Hutchinson ? As birds begin their annual migration south, state and federal inspectors will be walking into marshes and ponds throughout Kansas to try and find any trace of the avian flu.

Helen Hands, a wildlife biologist with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, is one of many inspectors in states working to monitor migratory birds this fall for the virulent H5N1 strain of the bird flu.

Hands and Marvin Kraft, waterfowl program coordinator for the parks department, will test 750 birds between August and December using a $75,000 federal grant.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal Plant Health Inspection Service will test about 800 birds across the state.

“I’ve tested about 200 so far, so we’re a little ways into it,” Hands said. “But the bulk will come up next month when we are in the peak of the waterfowl season.”

Hands, who sends samples to the University of Nebraska for analysis, said nothing has been found so far in Kansas.

U.S. officials are trying to determine if the migratory birds are potential carriers of avian flu. Migratory patterns bring some birds from Asia, where the deadly strain has been found, close to waterfowl that migrate across the United States, Kraft said.

Roger Boyd, director of the Baker Wetlands, said no inspections have happened there so far because of the dry summer in the area.

“We have so little water fowl at all,” Boyd said.

The outbreak in Asia has killed more than 100 people and millions of poultry.

While the deadly strain has not been found in the United States, Kraft said officials within the Central Flyway – from Alaska to Texas – will test 7,500 birds, besides the thousands that state wildlife biologists will test in the nation’s other areas.

The situations in Asia and the United States are different because residents of Asia often have their own flocks and sell live birds at open markets, while most flocks in the United States are in confined areas.

Still, testing has already turned up a weaker strain, Hands said.

“There are 144 different types of avian flu,” she said. “Some are dangerous, some just cause mild illness. … There might have been 50 low pathogenic forms found as a result of the increased sampling.”

Meanwhile, the Kansas Animal Health Department received its own U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to test the state’s domestic poultry for the virus, said Livestock Commissioner George Teagarden.

“Most likely, funding will be continued so we can keep testing,” he said of the grant that ends in December.