The 800 Yup’ik Eskimos in this wet and lonely Alaskan village knew the situation was serious when government scientists began swooping in on bush planes. Soon, latex gloves appeared on store shelves and Wild West-style posters started popping up around town: “Wanted: Birds of the Delta’’. Researchers camped out in the town’s tribal council offices, preparing for trips to nearby Kwigluk Island with vials, swabs, nets and needles.

They came bearing a warning: The wild birds that the Yup’ik have hunted for millenniums may be carrying the first traces of the deadly bird flu virus from Asia into North America. “It’s kind of scary, you know,” said resident Ronnie Peter, 39. “That’s like, our food, you know.’’

The H5N1 avian influenza emerged in China 10 years ago and has since spread into Europe, Africa and the Middle East. While the virus mainly infects fowl, since 2003 it has sickened 256 people and killed 151 around the world.

Kipnuk lies at the crossroads of an invisible freeway system linking migratory birds that journey along the East Asia-Australia flyway with those from the Pacific Americas flyway. Millions of birds flock every year to this seemingly endless expanse of soggy land in the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge to feast on insects, grasses, worms and mussels before heading back south in the winter to Asia, Australia and other parts of the Americas.

“If it’s going to show up in wild birds, Alaska is the most likely place where it’s going to happen,’’ said Brian McCaffery, a biologist who was camped a few miles from Kipnuk collecting bar-tailed godwit droppings for testing. Federal officials have identified 29 bird species most likely to carry the deadly virus from Asia, and they have enlisted local hunters to help provide birds for testing.

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