(The Center Square) – Public health and natural resource managers in both Illinois and Wisconsin are looking at, but have not yet confirmed, if bird flu is responsible for dozens of bird deaths along lake Michigan.
Reports started coming in after dozens of dead ducks washed up on lake beaches between Chicago and Milwaukee.
In Wisconsin, dead birds were found at Kenosha’s Simmons Island Beach and at Racine’s North Beach. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says it is “monitoring” the situation.
The DNR is just one state agency in Wisconsin that is now actively tracking the bird flu. The Department of Agriculture, Consumer Protection, and Trade and the Department of Health Services have been tracking avian influenza for years.
The DATCP has kept a running log of bird flu cases since at least 2022.
The last update did not show any confirmed bird flu cases along Lake Michigan. The last bird flu case confirmed by DATCP was on the day after Christmas in Burnett County. The state says more than 18,000 birds in a commercial flock were destroyed after a case there.
The Department of Health Services is also tracking bird flu in Wisconsin. But DHHS has not updated its outbreak page since before Christmas. That was to issue a notice about a bird flu case at a commercial flock in Barron County. Some 13,000 birds were put down in that outbreak.
Wisconsin does have one confirmed human case of the bird flu. That person was confirmed to be sick on Dec. 18. They were a worker on the farm in Barron County where the state found at least one sick bird the week before. That worker has recovered.
Wisconsin says the bird flu has been especially problematic over the past few years in both wild birds, commercial flocks and backyard chickens kept in at-home coops.
Both DATCP and DHS officials are telling people not to touch any wild bird that they find dead. If you find five or more dead birds, public health managers say you need to contact someone so they can check for a cause.
