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Minnesota DNR continues to look for avian flu in wild birds

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The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources continues to look for high path avian influenza in migratory waterfowl.

Wildlife Research Manager Lou Cornicelli says the first case of avian flu in the state occurred before migration started this spring.

“So there weren’t really many ducks in the area at the time.  We had some resident mallards west of the farm that we sampled and didn’t find anything.  But waterfowl didn’t start showing up until later that week.”

The first of 108 confirmed cases in Minnesota was March fourth, and Cornicelli tells Brownfield the DNR hasn’t stopped looking for the virus since.

“If you think about waterfowl specifically, we did about 620 geese over the summer as part of our summer banding.  We did 740 ducks as part of our summer banding.  And so far, we’ve done about 750 ducks as part of our hunter-harvested surveillance.”

Only two cases of high path AI were found in wild birds, a cooper’s hawk in April and a chickadee in June.

Cornicelli says as more birds migrate south, the DNR will be ramping up surveillance.

“And as part of the USDA national plan that we’re involved in, other states will be sampling later in the season as birds move down the flyway.  Minnesota can only sample birds for so long because they leave.”

Ducks are considered to be the primary carrier of the H5 viruses, and Cornicelli says the tests have a 95 percent chance of detecting the disease if it’s present in one percent of the population.

 

 

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