As you may be aware, last Friday USDA confirmed a case of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N2 in a wild Mallard duck in Alaska. The full announcement from the USDA can be found here. It’s not terribly surprising that this virus has been found; previous information coming out of USDA indicated that they believed the virus was likely circulating at extremely low levels in the reservoir population. This detection is a very good reminder that migration will soon begin, increasing the likelihood of disease transmission. The Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Checklist prepared by the ZAHP Fusion Center during last year’s outbreak is available for any facilities that wish to use it to review and enhance their biosecurity and preparedness plans.
If you are attending AZA’s annual conference, the ZAHP Fusion Center will be presenting “Foreign Animal Diseases: Health Emergencies and Continuity Crushers”, a session that will highlight some facilities responses to last year’s HPAI outbreak, on Saturday September 10th from 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM. Information from this session will be made available as soon as possible via our website for anyone who could not attend.