD FLU TESTING” duct taped to the side of her Jeep.
Her mobile lab fits inside a small duffel bag.
“It's very low tech,” she said.
Kercher said she doesn’t want to take anyone’s birds, but she’s hoping to connect with local hunters to take swab samples, collect metadata, and learn more about migration patterns in the region.
This trip, Kercher hopes, will be the first of many. She said her overarching goal is to build relationships with individuals, Alaska Native corporations and other entities in hopes of one day expanding bird flu surveillance in the region.
Though, she said community engagement from Nome residents will be critical.
“We can provide those resources and provide information in a way that is new to what has been done in the past and different,” she explained. “If we do it in the right sequence, then it can be really powerful, you know, for your community.”
Kercher invites local hunters to visit her mobile testing lab at Nome’s East End Park Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., or Thursday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. She said tests are minimally invasive, and you get to keep your catch.
