Mary Pintea – News Editor

mvp5879@psu.edu

An Omaha Zoo has closed multiple exhibits due to the death of a pelican infected with avian flu. 

Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium said that one of their pink-backed pelicans passed from a highly pathogenic avian influenza. Soon after, another pelican became ill and was euthanized. 

As a precaution, the zoo has shut down Lied Jungle, Desert Dome, and Simmons Aviary exhibits for a minimum of ten days. 

Avian influenza is not uncommon in birds but is extremely rare in humans. The most recent outbreak in birds was in 2014, where approximately 25 million birds died from H5N2, a variant of the disease. Though birds were the only ones infected, the outbreak cost the United States $879 million in public expenditures, with the egg and poultry industry spending $3 million to eradicate the disease. Ultimately, this was the costliest outbreak of avian influenza the United States has ever seen. 

Avian influenza is spread by contact between infected and healthy birds but can also spread through contact with contaminated surfaces. Though droppings are the most common way that the virus spreads, it can also be transmitted through secretions from the nostrils, mouth, and eyes of infected birds. Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is spread to people through direct contact with infected poultry, such as during slaughter or plucking. Though it has the potential to grow airborne, the disease is not inherently an airborne disease. Highly pathogenic strains spread quickly among flocks of birds, with a minimum of 28 hours needed to manifest and spread through the entire flock. Less pathogenic strains may affect egg production but are much less deadly.

The good news is that avian influenza does not transmit from humans to other humans very well, unless the virus mutates. In the earlier days of the HPAI H5N1 pandemic in the late 2000s, village poultry and their owners were more likely to transmit the disease to one another. Village poultry, often known as backyard and hobby flocks, are often kept free range between multiple households. Because this poultry frequently encounters other birds, infections can spread rapidly and unknowingly. Despite this, these flocks pose less threat to the poultry market because they are not in direct contact with farmed birds. 

Officials call for entire flocks to be killed when the virus is found on farms. Last month, a whopping 6 million chickens and turkeys were slaughtered to limit spread of the disease. Unlike farms, zoos do not have to euthanize animals if they encounter another bird that has avian influenza; instead, they limit staff access and require workers to clean their shoes before entering areas where birds are kept. 

Fortunately for the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, officials do not require ill birds to be euthanized—instead, the birds can be closely monitored and treated for avian influenza, segregated from the healthy birds.