Islanders urged to watch for sick and dying creatures as 3rd summer of avian flu begins

P.E.I. residents are being asked to keep an eye out for sick and dying birds and animals as a third summer under the threat of avian flu draws near.

The virus subtype H5N1 was first seen on the Island in March 2022, when a case was confirmed in the tissues of a bald eagle found on P.E.I.'s North Shore.

By May of that year, 23 birds had tested positive, as well as four fox kits that had a preliminary positive test for avian flu.

"We're still getting a handful of positive wild animals from P.E.I. every month," said Megan Jones, regional director of the Atlantic region of the Canadian Wildlife Health Co-operative, and an assistant prof at the Atlantic Veterinary College in Charlottetown. "Anywhere from three to five animals per month have tested positive so far in 2024, for example."

Still, Jones said the lab is getting fewer submissions now, so there may be less disease and mortality related to the virus. "But certainly it's still around, and we're still detecting [it] regularly in dead wild animals."

Jones said the birds most commonly affected tend to be crows and Canada geese. They also had a snowy owl test positive this winter. 

"Raptors can get infected — red-tailed hawk, eagles occasionally," Jones said.

"Over the winter, we had quite a few skunks test positive as well, the odd raccoon, and most recently, we've been getting positive foxes."

Jones said many of mammals tend to be carnivores, so they are infected as they eat the carcasses of birds that had avian flu.   

Most birds are infected from direct contact, or being close to each other. Some eat the remains of other birds, though, including eagles. As scavengers and predators, they often eat dead Canada geese.

Jones said it's important for Islanders to report sick or dead wild animals so that researchers can test them, but she warns people not to approach such wildlife, let alone touch them. 

"These animals, if they do have bird flu, they will be behaving strangely.

"Birds and mammals all tend to get neurological signs. The virus goes into their brain and so they behave strangely. They may just not run away from you. They may be having seizures.

"For those animals, what we want people to do is to report them to Fish and Wildlife, or to our office, and we can help co-ordinate getting them tested, because we want to make sure we're keeping tabs on the virus."