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Source: https://www.newyorkupstate.com/outd...y-it-literally-just-fell-out-of-the-tree.html
Deadly new avian flu strain kills 9 bald eagles in Upstate NY: ‘It literally just fell out of the tree’
Updated: May. 10, 2022, 5:18 p.m. | Published: May. 10, 2022, 10:00 a.m.
By Steve Featherstone | sfeatherstone@syracuse.com
In late March, a hunter witnessed snow geese acting strangely in the Montezuma Wildlife Refuge in Cayuga County.
The geese were swimming in circles with their heads thrown on their backs. The hunter called Krysten Schuler, co-director of the Cornell Wildlife Health Lab, which tracks wildlife diseases in New York state. Schuler ran some tests and found all the geese were sick with a new, virulent strain of avian flu called H5N1.
The sick snow geese signaled the arrival of H5N1—already sweeping across the nation—in Central New York, and the birds are likely just the tip of the iceberg.
H5N1 is classified as a ‘highly pathogenic avian influenza’ (HPAI) strain because it’s lethal to poultry. When the virus is detected in a single bird, the entire flock must be killed to contain the spread of the disease...
...Schuler said H5N1 has killed at least nine bald eagles in New York since March, including one from Onondaga County. It’s also been detected in surprising variety of wild birds compared to the 2014-2105 outbreak, Schuler said, which left New York unscathed with no bird deaths, wild or domestic.
According to the most recent USDA tally, 30 wild birds have thus far been infected in New York. And that number is almost certainly higher, as wild birds often die unnoticed and therefore undetected. Furthermore, USDA-confirmed cases can lag weeks behind reporting from state labs like the one at Cornell...
Deadly new avian flu strain kills 9 bald eagles in Upstate NY: ‘It literally just fell out of the tree’
Updated: May. 10, 2022, 5:18 p.m. | Published: May. 10, 2022, 10:00 a.m.
By Steve Featherstone | sfeatherstone@syracuse.com
In late March, a hunter witnessed snow geese acting strangely in the Montezuma Wildlife Refuge in Cayuga County.
The geese were swimming in circles with their heads thrown on their backs. The hunter called Krysten Schuler, co-director of the Cornell Wildlife Health Lab, which tracks wildlife diseases in New York state. Schuler ran some tests and found all the geese were sick with a new, virulent strain of avian flu called H5N1.
The sick snow geese signaled the arrival of H5N1—already sweeping across the nation—in Central New York, and the birds are likely just the tip of the iceberg.
H5N1 is classified as a ‘highly pathogenic avian influenza’ (HPAI) strain because it’s lethal to poultry. When the virus is detected in a single bird, the entire flock must be killed to contain the spread of the disease...
...Schuler said H5N1 has killed at least nine bald eagles in New York since March, including one from Onondaga County. It’s also been detected in surprising variety of wild birds compared to the 2014-2105 outbreak, Schuler said, which left New York unscathed with no bird deaths, wild or domestic.
According to the most recent USDA tally, 30 wild birds have thus far been infected in New York. And that number is almost certainly higher, as wild birds often die unnoticed and therefore undetected. Furthermore, USDA-confirmed cases can lag weeks behind reporting from state labs like the one at Cornell...