As birds migrate north, there’s growing concern of the disease they’re carrying.
This bird flu has been circulating since 2021. It hit wild birds and some other wildlife like foxes hard in 2022 in Wisconsin.
For the last year, it’s been killing poultry and has spread to cattle and humans.
In the last couple of months, it has once again been showing up in wild bird populations in the state.
The Wisconsin DNR says there’s been positive tests of the HPAI virus in dead flocks of mergansers, swans, and geese. These have mostly been in the southern portion of the state and along the shores of Lake Michigan.
It’s also suspected in a flock of about 70 sandhill cranes in Adams County that were found dead last month. The test results are still pending.
DNR Wildlife Health Section Supervisor Jasmine Batten gave an update to the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board last week.
“This outbreak of the virus has been a bit unprecedented in terms of what has been seen with avian influenza, specifically High Path AI (HPAI) in the past, and the longevity that our wild birds have been able to transmit this disease,” said Batten. “We're going on over three years now, but also the wide range of wild species that have been impacted by this virus, to date, worldwide, over 165 bird species have been impacted.”
Batten says the way this virus has been going makes it harder to predict how bad it will get this spring in Wisconsin.
She says it seems likely will see more deaths this spring, though so far it hasn’t been as bad as 2022.
“It's really hard to predict at this point where the disease is going, but we know the virus is out there, so we are likely to continue to see some mortality through the spring season, and hopefully by summer, that will follow the trend of declining,” said Batten.
One board member asked Batten how federal administration changes are impacting testing. While the UW Madison Diagnostic Lab does test for the virus, it’s the National Vet Services Lab in Ames, Iowa that does the genetic testing that helps them understand how the virus is changing and what implications that change could have.
“That's the lab that's doing the confirmations right now, they're keeping up with this several month delay that we already have with wildlife, but [we’re] certainly nervous or have concerns that services could be impacted,” said Batten.
The DNR asks people to report sick and dead wild birds to the DNR Wildlife Switchboard by emailing DNRWildlifeSwitchboard@wisconsin.gov or calling 608-267-0866
You should avoid contact with any sick or dead wildlife.
