Because travel is considered the most likely way an influenza pandemic would arrive in Utah, public health restrictions would include air and group travel, screening people arriving from affected areas and canceling or closing large gatherings sites such as schools.

"We are a mobile state," Sundwall said. "We get around. There's a lot of travel. Salt Lake is now an international airport."

If the bird flu virus mutates and becomes contagious between humans, history suggests it would travel around the world fairly quickly, Rolf said.

Numerous monitoring, surveillance and response plans were put in place in 1997 when the strain was first identified. Health certificates are required for every domestic bird that comes into the state. Birds that die are tested, wild birds are surveyed and the Department of Agriculture and Food works closely with the poultry industry.

There is no risk from eating cooked poultry or eggs, said Mike Marshall, state veterinarian. "If an H5 or H7 strain were to be found in a bird, its flock and all surrounding flocks in that area would be destroyed."

Marshall said although no birds migrate to the United States from Asia or Europe, where the avian influenza currently is, there is a strong and active flyway between Canada, the United States and Mexico for a wide range of migratory birds.

"If there's an avian influenza problem in Mexico City," he said, "it will certainly come to the United States and Canada, and that is why we're on the watch."

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E-mail: astowell@desnews.com