After spreading across the country, a historic wave of avian flu has made its way into San Diego.

The San Diego Humane Society confirmed the first case was found in a black swan from Lake San Marcos. 

Tom Munnecke, a resident of the area and part of a local community group that tracks the lake’s bird inventory, says his group was the first to report the case.

“One of the residents turned it in and they sent it to UC Davis, San Bernardino Campus, and they did a test on it,” said Munnecke.

He says the bird came back positive for the highly pathogenic bird flu.

“I’m a citizen scientist,” said Munnecke. “I love science. I’ve been watching the lake closely, both the water quality and the bird life.”

He says his group first came across the infected bird earlier this month.

“It had tags on his wings so I took that picture and sent it to the national bird laboratory to find out where it came from,” said Munnecke.

It turns out the bird was from Idaho. A week later, they came across the bird again but this time it was dead. They didn’t know it at the time but the bird had succumbed to the bird flu. 

The disease has been spreading rapidly throughout the globe, but here in San Diego, this is the first case.

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/san-diego-county-records-first-bird-flu-case/3075366/

California San Diego County Lake San Marcos Black vulture 10/19/22

 

map update

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/1/edit?mid=1E2wqF61M_F0pc9zOvoEs075hbeDW_Lot&ll=33.10546682916765%2C-117.23546035264197&z=13