• Nov 17, 2025 Updated 7 hrs ago
• https://www.hpenews.com/lifestyles/health/washington-reports-first-human-case-of-rare-bird-flu-strain/article_bf16d592-3b43-5c34-9d69-8fed715b01d8.html

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Key Takeaways

• Washington state has confirmed the first U.S. human case of the H5N5 bird flu strain
• Officials say the public risk is low
• More than 100 people who came in contact with the infected individual were monitored

MONDAY, Nov. 17, 2025 (HealthDay News) — A Washington state resident has become the first person in the United States to test positive for a rare bird flu strain that has never before been found in humans.

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The older adult, who has underlying health problems, was hospitalized in early November after developing a high fever, confusion and trouble breathing.

“This is a severely ill patient,” state epidemiologist Dr. Scott Lindquist told The Washington Post.

Experts stress that the public health risk remains low.

Testing by the Washington State Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed the patient was infected with H5N5, a type of avian influenza seen in wild birds in the U.S. and Canada, but never before in a human.

Officials said the person cares for a mixed backyard flock and two birds had died weeks earlier. Wild birds also had access to the property, making poultry or wild birds the most likely source of exposure.

While H5N5 is different from the more common H5N1 strain that has spread widely among animals and people worldwide, experts say the two strains behave similarly.

“The H5N5 viruses we have looked at behave similarly to H5N1 viruses in our models to assess human risk,” Richard Webby, a virologist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, told The Post.

More than 100 health care workers who interacted with the patient have been monitored, and some were tested for flu-like symptoms.

“We have identified no additional individuals other than the patient who is infected with H5N5,” state health officer Dr. Tao Kwan-Gett, said to The Post.

State reports record-high cases as deer hunting season begins

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By KTTC Staff

Published: Nov. 17, 2025 at 11:15 AM PST|Updated: 3 hours ago

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – Deer hunting season is underway in Minnesota, and the DNR is asking hunters to help in the fight against a deadly disease.

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a contagious fatal brain condition that affects deer. It’s not harmful to humans, and there is no known cure.

Transmission happens primarily through direct contact between animals, but also through environmental contamination.

The DNR says CWD is prominent among deer in the southeast part of the state. Multiple management actions, designed to help mitigate disease spread, are in place in 32 counties, including Dodge, Fillmore, Goodhue, Houston, Mower, Olmsted, Steele, Wabasha, and Winona.

Hunters in affected areas must provide CWD samples if it’s in a mandatory sample requirement area, follow carcass movement restrictions, and comply with deer feeding or attractant bans in place.

The DNR will directly notify any hunter who harvests a deer that tests positive.

According to the DNR, nearly 100 cases of CWD were documented in Minnesota deer last year — the highest number on record.

Visit the Minnesota DNR website for more information.

Find stories like this and more, in our apps.

Researchers have captured video footage of wild wolves in British Columbia pulling crab traps out of the sea by their lines to eat the bait inside, in the first evidence of possible tool use by the animals.

Chuck Chiang, The Canadian Pressabout 3 hours agoabout 3 hours ago

• https://www.nsnews.com/national-news/bc-wolves-use-line-to-pull-up-crab-traps-in-first-possible-tool-use-by-species-11499716

Researchers have captured video footage of wild wolves in British Columbia pulling crab traps out of the sea by their lines to eat the bait inside, in the first evidence of possible tool use by the animals.

A report released Monday in the scientific journal Ecology and Evolution by researchers Kyle Artelle and Paul Paquet says they placed cameras on the beach aimed at Heiltsuk First Nation crab traps to work out what was repeatedly damaging them.

The traps, set up near Bella Bella, on B.C.’s central coast, were being used to control the invasive European green crab, and some were in deeper water submerged at all times, leading researchers to believe the damage that started in 2023 was caused by marine mammals.

“We were going, ‘Well, what the heck is doing this, right?'” said Artelle, a researcher with State University of New York’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry, who was involved with the Heiltsuk Nation’s efforts to respond to the green crabs.

“It can’t be a bear, a wolf. They’re not going to dive down to get to the trap. So, what is getting the traps?”

Their assumptions were wrong.

Within a day of the cameras being set up in May last year, researchers captured footage of a sea wolf emerging from the water with a buoy hanging from its mouth.

The footage then showed the wolf dropping the buoy on the beach, picking up the exposed line, and pulling it until the crab trap emerged from the water.

The wolf then picked up the trap with its mouth, moved it to shallower waters and ate the bait inside.

“We had to pick our jaws off the floor,” Artelle said.

“We know that they’re really, really smart, but it hadn’t crossed our mind that, oh, maybe a wolf is swimming out to the deeper traps and bringing the buoy to shore, pulling the line up just like a person would.”

The cameras then picked up a second sea wolf also pulling up a crab trap in a similar way earlier this year, leading researchers to believe other wolves in the local pack may have learned from each other.

Sea wolves are a grey wolf subspecies known for their marine-based diet.

As for how the behaviour started, Artelle said researchers can only speculate.

“We ultimately don’t know, but the two most likely explanations in our minds, one would be that the wolves started doing this with traps that were exposed at a low tide because that’s really easy,” Artelle said.

“There might’ve been this incremental learning that started with the trap fully onshore to traps partly submerged, to then associating the line with the trap and then the buoy with the line … It would make a lot of sense, and that’s often how we learn.”

Researchers say a few cameras at the B.C. site are now dedicated 24-7 to the crab traps to track the behaviour of sea wolves in the area, while work is “in progress” to prevent too much damage to the traps that may inhibit the invasive crab study.

“Some really special things are happening here, and we want to understand more about that. What else is happening on the ground? What else do these wolves have to teach us? And so that’s a focus for the next decades as we explore more about wolves here,” Artelle said.

“This is really just the tip of the iceberg.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2025.

Chuck Chiang, The Canadian Press