H5 HPAI Canada Goose Kent County Delaware

[niman]

 Cases of Eurasian H5 Highly Pathogenic bird flu have been detected in wild birds in Delaware recently.

We’re told the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service confirmed the strain in eight wild ducks and a Canada goose in Kent County

https://www.wmdt.com/2022/02/highly-pathogenic-bird-flu-detected-in-delaware-dnrec-officials-warn/

[niman]

DELAWARE – Cases of Eurasian H5 Highly Pathogenic bird flu have been detected in wild birds in Delaware recently.

We’re told the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service confirmed the strain in eight wild ducks and a Canada goose in Kent County and one red-shouldered hawk in New Castle County. APHIS is working with federal and state partners, including the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, on additional avian influenza surveillance and testing.

All the ducks found to have the flu were harvested by hunters and submitted to APHIS for sampling. Officials say the Canada goose was a mortality submitted for testing, while the red-shouldered hawk was tested after it had been taken to Tri-State Bird Rescue for rehabilitation. The findings were reportedly not unexpected, as wild birds can be infected with HPAI but show no signs of illness. Eight other states in the Atlantic Flyway have found HPAI this year in wild birds, with it believed to be widespread in migratory waterfowl. Wild free-flying ducks, geese, and shorebirds can carry the disease to new areas when migrating, as can raptors such as hawks and owls.

Avian Influenza is commonly known as “bird flu” and is a respiratory disease of birds caused by an influenza Type A virus. These viruses can infect poultry, as well as some wild bird species, but are known to impact poultry and wild birds in different ways. Wild birds can often carry the AI viruses without becoming sick, but AI in poultry is contagious and can make some domesticated birds very sick and even cause death.

Avian Influenza is not associated with the COVID-19 virus.

The CDC says it considers the risk to the general public from HPAI H5 infections to be low. No human infections with these viruses have occurred in the United States.

[niman]

map update

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