A dangerous strain of bird flu has been detected in commercial poultry flocks in Indiana and Kentucky in recent weeks. Farms across the country are now on high alert as fears rise about a repeat of a widespread bird flu outbreak in 2015 that killed millions of chickens and turkeys in 15 states, including Nebraska.
UNL professor Mark Vrtiska is a wildlife management specialist and says very little can be done when an entire flock is impacted. “Typically, if it’s a high pathogenic outbreak it occurs so fast and so severe that there isn’t much you can do in a timely manner. It’s just best to isolate and then essentially cull them.”
Vrtiska says there is still a lot to learn about the bird flu. “Probably the area that we’re lacking is how the disease gets transmitted into these poultry operations. People can do it and Avian influenza can get into mammals, dogs, cats. Maybe that’s a mode of transportation.”
As thousands of people prepare to watch the arrival of the sandhill cranes in central Nebraska, Vrtiska says there is very little concern that the cranes transmitting the virus. “Their not very high in prevalence of having Avian influenza, so they’re not going to be carrying a whole lot of this into the state of Nebraska.”
Vrtiska says ducks, like mallards and teals, are the type of birds that can bring the virus into the state.