Comment from Michael J Poulos, California Department of Food & Agriculture, Animal Health Branch

Considering the consequences of re-introduction of END into California we are in favor of ?excessive? testing to insure disease does not re-enter. We agree that targeted sampling of sick or dead or cull birds yields a 95% confidence rate when 1 in 10,000 or 5 in 50,000 birds are sampled, but are concerned that the decision is based solely on virus isolation. Some countries have few labs that can perform VI. We are also trusting that they get all the samples to lab in a timely fashion and under optimal conditions to ensure virus survival and subsequent isolation or detection of immunological evidence of END.