The Review/John K. Flores

Volunteers from Southwest Louisiana help clear a net of waterfowl.

By JOHN K. FLORES

If you've paid any attention to the news lately, headlines like, "USDA Orders Milk Testing Amid Bird Flu Outbreak," may or may not have grabbed you. Moreover, you may also have not paid attention to the first human case of High Pathogen Avian Influenza (HPAI), known as H5N1, was detected and reported in South-west Louisiana Friday, Dec. 13, where the victim was hospitalized.

The CDC Website is full of facts and current information pertaining to bird flu. One of those facts is H5N1 bird flu is widespread in wild birds and is causing outbreaks in United States poultry and dairy cows with several recent human cases in U.S. poultry and dairy workers.

One of the things previously reported by the Morgan City Review, Franklin Banner-Tribune and StMaryNow.com were ongoing Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries activities each spring, where blue-winged teal are captured, banded, swabbed and blood sampled, as part of an ongoing program to moni-tor bird flu across the Southeast.

This monitoring has been conducted annually for more than a decade by the University of Georgia South-eastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study with partners like the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. But now, with 61 confirmed human cases reported in the U.S. this year, according to the CDC's website, increased monitoring is more critical than ever.

Deb Carter, a Research Professional who works for the Department of Pathology in the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Georgia, has put in countless hours, and traveled several thousand miles swab-bing and bloodletting waterfowl this year.

Carter said, "I was over here in Texas, August through September, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota in October, and Louisiana in November sampling tons of birds.

"I did lots of traveling, getting lots of samples, and have been very, very busy at

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work," Carter continued. "We're all very excited to see the results of what we found, and working up in the Dakotas and Minnesota has allowed us to catch the birds early as they come

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down the flyway."

Chronologically, HPAI was reported in cows on March 25 that hadn't been found in the U.S. in dairy cows since 2022. On April 1, the CDC confirmed a human H5N1 infection with exposure to dairy cows in Texas. And in May, the CDC began reporting additional sporadic human cases in people who had exposure to dairy cows.

In early November, I joined LDWF Rockefeller Refuge Wildlife Research Manager Paul Link and Carter one afternoon to capture blue-winged teal. Link had been baiting a capture site for a week, where blue-winged teal, green-winged teal, and black-bellied whistling ducks had been feasting. In the twilight, after sunset, just before dark, Link fired the net capturing over 500 ducks.

Once the net was cleared and the birds separated by species into crates for banding, approximately 50 blue-winged teal were set aside for Carter to take blood, throat, and cloaca samples before being released back into the wild.

While conducting these indignities on each bird, Carter was asked if are we are at a high rate of concern.

Her response was, "I think we should be because viruses can replicate, which means become different. We're still looking for answers. We're looking for new questions and how to put the story together about how the High Path came in -- what it did to the herds -- where it is now -- how its changed -- how new viruses might be coming in -- how birds are getting protected -- so there's like a whole lot of story lines."

Blue-winged teal are intercontinental travelers and are found in every North American flyway. Louisiana and Minnesota are part of the Mississippi Flyway, where Texas, South Dakota and North Dakota are in the Central Flyway. South Carolina, where Carter has sampled waterfowl, is in the Atlantic Flyway.

One of the things Carter says the lab appears to be seeing and noted from the data is how avian flu may be bouncing from flyway to flyway.

Carter said, "One flyway looks great. The next flyway is like -- getting there. And then, the next flyway needs to get cleaned up."

Louisiana's recent case on the CDC Website was notated with an asterisk pointing out, "Exposure was relat-ed to other animals such as backyard flocks, wild birds, or other mammals."

The CDC says currently there has been no human-to-human spread and public health risk is low.

The LDWF's website says Louisiana health officials consider the H5N1 HPAI strain to be a minimal threat to humans, however, sick birds should not be handled. Additionally, as this disease is highly contagious to other wild birds and domestic poultry, sick birds should not be comingled with other birds.

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service has issued several safety guidelines for hunters handling wild-life and their tissues that include wearing rubber or disposable latex gloves while handling and cleaning game.

For more information and updates concerning HPAI, you can go to www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/avian-in-birds.htm or www.fws.gov/avian-influenza.

John Flores is the Morgan City Review's outdoor writer. He can be contacted at [email protected].