Minnesota - Hawk from Yellow Medicine County tests positive for HPAI virus

[Pathfinder]

Hawk from Yellow Medicine County tests positive for HPAI virus

(Released April 30, 2015)

A Cooper?s hawk from Yellow Medicine County is the first Minnesota wild bird to test positive for the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus that has infected poultry farms across Minnesota.

The Department of Natural Resources collected the hawk during the agency?s current HPAI surveillance of wild birds. That surveillance began in March as part of the state?s response to the virus outbreak affecting poultry farms.

Waterfowl are known to carry and potentially spread the virus but don?t get sick or die. Birds of prey ? also known as raptors ? are thought to die from it once infected.

?This bird tells us our surveillance is working, but it unfortunately doesn?t provide many other clues about transmission of the virus,? said Lou Cornicelli, DNR wildlife research manager.

He said the hawk discovery does not indicate the virus in wild birds is the direct cause of Minnesota?s current domestic poultry infections. The DNR is not aware of any recent raptor die-offs.

Yellow Medicine County does not have any infected poultry farms, but nearby Lyon County does.

A homeowner near St. Leo reported April 14 that the hawk flew into the home?s deck and died. DNR wildlife staff collected the adult female hawk and sent it to the National Wildlife Health Center laboratory in Madison, Wis., for HPAI testing. The bird tested presumptive positive and was sent to the National Veterinary Service Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, for confirmation of the H5N2 virus that is infecting poultry farms.

Cooper?s hawks are a common, crow-sized raptor that inhabit Minnesota?s open woodlands. Unlike some other raptors, Cooper?s hawks do not prey on waterfowl or scavenge. They primarily kill smaller birds, are frequent visitors around homes and buildings and occasionally kill small mammals.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported in January that a Cooper?s hawk from Washington state tested positive for the virus. Cooper?s hawks likely get the virus from something they ate, Cornicelli said.

Three-pronged surveillance

DNR has a three-pronged approach to HPAI surveillance. The agency is collecting waterfowl fecal samples throughout Minnesota; asking turkey hunters from Kandiyohi, Pope, Meeker, Swift and Stearns counties to submit their harvested wild turkeys for testing; and collecting dead birds of various species reported by the public.

The DNR has collected 29 dead birds of varying species; nine have tested negative for the virus and 20 results are pending. Test results also are pending on the 37 samples from hunter-harvested wild turkeys.

The agency has collected 2,749 waterfowl fecal samples ? nearing its goal of 3,000 ? and more than 2,200 have tested negative; results for the rest are pending.

Cornicelli said the waterfowl fecal sampling effort is designed to determine with 95 percent confidence whether the virus is present on the landscape in at least one percent of the waterfowl population.

That testing standard is considered necessary to determine if a wildlife disease exists at a detectable level, he said.

Wild turkey, raptor populations not at risk

Cornicelli said even if final sampling test results show the virus is on the landscape, wild birds such as wild turkeys and raptors likely are not at risk because they are widely dispersed.

A positive HPAI test from a dead raptor only means the bird was exposed, not that the virus killed it or that the bird spread HPAI to other birds. ?There?s a lot we don?t know about this virus,? Cornicelli said. ?We hope to add to our knowledge once our surveillance is completed.?

The DNR is part of the statewide response to the ongoing avian influenza emergency. The Minnesota Department of Public Safety Homeland Security Emergency Management division (HSEM) activated the SEOC to coordinate the state?s response.
HSEM is coordinating resource needs with several state agencies including the Minnesota Board of Animal Health and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.

More information on the DNR response to Minnesota?s HPAI infection and recommendations for hunters is available online.

http://news.dnr.state.mn.us/2015/04/...or-hpai-virus/

[Emily]

Here's some background on the Cooper's hawk that tested positive for H5N2 in WA state:

The hawk was found dead in Sumas, WA, just across the the Canadian border from city of Abbotsford, British Columbia. https://goo.gl/maps/v6UrM
This bird was collected on 12-29-2014 per USGS after all these commercial farms in Abbotsford reported outbreaks:

Abbotsford, BC	2014-12-01	Turkeys	28,000	2015-03-05
3	Abbotsford, BC	2014-12-04	Broiler Breeders	14,000	2015-02-07
4	Abbotsford, BC	2014-12-04	Broiler Breeders	25,000	2015-02-19
5 Table Note *	Abbotsford, BC	2014-12-06	Turkeys	33,000	2015-02-04
6 Table Note *	Abbotsford, BC	2014-12-09	Turkeys	33,000	2015-02-07
7	Abbotsford, BC	2014-12-10	Broiler Breeders	19,000	2015-03-07
8	Abbotsford, BC	2014-12-10	Broiler Breeders	8,800	2015-02-09
9	Abbotsford, BC	2014-12-11	Broiler Breeders	7,000	2015-02-12

The official cause of death in this hawk was hitting a power line, but H5N2 was affecting organs and other tissues. Since this hawks' feeding habits include small mammals, it may have come into contact with farm fields, as the next wild bird discovered with H5N2 in the area must have done to get the disease that killed it:

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2015...confirmed.html

The week after that, fish and wildlife officials tested two birds found dead in Whatcom County. One was a northern pintail duck, which actually died because of aspergillosis, a fungal disease that birds can contract from eating moldy grain in fields and farm yards. But the duck also carried a strain of bird flu similar to the one that caused the outbreak in B.C.

Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2015...#storylink=cpy

Note that the first backyard or non-commercial farms affected in Canada was not reported until 2014-12-19, after all of the outbreaks on the farms in Abbotsford.

1	Aldergrove, BC	2014-12-19	Ducks/Chickens/Geese/Turkeys	85	2015-03-15
2	Chilliwack, BC	2015-02-02	Table Egg Layers	95	2015-03-15

Note that the backyard cases in WA state followed the outbreaks in commercial farms in BC, yet indoor turkey or chicken farms were never infected in WA state:

WA	Okanogan	Pacific	Backyard	Chicken	EA/AM-H5N2	3-Feb-15	40
WA	Okanogan	Pacific	Backyard	Pheasant	EA/AM-H5N2	29-Jan-15	5830
WA	Clallam	Pacific	Backyard	Mixed poultry	EA/AM-H5N2	16-Jan-15	110
WA	Benton	Pacific	Backyard	Mixed poultry	EA/AM-H5N2	9-Jan-15	590
WA	Benton	Pacific	Backyard	Mixed poultry	EA/AM-H5N2	3-Jan-15	140
Totals							6710

Once the commercial farms were under control in BC, there were no more problems. I doubt the weather can explain this.

[sharon sanders]

There are many possibilities how the hawk became ill including habituating a wetland, co-mingling with domestic poultry, consuming infected meat.

It is a fact that avian flu is usually carried by avians. It does not make any sense to continue to argue against wild bird spread of this outbreak on many threads. This outbreak is probably a combination of all types of spread - including spread by wild birds.

It is typical that wild birds and domestic poultry keep reinfecting each other once an avian flu is introduced into a habitat. We have seen this in Indonesia for many years with the H5N1 strain.

[Emily]

Where am I arguing against wild bird spread?

[Pathfinder]

This statement concerns the H5N8 virus but some parts can be applied to the present situation with H5N2.
...
What is the role of wild birds in H5N8 HPAI?

Prior to the Chinese report of the virus in poultry in 2010, global wild bird surveillance efforts have not detected this particular strain of avian influenza virus in wild birds. It seems likely that the virus originated in poultry and has probably been able to spill into wild birds and back into poultry, with more typical anthropogenic transmission routes involved too. Although this remains speculative, such a pattern was also seen with H5N1 HPAI virus.
...
To protect wild birds and prevent them from being involved in any onward spread of virus, all efforts should be taken at poultry farms and during disease control operations to reduce environmental contamination and risks to wild birds, particularly in wetland areas which can be particularly sensitive and contain susceptible bird species.

Measures should be taken to keep wild birds away from the infected farms e.g. by reducing any attractants such as food and open water, and, where appropriate, increasing deterrents such as scaring devices (e.g. flags) in the immediate vicinity of affected farms. Away from affected farms, disturbance to wild birds should be minimised, to allow them to remain in these lower risk areas.
...
Disproportionately blaming wild birds for the introduction and spread of HPAI viruses, to the exclusion of other possible routes of transmission (as has happened during previous outbreaks of H5N1 HPAI), can lead to less focused disease control activities, potential spread of virus and dismissal of accountability of responsibilities. The media, academics and human and animal health agencies are requested to act responsibly when considering the role of wild birds in avian influenza, and avoid implicating them as the source of the virus if the evidence does not support this.

...

http://www.wetlands.org/Portals/0/Scientific%20Task%20Force%20on%20Avian%20Influenza%20and%20Wild%20Birds%20H5N8%20HPAI%20December%202014%20final.pdf

[Emily]

Disproportionately blaming wild birds for the introduction and spread of HPAI viruses, to the exclusion of other possible routes of transmission (as has happened during previous outbreaks of H5N1 HPAI), can lead to less focused disease control activities, potential spread of virus and dismissal of accountability of responsibilities.

Thank you for finding that Pathfinder. That is one of my concerns. I'm not arguing against any involvement of wild bird spread. I'm trying to balance the media coverage by sharing facts here and asking questions. The Cooper's hawk also customarily feeds on small local birds, (as opposed to migratory waterbirds), so that could be the link the death to farm fields.

For some reason, after confined farms were brought under control, our outbreak ended here in the PNW. That is the common goal everywhere, isn't it? I'm not saying Midwest producers are doing anything differently than the Canadians - perhaps another disease endemic to the Midwestern farms is stymieing their control efforts.