Regional residents urged to report sick birds as avian flu spreads

By Megan Gannon
A highly contagious and lethal new avian influenza strain continues to spread across the U.S. and has been detected in wild birds in Alaska. As spring migration brings wild flocks to the Bering Strait region, residents are encouraged to report any dead or sick birds, and subsistence hunters are urged to take appropriate precautions.
The highly pathogenic avian influenza was confirmed in several bald eagles on Unalaska in the Aleutian Islands, several Canada geese in the Anchorage area and a Canada goose in Delta Junction, according to the latest update from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, posted on May 9.
“The good news is we have not found any other positive flocks in our domestic poultry,” Alaska State Veterinarian Dr. Robert Gerlach said in an interview with The Nome Nugget. The first cases in the state were detected in a non-commercial backyard flock of chickens and ducks in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough last month. Dr. Gerlach added that his office is trying to make sure poultry farmers around the state are aware of the threat posed by the bird flu, and the importance of keeping their flocks away from any wild birds in the area.
Stopping and monitoring the spread of the virus among wild populations of birds is much more challenging.
“I think people can sometimes not appreciate the fact that we have over six million birds that fly up and come across the Bering Sea from Asia every year,” Dr. Gerlach said. “Then I don’t know how many million come up from Canada and the Lower 48. And as they get up here, they intermix with one another.”
This strain of H1N1 struck North America in late 2021. Since the beginning of this year, more than 37 million chickens and turkeys in U.S. farms have been culled because of bird flu cases, according to the Associated Press.
Dr. Gerlach said that this strain of avian influenza is behaving very differently than previous strains that have been identified. “Normally wild birds carry the virus, but they don’t get sick,” he said. During this outbreak, however, fatal cases of bird flu have indeed been documented in several different species, including shorebirds, ducks, geese and raptors. “That’s very unusual,” he said.
The risk of human infection is low; only one case has been detected in humans so far in the U.S., in a worker at a poultry farm in Colorado. Still, state agencies and regional groups have been urging caution for anyone who might be handling birds, including subsistence hunters. A locally circulated flyer from Kawerak and UAF Alaska Sea Grant reminds people of the Bering Strait region to use their traditional knowledge, to keep hunting and processing equipment clean, to avoid harvesting animals that appear sick and to thoroughly cook meet and eggs.
That same flyer also urged the public to report any dead, sick or strangely behaving birds to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Sick/Dead Bird Hotline for the state.
“We have gotten an array of calls—many times these calls are I think about birds that have died of other causes, perhaps they have been struck by a car, or perhaps died during winter,” said Eric Taylor, the chief of migratory bird management for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Alaska, who has been answering the hotline. “But I’ve been very impressed with Alaska residents. I can tell that the public is concerned about this.”
Dr. Gerlach said the USDA Wildlife Services performs regular surveillance of wild birds in the state; when the agency eventually begins its normal tagging and monitoring of those live birds, its researchers will be collecting samples for influenza surveillance as well. However, at this time, the majority of samples that have been tested have been from birds that were reported sick, or birds that have died, he said.
Taylor noted that in 2015, during the last major outbreak of bird flu in the U.S., there was a more formal surveillance program with multiple agencies conducting sampling throughout Alaska in response to the spread of the virus. “We don’t have that at the present time,” he said.
Taylor said that so far, he hasn’t fielded any reports of mass die-offs in the state, but he noted that the migration season is just getting started, and big concentrations of birds are still building. “Right now, we’re kind of in a wait-and-see mode,” he said.
A Strait Science presentation on May 26 will discuss the avian flu.
To report unusual observations and concerns about birds, call the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Alaska Sick/Dead Bird Hotline at 1-866-527-3358. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game Wildlife Health Reporting can be reached via email at dfg.dwc.vet@alaska.gov. Reports can also be posted to the Local Environmental Observer Network, www.leonetwork.org or locally to Gay Sheffield, UAF Alaska Sea Grant at (907) 434-1149.