State Ag Department Warns About Bird Flu

Friday, April 8th, 2022 -- 11:00 AM

(Raymond Neupert, WRN) The state ag department is warning anyone who raises birds to be on the lookout for the virulent bird flu that's spreading across the country.

State veterinarian Dr. Darlene Konkle says the flu is already responsible for many depopulations of farmed birds. "We just want everybody with birds, with poultry, to be aware of high path avian influenza and to be watching the birds carefully and to contact us as soon as they see anything out of the ordinary or if they have questions. We want people to practice good biosecurity and detect it early."

Dr. Konkle says they suspect that migrating waterfowl are spreading the disease to farmed flocks and are asking people to step up their protections for their birds. "These commercial flocks have biosecurity plans in place to try to prevent that. But there still is enough movement of people equipment on and off of these premises that there's always a chance of basically tracking in the virus with some of that movement."

Dr. Konkle says that's very easy to transmit between smaller flocks. "Many of them are raised on small flocks in people's backyards. And we have a high number of migrating waterfowl moving through Wisconsin at this time of year."

DATCP reminds small farmers to frequently wash cages and areas where their flock gathers, to frequently wash hands and boots when working with their birds, and to keep their farmed fowl separate from wild waterfowl and their droppings.

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