- Rose Itzcovitz
- 16 hrs ago
- https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/lehighvalley/lehigh-county/western-lehigh-county/birds-falling-from-the-sky-nonprofit-confirms-at-least-35-snow-geese-test-positive-for/article_975f7ad4-c972-11ef-a51b-53b0dc62a89c.html
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A wildlife nonprofit in the Poconos has confirmed dozens of snow geese in various parts of the Lehigh Valley have tested positive for H5N1, which is also known as the bird flu.
This, as the Pennsylvania Game Commission announced it suspects bird flu killed hundreds more.
“I have never seen it this bad,” Janine Tancredi said.
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Tancredi, the co-executive director of The Wilderz at Pocono Wildlife, has been spending the past few days doing the tough part of her job.
“We’re euthanizing on arrival,” she said. “We don’t really have a choice.”
She and her team found hundreds of birds already dead, she said, when they arrived to a quarry in the Nazareth area on Thursday.
“People were reporting like birds falling from the sky,” Tancredi said. “And it seems far-fetched, but because they become so neurologically disabled, they don’t know their whereabouts. They’re flying into trees. They’re flying into houses.”
She says over the past few days, over four sites in the Nazareth area, and one in the Bethlehem area, every snow goose her team has tested for H5N1 — that’s at least 35 birds — has come back positive.
“So, at the first place, there was 15 dead on arrival,” she said. “We had to euthanize one.”
Tancredi added some of the sites were private property, and owners did not want the locations to be made public, but she says residents within the areas were notified.
She also said she believes the total number of those affected is “probably more like thousands.”
Her findings came as the Pennsylvania Game Commission just announced the deaths of 200 snow geese in the Lehigh Valley are suspected to be bird flu cases.
The game commission said results are yet to be confirmed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture at its National Veterinary Services Laboratories.
Tancredi said it’s unlikely those cases are anything but the “highly pathogenic avian influenza,” as H5N1 is known, considering the game commission recovered the geese from Lower Nazareth Township in Northampton County and Upper Macungie Township in Lehigh County.
“Less than 4 miles from the location that they all tested positive,” Tancredi said.
Still, the Pennsylvania Department of Health says it, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are “confident” the current outbreak “poses a low risk to the health of the general public.”
The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture said the commonwealth has been on “high alert” since the outbreak that happened in 2022, and stated:
“To date, there have been no infections in…humans in Pennsylvania.”
But the virus is particularly contagious and lethal to domestic poultry, the Pennsylvania Game Commission said.
“It doesn’t matter how clean you are,” Tancredi said. “I mean, somebody can be going out there, the reality is, five times a day and cleaning their chicken coop, and it takes one bird to fly over that is contaminated and droppings and there’s exposure.”
So what should we be doing? Officials say to avoid contact with bird feces and saliva, where the virus is spread.
Tancredi said organic materials can’t be disinfected, but hard surfaces should be be cleaned with a 10% bleach solution, or what’s called Rescue Disinfectant.
If you have a dog, consider staying away from waterways, and maybe buy some dog booties on Amazon.
“I know it’s like extreme,” Tancredi said, “but would you rather avoid walking your dog for the next several months? Because this is not going to be over soon.”
If you see any dead birds or other animals — or if any look disoriented to you — officials urge you not to touch them, but to report them to the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
You can call 1-833-PGC-WILD (1-833-742-9453), or email pgc-wildlifehealth@pa.gov or use the online Wildlife Health Survey tool.
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