Bird flu found in Kansas City area waterfowl, hawk as human cases continue elsewhere
A highly contagious bird flu, officially called Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza or HPAI, is spreading rapidly among wild birds around the U.S. — including in the Kansas City area.
In recent months, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have identified the bird flu in six geese and a red-shouldered hawk found dead in Jackson and Clay counties in late 2023. The bird flu has been detected in Missouri waterfowl, raptors, seabirds and shore birds — so far, it hasn’t been detected in songbirds.
Human cases of the bird flu remain low, with 58 confirmed during the current outbreak nationwide. Only one human case has been confirmed in Missouri — although the case is of interest to researchers due to the patient’s lack of previous contact with livestock. However, there are signs that the virus’s ability to move between species may increase.
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a nationwide testing order for raw milk aimed at the bird flu. Unpasteurized or “raw” milk can contain viruses and other pathogens that are killed during the pasteurization process. The effort aims to identify infected dairy herds before their milk is pasteurized and enters the public supply.
Here’s the latest on the bird flu in Missouri and beyond.
How can I prevent wild birds from spreading the bird flu?
According to the Missouri Department of Conservation, using common-sense safety precautions around wild birds can help reduce the spread of the bird flu. This includes drying off waders and other waterfowl hunting gear before transporting it from one place to another and making sure you cook any hunted waterfowl until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.
Humans cannot get the bird flu from properly cooked waterfowl and poultry because normal cooking temperatures are high enough to kill the virus that causes the disease.
While bird feeders can be a site of disease spread for songbirds, the state doesn’t recommend removing them unless you also keep chickens or other domestic birds that can catch the disease directly from wild birds.
“Widespread removal of feeders is not an effective way to reduce the spread since waterfowl and raptors do not visit bird feeders frequently,” the Department of Conservation writes on its website. “Songbirds do not appear to be major carriers of this virus, so are at low risk from this avian influenza strain.”
Does the bird flu pose a public health risk to humans?
The CDC doesn’t currently believe that the bird flu poses a threat to humans, and sustained human-to-human transmission of the flu has not been detected. The disease typically has mild symptoms in humans, although a more severe case was reported in a Canadian teenager on Thursday, Nov. 14 in the British Medical Journal.
While human cases of the bird flu remain low in the U.S., there are indications that the virus is improving its ability to jump between species — an indicator of potential human infections. On Oct. 30, the USDA reported the first confirmed bird flu infection of a pig on a backyard farm in Oregon.
According to Yale Medicine infectious diseases specialist Dr. Scott Roberts, pigs can be infected with both animal and human flu strains, potentially serving as a site for the viruses to mutate. These new mutations can then allow animal diseases like the bird flu to make the leap to humans.
This isn’t the only recent indicator of the virus’s increasing mobility between species. A new study in the Dec. 5 issue of Science found that just one gene mutation in the current bovine strain of the virus could make it far better suited to infecting human cells.
The most recent human case of the bird flu is a child in California, where the majority of U.S. cases have occurred — 38 in total during the current outbreak. The child’s case, which was confirmed Friday, Nov. 22, was the second in the U.S. identified through national surveillance rather than targeted testing of livestock workers.
The only other case found through the surveillance system was the Missouri patient. They were hospitalized on Aug. 22 and have since recovered.
Do you have more questions about the avian flu’s spread in the Midwest and beyond? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.
This story was originally published December 6, 2024 at 2:07 PM.
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