KALAMAZOO, Mich. — A strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza has been detected in Michigan in a non-commercial backyard flock of birds in Kalamazoo County, federal authorities said Thursday.
Samples from the flock were tested at Michigan State University’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and confirmed by the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service laboratories in Ames, Iowa.
State officials have quarantined the Kalamazoo County site and birds at that property “will be depopulated to prevent the spread of disease,” the USDA said in a statement, noting that birds from that flock will not enter the food system.
The virus strain is potentially deadly to commercial poultry.
The bird flu cases are among the latest in the U.S. that have put farms that raise turkeys and chickens for meat and eggs on high alert, fearing a repeat of a 2015 bird flu outbreak that killed 50 million birds across 15 states and cost the federal government nearly $1 billion.
Bird flu has also been detected at commercial turkey farms in southern Indiana, a flock of commercial broiler chickens in Kentucky, a commercial poultry flock in Delaware, a backyard flock of mixed species birds in northern Virginia, and in New York and Maine, both at a single non-commercial backyard flock.
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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says the recent bird flu detections do not present an immediate public health concern. No human cases of these viruses have been detected in the U.S.
Photo courtesy of Sarah Bassing, University of Washington
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) invites the public to submit written comment from Feb. 22 to April 11 on a proposed rule change and a new rule to address wolf-livestock conflict deterrence.
In September 2020, Governor Jay Inslee directed WDFW to initiate rule making with the goal of instituting practices that would reduce the number of livestock killed or injured by wolves as well as the number of wolves lethally removed as a result of depredations of domestic animals.
The proposed rule change, if adopted, would amend the language of Washington Administrative Code (WAC) 220-440-080 to require that, to authorize lethal removal of wolves, the WDFW director (or WDFW staff designee) would need to confirm an owner of domestic animals has proactively implemented appropriate non-lethal conflict deterrence measures.
The proposal, if adopted, would also create a new rule (WAC 220-440-260) that directs WDFW staff, in consultation with willing, affected livestock producers, as well as affected federal, state and tribal agencies, to author conflict mitigation plans that would establish area-specific criteria for the use of non-lethal and lethal measures to mitigate wolf-livestock conflict in areas of chronic conflict.
“If adopted, the proposed change to WAC 220-440-080 would align the code with the agency’s long-standing commitment to non-lethal conflict mitigation strategies,” said Wolf Policy Lead Julia Smith.
“The proposal creating WAC 220-440-260 aims to address areas that have experienced significant levels of livestock depredation and subsequent wolf removals year after year, an especially difficult scenario for all communities concerned about wolf conservation and management. This proposal focuses limited time and resources to areas where the most livestock and wolf loss has occurred in the state.”
In addition, a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (DSEIS) that analyzes the environmental impacts of four alternative rule making options and a Small Business Economic Impact Statement (SBEIS) that evaluates the potential costs to businesses in the livestock industry resulting from the proposed rule and rule change were developed as part of the rule making process. During this public comment period, WDFW is looking for input on the draft proposed language for both WACs, as well as feedback on the DSEIS.
Written comments can also be submitted via email to WolfConflictDeterrence102@PublicInput.com, or members of the public can call (855) 925-2801 (enter project code 3861) to record their input.
A public hearing is scheduled for April 8 at 8 a.m. The meeting will take place by webinar. The public may participate in the meeting. Registration is required to testify at the public hearing. Registration deadlines and registration forms are available on the Commission Meetings page or you may contact the commission office at (360) 902-2267.
The final SEIS is planned to be issued in May and the Fish and Wildlife Commission will consider the proposal in May of 2022. The rule and/or rule changes that may result from this process are proposed to be effective in January 2023.
A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Meanwhile in China newsletter, a three-times-a-week update exploring what you need to know about the country’s rise and how it impacts the world.Sign up here.
(CNN)AsRussian missiles flewthrough the Ukrainian sky Thursday and world leaders decriedan invasionspreading across the country, China refused to condemn Russia’s move outright, while appearing to levy blame on the United States and its allies.
Beijing finds itself in a complex position as Russia’s invasion of its neighbor intensifies, needing to balance a close strategic partnership with Moscow with its seemingly contradictory policy of supporting state sovereignty.
A Chinese government official Thursday sidestepped questions over whether it would condemn Russia’s actions or consider it an “invasion.”
Instead, China’s Assistant Foreign Minister Hua Chunying — who repeated staid…
This is CNBC’s live blog tracking Friday’s developments in Russia’s attack on Ukraine. See below for the latest updates.
Russian forces are closing in on Kyiv as Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine continues.
Kyiv officials warned residents in the capital’s northern Obolon district not to go outside on Friday due to “the approach of active hostilities.” Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense urged people in the area to either take shelter or make petrol bombs to “neutralize the occupier.”
It came as Ukrainian officials blew up bridges leading into Kyiv to prevent Russian troops infiltrating the capital.
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Experts at the state nuclear agency said in a statement that the change was due to the movement of a large number of heavy military machinery lifting the top layer of soil into the air.
An explosion and fire at the Chornobyl power plant on April 26, 1986, led to the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
Russian forces captured control of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant on Thursday, prompting an advisor to the presidential office to warn it was now “impossible” to consider the shuttered reactor safe.
The New Safe Confinement seals off the Object Shelter, also known as the Sarcophagus, a temporary structure built in 1986 over the debris of the 4th reactor of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Kyiv Region, northern…
Animals in northern hemisphere would have been more vulnerable to intense heat just after winter
Artistic reconstruction by Joschua Knüppe of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs coming down in the northern hemisphere’s springtime.Photograph: Joschua Knüppe
Having an asteroid slam into Earth was catastrophic for the dinosaurs, but the season of the strike may have substantially ramped up extinction rates for others species, research suggests.
Scientists have found evidence that the devastating impact 66m years ago, which wiped out three-quarters of Earth’s species and created the Chicxulub crater in modern-day Mexico, happened in the spring in the northern hemisphere.
The timing means that many animals north of the equator would have been particularly vulnerable to the intense heatwave unleashed by the collision, having just emerged from the harsh months of winter. Other animals in the south may have…
(CNN)Plummeting Covid-19 case counts across the United States are leading to lifted mask mandates and more conversations about steps toward normalcy — but more people are dying of the coronavirus now than during most points of the pandemic.
More than 2,000 Covid-19 deaths have been reported in the United States each day for the past month. Average daily deaths are falling, but from a very high point. They dipped just below that mark in recent days, to about 1,900 on Monday; the federal holiday may have delayed reporting.
Before Omicron became the dominant coronavirus strain in the US, there were only about 100 other days when there were more than 2,000 Covid-19 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The only other time that deaths have been this high for this long was during the first winter…
Over and over again this week — as Russia massed forces along Ukraine’s borders and then invaded on Wednesday night — the former US President found time to praise Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On Tuesday,in an interviewwith conservative radio hosts Clay Travis and Buck Sexton, Trump repeatedly praised Putin for his strategy on Ukraine.
“I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent,”Trump said. “Oh, that’s wonderful.”
Later in that same interview,Trump said this: “Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine. I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper.”
President Biden’sclimate czar, John Kerry, warned thatRussia’swar againstUkrainecould distract the world from the climate change crisis and produce “massive emissions” that will negatively impact the globe.
“I’m concerned about Ukraine because of the people of Ukraine and because of the principles that are at risk, in terms of international law and trying to change boundaries of international law by force,” Kerry, the U.S. special presidential envoy forclimate, said in an interview Monday on BBC…
The first of multiple truckerconvoysslated to arrive inWashington D.C., in the coming days departed fromPennsylvaniathis week and were a few miles outside the capital Wednesday, one of the organizers told Fox News.
Bob Bolus, who owns a trucking company, said his convoy departed Scranton on Tuesday in an effort to grab the attention of lawmakers behindCOVID-19mandates and restrictions.
On Wednesday evening, he told Fox News he was 30 miles from the capital in “bumper-to-bumper” traffic. He earlier promised to caused gridlock and disruptions on the…
