May 13, 2022 By Maddie Arthur For news media 

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesconfirmed in a news release on May 13that several fox kits were infected with thecurrently circulating H5N1 strainof highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

It’s likely the foxes contracted the virus after eating or coming into contact with infected birds in their natural environments.

This detection in wild red foxes is the first report of HPAI infections in mammals in the United States, though infections of fox kits have since been reported in Minnesota and Michigan. It was also detected in foxes in Ontario, Canada, earlier this month.

The virus was identified at the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and confirmed by the National Veterinary Services Laboratories, a diagnostic testing lab in the USDA’s Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service.

“Kits…