WASHINGTON – Eurasian H5 avian influenza was confirmed in a wild duck, but tests were unable to determine the strain or pathogenicity of the viruses, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the US Dept. of Agriculture recently reported.
APHIS discovered the infected bird during its AI surveillance efforts. “This recent finding of Eurasian H5 was in a wild, hunter-harvested mallard duck in Morrow County, Oregon in November,” APHIS reported. “No HPAI has been identified in any commercial or backyard poultry since June 17, 2015.”
APHIS has been sampling wild birds — both hunter-harvested birds and wild bird mortalities — since July 1 and will continue sampling wild birds until July 1, 2016. So far, more than 24,000 samples already have been tested.
On Nov. 18, USDA reported to World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) that all cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza in commercial poultry stocks had been resolved.
