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Canada Goose Found With Bird Flu Near Cheyenne

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A Canada goose found near Cheyenne has bird flu.

The strain of the disease is H5N2 and is highly contagious among birds. But so far this version of avian influenza has only been found in the one bird in Wyoming.

State veterinarian Jim Logan says that the disease has never affected humans…but it can be very harmful to domestic poultry. He says up to ninety percent of domestic birds with the disease could die. Logan recommends that people who own domestic fowl, like chickens or falcons, should keep them away from wild waterfowl.

“They could do things to keep their poultry away from water supplies, ponds and cricks and that type of stuff that might be frequented by wild waterfowl.”

He continues, “If they do frequent areas where wild geese or ducks or other wild birds might be, around ponds or in parks or wherever, that before they go home to a domestic poultry operation it could be good for them to change their footgear and in fact maybe even change clothes.”

Logan says wild birds can get sick, but the mortality rate for them is negligible. The goose makes Wyoming the eleventh state to find a case within its borders.

Erin Jones is Wyoming Public Radio's cultural affairs producer, as well as the host and senior producer of HumaNature. She began her audio career as an intern in the Wyoming Public Radio newsroom, and has reported on issues ranging from wild horse euthanization programs to the future of liberal arts in universities. Her audio work has been featured on WHYY Philadelphia’s The Pulse and the podcast Out There.
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