With the coming of autumn and winter, avian diseases are at their peak. But can birds be vaccinated against diseases?

Yes, they can. On November 6th, hundreds of birds were vaccinated in the Guangzhou Zoo, with the Singing Geese Lake, the Egret Island Lake, and the Dancing Crane Lake serving as vaccination sites.

Keepers set up fishing nets, herding the birds and swiftly pulling the nets. As the keepers approached, the birds, chirping and squawking, flocked to find an escape route. And then, when the keepers started to pull in the nets, the birds had no choice but to walk towards the mid-lake island in order.

On the island, as the keepers swiftly caught the flapping wings of the birds, the veterinarians would quickly inject the birds with vaccines.

Chen Xuanjiao, head of the veterinary hospital at Guangzhou Zoo, said that on November 6, they planned to vaccinate about 370 birds of 24 species inhabiting the three lakes, including red-crowned cranes, white-naped cranes, flamingos and other rare birds.

How long does it take to give an injection to one bird? As Chen mentioned, in order not to trigger the stress reactions of the birds, the whole process, from catching the bird to injecting the vaccine, needs to be completed within one minute.

Do baby birds also need to be injected? For this question, Chen said that any bird aged 2 weeks and above needs to be vaccinated.

As for the exotic wild birds, the veterinarians will mix the medicine into the bird food to prevent avian diseases, due to the difficulty in catching them, as was mentioned by Chen.

Besides vaccinating, the veterinarians have another important task to do—sampling the white swans for gender identification. To identify the gender of white swans, they have to pluck a thick feather from each of them, do the registration one by one, and fit them with ankle rings accordingly.

Wu Qirui, deputy director of Guangzhou Zoo, said that vaccination is one of the routine work for animal disease prevention and control. Every year, due to temperature change and bird migration, the turn of spring and autumn is always a period with a high incidence of avian diseases. The Guangzhou Zoo attaches great importance to this issue. To protect the health of animals and tourists in the park, every year, they vaccinate over 1,000 birds of nearly 80 species against two highly pathogenic avian influenza.

【图集】广州动物园：约370只禽鸟排队打防疫针

进入秋冬季，禽类疾病迎来高发期，禽鸟如何打针预防疾病？

11月6日，广州动物园为数百只禽鸟打防疫针。雁鸣湖、观鹭湖、仙鹤湖三大湖变为疫苗接种现场。

设渔网、赶禽鸟、快速拉网……随着工作人员靠近，禽鸟们叽叽喳喳开始鸣叫，成群结队找路逃跑。随后，保育员慢慢地收网，禽鸟只好乖乖入网，有秩序地走上湖中央的岛上。

在岛上，保育员眼疾手快地抓住不停扑棱翅膀的禽鸟，兽医们随时候命，和保育员默契配合，迅速为禽鸟注射疫苗。

广州动物园兽医院负责人陈绚姣表示，6日当天，需要先对三大湖的禽鸟，包括丹顶鹤、白枕鹤、火烈鸟、鹈鹕、黑颈天鹅、大天鹅、鸳鸯等珍禽在内的24种、约370只禽鸟进行禽流感疫苗接种。

为一只禽鸟打针需要花费多长时间？陈绚姣表示：“禽鸟也会有应激反应，从保育员捕捉到兽医注射疫苗，再到放归禽鸟，需要在1分钟内完成。”

记者在现场观察发现，不少禽鸟家族迎来了宝宝，它们需要注射疫苗吗？对此，陈绚姣表示：“凡是2周龄及以上的禽鸟都需要注射疫苗。”

对于外来野生的禽鸟，陈绚姣说：“因难以捕捉外来野生禽鸟，兽医会在食物中放入预防禽类疾病的药物，让它们口服。”

除了打疫苗，兽医们还有另一项重要的任务——为白天鹅采样、做性别鉴定。据广州动物园兽医介绍，为白天鹅做性别鉴定要拔一条它们身上较粗的羽毛，拔完羽毛后，逐一做登记，并相应地为每只白天鹅佩戴脚环。

广州动物园副园长吴其锐表示，疫苗接种是动物疾病防控的常规工作之一，每年春季和秋冬交替之际，因温差变化和候鸟迁徙等原因，是禽鸟疫病发生的高风险时期，对此广州动物园高度重视。为了保障园内动物和市民游客健康，每年，广州动物园会为园内近80种1000多只禽鸟进行两次高致病性禽流感疫苗接种。

文 | 记者 马思泳 通讯员 王益
翻译 | 洪婷
图 | 记者 陈秋明