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USDA confirms bird flu in wild birds

The USDA has confirmed the presence of highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza in wild birds in the extreme northwestern county of Washington state.

Whatcom County is just across the border from Canada’s Frazer Valley where five farms were quarantined last week after H5N2 was confirmed in chickens and turkeys. Wild birds are suspected in those infections.

Two separate virus strains identified in Washington are H5N2 in northern pintail ducks and H5N8 in captive falcons that were fed hunter-killed wild birds. While neither virus has been found in commercial poultry anywhere in the U.S., the possibility of infection does exist.

 

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