By Gino Lorenzoni and John Boney
The avian Influenza virus has been detected in migratory birds in several states.
Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) is a devastating poultry disease. When infected, most poultry die and if they do not die, they become seriously ill. The natural reservoir for HPAI are migratory waterfowl. Unlike poultry, when waterfowl are infected with HPAI they do not always develop symptoms. In other words, infected waterfowl continue traveling from state to state during the migratory period. It is via migration that waterfowl contaminated with the HPAI virus have already arrived in the United States from other parts of the world.
Indeed, surveillance services have confirmed that HPAI contaminated waterfowl have been detected in Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. While the HPAI virus has not been detected in commercial poultry yet, the presence of the virus in the environment poses an imminent risk for poultry.