Geese to be tested for avian influenza

In 2009, the human H1N1 “swine flu” virus was blamed for many event postponements and plenty of panic. Like some of the other animal-named viruses of the past 15 years, the concern was how the virus had spread from animals to humans.

A strain of the bird flu, or Avian influenza, has been reported recently in poultry birds in Minnesota, Missouri, Arkansas and Kansas, so Iowa officials have had to take more precautionary measures — starting with snow geese.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources, in partnership with USDA Wildlife Services, is looking to collect a total of swab samples from 150 snow geese from across Iowa in an attempt to detect any presence of this disease in the state.

Dustin Vande Hoef, who works for the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, said last week the USDA has sampled 100 hunter-harvested snow geese in Iowa, but do not have results yet.

“It will likely be a couple of months before they do,” Vande Hoef said. “The disease has been found in neighboring states, but there are still no confirmed cases in Iowa.”

The Iowa DNR issued a news release on March 17, calling for hunter samples needed to monitor for high-path avian influenza.

The samples need to be taken within 24 hours of harvest, and are collected by swabbing the throat and the cloaca with a cotton swab. Successful hunters may call 217-306-8287 to arrange for collection.

It only takes about one minute to gather a sample, and hunters may keep the birds.

Avian influenza is found naturally in certain waterfowl and shoreline birds, but it passes much more quickly between animals in commercial flocks, as the birds are close together for long periods of time.

The recent origin of a high-path strain, called HPAI H5N8, in the Pacific Northwest raised the level of concern about Avian flu nationwide. The potential impact on both wild birds and domestic poultry quickly gained momentum in the media and in conservation and hunting and poultry circles.

The Centers for Disease Control considers the risk to people from high path infections in wild birds, backyard flocks and commercial poultry, to be low, as it is difficult for humans to pass the virus to one another. A light goose conservation order ends April 15. Mick Klemesrud, an information specialist for the Iowa DNR, said crunching and interpreting the data from the samples will take some time.

“We don’t have any results yet and it will likely be a few more weeks before they are in. We collected samples from 100 geese, a mixture of snow and Ross’ geese, all of which were hunter harvested. That’s all the new info we have for now,” said Klemesrud.

For more information, contact Josh Wisdom of the USDA Wildlife Service by email at Joshua.P.Wisdom@aphis.usda.gov.