OCONTO, WI (WTAQ) – A snowy owl in northeast Wisconsin has died from the same avian flu virus discovered on ten poultry farms in the Badger State.
The DNR said Thursday that one snowy owl in Oconto County tested positive and died from the H5N2 bird flu virus.
It’s the first wild bird in the Badger State reported to have the disease. Most of the other cases occurred on commercial chicken and turkey farms, and one backyard flock.
The DNR’s Tami Ryan said the snowy owl was found dead around mid-April near a breakwater of the Bay of Green Bay at Oconto. The owl had no outward indications of poor health, but a necropsy at the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison revealed that the bird died from the virus.
Ryan says there’s no way to know how the snowy owl contracted it. That’s because there are no poultry operations close to where the bird was found.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 59 birds in the U.S. were known to be infected with avian flu strains since mid-December. Wisconsin’s case is the 60th. Most of the others were in the Western U.S.
(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)