Scientists are quite alarmed after more than 200 snow geese have died in Pennsylvania. It has experts alarmed that things could quickly get worse.
It appears that bird flu killed the snow geese in Lehigh Valley. The death toll could potentially rise higher as the virus moves through the geese population. The bodies of the birds were located in the Lower Nazareth Township in Northhampton County. More were found in the Upper Macungie Township in Lehigh County.
According to 6ABC reported, testing showed that bird flu was prevalent in some of the dead geese. However, the US Department of Agriculture will need to confirm that this was indeed the case. Beyond the dead birds, scientists identified living geese in the area with the virus as well.
Geese Died
"We just hope that these mortality events that we recorded don't signal something worse is on the way," Travis Lau, the spokesperson with the Pennsylvania Game Commission, said.
Currently, bird flu has no cure or treatment especially when it comes to birds. To prevent the spread of the disease, infected animals have been euthanized. The disease moves quickly through a bird, killing them in less than a day.
"It's devastating, and to know that other animals are eating those dead bodies, it's a terrible domino effect. I mean you have eagles. We saw eagles flying above there. They're feeding on these dead bodies, they're contracting it," Janine Tancredi, co-executive director at the Wilderz at Pocono Wildlife, said.
So far, there have been 66 human cases of the disease and 11,000 bird cases since January 2022. Meanwhile, 129,795,101 birds in the poultry have been infected. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said, "Widespread vaccination of commercial poultry is not possible in the short term." It appears that bird flu is also driving up the price of eggs.
"The primary driver behind these historic prices is the ongoing spread of avian influenza, which has claimed over 20 million layers during the fourth quarter, a time that also coincides with the year's highest demand period," Karyn Rispoli, Expana's managing editor for eggs, said.
