Avian Flu in Maine

Whereas we people have been coping with the troublesome and unhappy implications of COVID, birds have been coping with a distinct and really lethal virus referred to as Extremely Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI). Avian influenza of varied kinds has been identified to happen in birds for greater than a century. It’s notably an issue in industrial poultry operations by which huge numbers of birds are housed in shut proximity to one another such that the virus spreads quickly. The HPAI type just isn’t solely extremely contagious but in addition extremely deadly. To forestall its unfold, all birds in an contaminated poultry operation should be euthanized and destroyed. Tens of thousands and thousands of chickens, specifically, have died or been euthanized already this yr throughout the U.S. and components of southern Canada.

Sadly, the virus additionally has been present in wild migratory waterfowl populations together with these of geese, swans, and geese, which have seen main die-offs in some areas but in addition in different species like bald eagles, red-tailed hawks, snowy owls, nice horned owls, turkey vultures, American crows, frequent ravens, nice black-backed gulls, and herring gulls that will feed on carcasses of birds which have died from the virus.

Many fowl rehabilitation services in components of the nation the place there are main outbreaks of the virus have been compelled to cease taking in birds for rescue due to the danger of infecting the birds at the moment of their care. Services that present long-term take care of injured eagles, hawks, and owls have been notably involved as a result of these birds have proven susceptibility to the virus.

Fortuitously, the HPAI virus doesn’t look like of main danger to songbirds or to people.

The virus has been detected in Maine in poultry flocks and in 9 particular person wild birds. Six American black geese have been discovered to have the virus in February in Washington Nation. A lifeless Canada goose present in York County in March and a lifeless bald eagle there in April each examined optimistic for the virus and one other lifeless bald eagle from Lincoln County in early April was contaminated.

As most waterfowl transfer north and unfold out throughout the breeding grounds and are in much less shut proximity, the hope is that the virus could have much less alternative to unfold and the prevalence of HPAI will vastly lower. The hotter temperatures of summer time are additionally anticipated to make the virus much less in a position to survive exterior contaminated birds, which may even make it tougher to unfold.

As a result of the virus doesn’t look like infecting most birds that frequent fowl feeders, there was conflicting recommendation about whether or not to maintain feeding wild birds. For those who do proceed to feed birds, it’s at all times really useful that feeders be totally cleaned repeatedly and that areas beneath feeders be saved freed from fallen seeds and particles. Different illnesses can infect feeder birds like avian conjunctivitis. For those who see indicators of birds with illness, it’s most secure to discard the remaining seeds within the feeder, totally clear the feeders, and take into account not feeding the birds for a number of weeks. There’s loads of accessible pure meals for them so to not fear.

Folks encountering sick or lifeless birds in Maine ought to contact the state veterinarian’s workplace at (207) 287-7615 or the USDA at 1-866-536-7593.

Jeffrey V. Wells, Ph.D., is a Fellow of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Vice President of Boreal Conservation for Nationwide Audubon. Dr. Wells is among the nation’s main fowl specialists and conservation biologists and writer of the “Birder’s Conservation Handbook.” His grandfather, the late John Chase, was a columnist for the Boothbay Register for a few years. Allison Childs Wells, previously of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is a senior director on the Pure Sources Council of Maine, a nonprofit membership group working statewide to guard the character of Maine. Each are broadly printed pure historical past writers and are the authors of the favored books, “Maine’s Favourite Birds” (Tilbury Home) and “Birds of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao: A Web site and Area Information,” (Cornell College Press).