Bird flu has killed hundreds of wild black vultures at a Georgia sanctuary, along with more than 1,500 other animals.
Noah’s Ark animal care manager Allison Hedgekoth told WXIA-TV that at least 700 black vultures have died. He said that the workers of the state killed 20 to 30 other birds.
“All our chickens were euthanized yesterday and our turkeys and our guinea hens were euthanized,” she said.
According to WXIA, state officials have set up a six-mile (9.6 km) circumference around the sanctuary in hopes of spreading it.
State Senator Emanuel Jones told the station, “Along with birds that are able to move around and fly in the air, this disease can spread very quickly if it is not controlled very quickly.”
A sign on the Noah’s Ark website said it would be closed until September 3.
No other bird in the Noah’s Ark sanctuary has tested positive or shown symptoms for the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, sanctuary officials told news outlets.
The virus has killed 40 million chickens and turkeys and about 2,000 wild birds this year in the US. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, wild birds include more than 240 black vultures and about 220 bald eagles. Even seals have died from it.
Officials said they were told on Saturday that preliminary tests indicated that the black vultures living in Noah’s Ark had died from the highly pathogenic H5N1 species. According to a statement issued to news outlets, the state authorities were informed on August 13 when an unusual number of dead vultures were found.
Noah’s ark is in Locust Grove, about 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Atlanta. That’s more than 100 miles (160 km) northwest of an area where hundreds of birds died or were euthanized earlier this year in mixed backyard flocks and most of the 15 wild birds previously reported with the virus were killed by
(This story has not been edited by seemayo staff and is published from a rss feed)