Are bird feeders safe amid bird flu surge in the Northwest?

BELLINGHAM — The H5 avian influenza has proven highly contagious and deadly in birds. While the same effects haven’t yet been found in infected humans, health officials are closely monitoring the virus for potential developments.

So far, Washington has seen 11 confirmed cases of the illness and three suspected cases as well, according to the state’s Department of Health. With the risk of further transmission, you may be wondering whether or not it’s safe to put out a bird feeder this year. Here’s what the Washington State Department of Agriculture had to say.

• Why is the bird flu dangerous?

According to Amber Itle, the state veterinarian at the WSDA, it’s important to understand the threat that bird flu poses as a whole in order to understand the risk that filling your bird feeder carries.

“I think the first thing to remind people about is avian influenza is always circulating, it’s just that sometimes it’s more pathogenic than other years,” Itle said in an interview.

The strain circulating now is not more pathogenic, but it hasn’t mutated as expected, Itle said.

“So birds carry flu viruses, just like humans carry our own flu viruses, and we have seasonal influenza, and it changes every year,” Itle said. “Well, it does the same thing in birds. They have their own bird flu that seems to change a little bit every year. What’s unique about this particular bird flu is it’s been circulating for three years, and it hasn’t changed in the way that we would expect it to.”

The virus is largely spread by waterfowl, Itle said.

“We have migrating waterfowl that carry this virus and don’t get sick, but they can make our backyard flocks sick, they can make our chickens sick and our emus and our turkeys,” Itle said.

• Risks of filling a bird feeder

According to Itle, the songbirds Washingtonians are often trying to attract aren’t as likely to be infected. So far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reported over 134,000,000 cases in poultry, a category that includes waterfowl, commercial poultry and backyard flocks, compared to under 11,000 in wild birds. The illness has been detected in wild birds in every county in the Puget Sound region with the exception of Mason County, while most Eastern Washington counties have seen cases as well.

“Songbirds don’t seem to be as susceptible in general to avian influenza viruses. Their metabolic rate is higher and they aren’t able to harbor that virus as well. But we have seen reports of some birds,” Itle said.

However, your bird feeder or bird bath could be attracting waterfowl, even if you don’t realize it.

“The thing we worry about most about with bird feeders is they attract migrating water fowl,” Itle said. “Migrating waterfowl typically are moving at night, and so you may not even realize they’ve been there. If you have a bird feeder out there, or you have you leave your chicken feed out, or you’re leaving food out for some other animal, you’re attracting waterfowl who could land and defecate or expose your own animals there at home.”

• Who’s at risk for bird flu?

So, is it risky to fill your bird feeder this year? Probably not, but Itle says that it still does increase the chance of the disease spreading to populated areas, especially in pets.

“Right now, the risk continues to be low to the general public, but if we want to reduce risk even more, then, yeah, we can do things like not attract birds into our facility,” Itle said.

If you have pets or a backyard flock of birds, it’s worth being more careful about the virus, Itle said.

“I would say yes, from the perspective of, we don’t eat dead carcasses off the landscape, right? We don’t hunt birds the way cats do. So cats and dogs are much more susceptible from that perspective, just because of their natural behaviors,” Itle said.

People, however, are likely safe from the virus for now, unless they work closely with poultry.

“So out of the 77,000 people that the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] have monitored, we’ve had one mortality in 66 people that have become infected,” Itle said. “And of those 66 people, almost all of them, have worked at an infected poultry or dairy facility and have had mild clinical signs.”

If you do continue to fill your bird feeder, or are around potentially contaminated birds for another reason, Itle recommends avoiding contact with any bird that is dead or appears sick. Itle also said it’s important to note that fecal bacteria from infected birds can carry the virus.

“So if you find sick or dead birds, certainly you don’t want to touch them,” Itle said. “If you have a dog and it’s running around the park and it finds a sick or dead bird, we want to avoid that.”