A new strain of avian flu has killed dozens of birds on a small Puget Sound island. Cases have turned up elsewhere as well. Officials are trying to better understand the disease’s spread.
BY: LAUREL DEMKOVICH – in the Washington State Standard (Thanks to Ed. M)
(Mike Carlo/U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)
The spread of bird flu has left Washington wildlife officials scrambling to test suspected cases and cleaning up hundreds of tern and gull carcasses along the coast of an island in northern Puget Sound.
Avian flu has historically affected mostly poultry, but a new strain – H5N1 – is proving deadly for wild birds as well. More than 75,000 wild birds globally have died because of the strain. Though human infection is rare, it’s not impossible.
Since the disease first came to Washington last March, cases in wild birds have been increasing in the state. But officials say they are still trying to gauge the full effects.
“The impacts in Washington have been hard to quantify,” Katie Haman, wildlife veterinarian at the Department of Fish and Wildlife, told the state Fish and Wildlife Commission last week. “How many cases are we missing? We just don’t know.”
In Washington, the first case of the H5N1 strain was reported on March 1, 2022 in a greater white-fronted goose in Walla Walla County.
So far, the Department of Fish and Wildlife has confirmed 112 cases in Washington, but Haman said that number is likely incomplete.
One outbreak that wildlife officials are monitoring is on Rat Island, a small island in Puget Sound, near Port Townsend. The wildlife preserve on the island is currently closed to the public due to the outbreak.
Since July 1, the Department of Fish and Wildlife has collected more than 1,224 dead Caspian tern carcasses – most of which are adults – and more than 158 dead gull carcasses – most of which are chicks.
The long-term impacts of the Rat Island outbreak are “unknown,” Haman said. “I think time will tell.”