By Matthew Porter, Education Committee
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s April, 2023 Newsletter edition.
Egg prices through the roof! Empty your bird feeders! Sorry, come back next year for your guided waterfowl hunt. Chances are, either somebody you know, somebody you’ve heard, or even you could have expressed a similar statement over the past year. You’ve probably thought, what the heck is going on with birds in this country recently? The answer is HPAI, which stands for highly pathogenic avian influenza. We’ll expand upon this popular topic a little more in this article.
Avian influenza (AI) is caused by an influenza type A virus which is divided into two categories, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and low pathogenicity avian influenza (LPAI). Both of which can infect poultry and wild birds of all kinds. HPAI is extremely infectious, often fatal, and spreads rapidly. While LPAI can infect a host but cause little to no sign of illness.
The virus is often spread from exposure via an infected bird’s saliva, mucous, or feces. The virus can be spread to mammals but infections among people are rare. Over the past year there have been 816 commercial poultry flocks within 47 different states affected by Avian influenza, accounting for 58,650,000 birds in total. Due to a lack of public reports, it’s difficult to understand the true scope of impact on our wild bird population. However, reported detections to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service under the U.S. Department of Agriculture over the past year indicate a total count of 6,497 birds infected across all states with the exception of the state of Hawaii.
In Wisconsin alone, 3,285,300 commercial birds were impacted, and 211 wild birds reported. Additionally, there have been 19 reported detections in mammals ranging from red foxes to bobcats to striped skunks to fishers to North American river otters. Red foxes made up 68% of all reported mammals with avian influenza.
If you suspect you’ve come into contact with a sick bird you should wash your hands with soap and water, change clothes before entering poultry or wild bird areas and clean your tools and equipment before their next use. All observations of sick birds in domestic flocks should be reported to the State of Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection by email at datcpanimalimports@wisconsin.gov or by phone at (608) 224-4872.