Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: https://www.gillettenewsrecord.com/news/wyoming/article_7394b875-71af-53fb-bad0-5e38e3e76d0c.html
Avian influenza kills Jackson cougar
JACKSON (WNE) – Highly pathogenic avian influenza has killed a Jackson mountain lion.
It has also killed a fox in Hot Springs County and three other Wyoming pumas, two in Big Horn County and one in Natrona County.
In Teton County, the female lion was found west of South Ely Springs Road near the Snake River on March 26. The Wyoming Wildlife Health Laboratory confirmed that she was positive for bird flu as well as pneumonia, which could have been related to the influenza.
State officials were not, however, surprised to see the disease cross from birds to mammals. It has happened nationwide.
Hank Edwards, supervisor of the Wildlife Health Laboratory, said he suspects the mountain lions that contracted the virus ate infected waterfowl carcasses.
But Jessica Jennings-Gaines, a state wildlife disease specialist, said the fact that the disease has spread to marine animals — harbor seals in Maine and a bottlenose dolphin in Florida — means carcass consumption might not be the only way the disease is crossing from waterfowl to other birds and mammals. It could also be spread from birds pooping or dying in the water...
...This story was published on April 6, 2023.
Avian influenza kills Jackson cougar
JACKSON (WNE) – Highly pathogenic avian influenza has killed a Jackson mountain lion.
It has also killed a fox in Hot Springs County and three other Wyoming pumas, two in Big Horn County and one in Natrona County.
In Teton County, the female lion was found west of South Ely Springs Road near the Snake River on March 26. The Wyoming Wildlife Health Laboratory confirmed that she was positive for bird flu as well as pneumonia, which could have been related to the influenza.
State officials were not, however, surprised to see the disease cross from birds to mammals. It has happened nationwide.
Hank Edwards, supervisor of the Wildlife Health Laboratory, said he suspects the mountain lions that contracted the virus ate infected waterfowl carcasses.
But Jessica Jennings-Gaines, a state wildlife disease specialist, said the fact that the disease has spread to marine animals — harbor seals in Maine and a bottlenose dolphin in Florida — means carcass consumption might not be the only way the disease is crossing from waterfowl to other birds and mammals. It could also be spread from birds pooping or dying in the water...
...This story was published on April 6, 2023.