I am the Chief of Staff of the Municipality of Candaba, Pampanga, Philippines. We have the Candaba swamp where some 44 species of migratory birds congregate from September to March. We are closely monitoring their arrival especially at the Candaba Wildlife Reserve where at least four migrant duck species, Garganey, Northern Shoveler, Tufted Duck and Northern Pintail together with our resident Philippine Duck. We are enforcing strict measures to keep domestic animals away from the wild birds. So far we have not found a single migrant dead or looking sick. We are particularly vigilant about the migrant egrets like the Little Egret, the Intermediate Egret and the Great Egret that are most daring in going close to poultry. I read that on record there is only one case of Little Egret that died because of H5N1. We are actually more worried about getting the H5N1 through smuggling of exotic birds. Lately we spotted some of them in the wild prompting us to think that their owners released them after getting scared of bird flu. They did not migrate. They simply took the plane or ship. Countries should really ban trade of wildbirds and animals.