Asia may be the current hotbed of avian influenza, but NCAA officials want to be prepared if the virus ever reaches North America. To that end, a staff project team has been assembled to plan for the possibility of an avian flu pandemic in the United States.

The project team will examine how an outbreak would apply to various areas of the intercollegiate athletics enterprise and craft a response to different scenarios such as a governmental restriction on air travel.

Jim Isch, NCAA senior vice president for administrative services, was charged with creating the project team and investigating preparedness options. The group is in the initial stages of gathering data, some of which already has been compiled by the national office’s crisis management team established after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

"We don’t need to reinvent the wheel here," Isch said. "We need to figure out where we’re vulnerable and develop an action plan. It behooves us to have thought about and researched the flu issue, then develop a comprehensive plan to address potential scenarios.

"It almost goes without saying that college athletics issues would be way down the list of national priorities during a serious flu epidemic, but those of us in the field have a responsibility to anticipate the issue."

Should there be a serious outbreak or a pandemic of the avian flu (an outbreak is elevated to a epidemic when the infection rate reaches 25 to 50 percent of the population in a certain area), the impact on collegiate athletics would extend beyond the national office. At that point, Isch said, the national office would work with conferences and institutions to make the best decisions under those extreme circumstances.

Scott Bearby, NCAA associate general counsel and a member of the crisis management team, said preparedness is a key.

"So many things could happen — we can’t possibly have a response to every scenario," he said. "The project team will identify key issues, stay informed and ultimately figure out recommendations based on the impact on the Association and national office."

One scenario, for example, could be an outbreak confined to one region of the country, which could affect regular-season and championship competition. Whatever plan the project team recommends will have to be comprehensive enough to provide direction, but also flexible enough to address needs at a local level.

"The NCAA will need to address issues ranging from which teams will participate based on risk and exposure to whether the event should be held at all," Bearby said. "Many decisions will have to be made, but really the analysis is no different than a bomb threat or a tornado or a hurricane or a bio-terrorist threat."

Institutions already have raised questions about how a student-athlete’s eligibility would be affected if institutions are closed, and how games that cannot be played due to a pandemic will be categorized. The project team will work on those issues, too.

As for national office operations, the Centers for Disease Control has issued a planning checklist for businesses in the event of a pandemic. Bob Fiala, NCAA director of human resources, said that information will provide the foundation for national office planning.

Fiala noted that in the event of a pandemic, not only could the national office be affected by sweeping absenteeism, but institutions and organizations with which the national office staff interacts also would be affected.

Fiala said some of the areas the project team will investigate include:

n The impact of a pandemic on the business of the national office and the Association, including championships and committee meetings.

n The impact on staff and membership.

n Establishing policies to be implemented during a pandemic.

n The allocation of resources to protect staff members and the membership.

n A communication plan to educate both staff and the membership.

n Coordination with a community or government effort at all levels, including health care, emergency responders, insurers and other businesses.

Ultimately, the national office would take direction from federal, state and local government agencies when making decisions about championships play, committee meetings and national office operations.

"We want to maintain business continuity and minimize disruption," Fiala said. "In short, the message here is that we want to be prepared, and we want to ensure the health and safety of our staff members."

The NCAA project team expects to forward recommendations to the national office leadership team by late this year.

Several member institutions already have begun planning for a pandemic — whether it’s avian flu, mumps or some other disease. The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; the University of Maryland, College Park; and Carnegie Mellon University all have their emergency preparedness plans available for review at the American College Health Association Web site, though none of the plans specifically mentions athletics preparedness.

Miami University (Ohio) has assembled a committee to plan for the possibility of an avian flu pandemic. According to Gale Newton, head athletic trainer at Miami and member of the committee, the institution simply wants to be prepared in the event of an avian flu pandemic.

"We’re trying to have a plan in place so we can do our best for our students and our student-athletes," Newton said.

Part of the difficulty in planning for an outbreak of avian flu is that scientists are still unclear about the exact makeup of the virus and how it is transmitted. By the time the virus that is currently in Asia arrives in North America — if it ever does — it is likely to have mutated and could be stronger or weaker than the current strain. According to World Health Organization research updated in late May, 224 people in nine countries have contracted the disease since 2003 and 127 people have died from it in that time.

The most common transmission is through direct, close contact with infected or dead poultry or the feces of infected birds, though a small number of cases resulted from eating raw poultry or poultry products. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there have been no reported cases of human-to-human transmission. Properly cooking poultry and eggs kills the avian influenza virus, as well as other infections.

The United States instituted a ban on importation of poultry from countries affected by the different strains of avian influenza virus in 2004. That ban remains in place. There is no vaccine in place to protect humans against the current strain of bird flu, though developmental efforts are underway.