Does anyone know if the Asia Quest aviary is closed at Columbus Zoo? The Reeves muntjac live in that aviary and I would hate to miss them if the whole enclosure is off limits
There have been no confirmed cases in mammals as of yet; however, given the severity of this year's strain, there are concerns that it will migrate into suids, which are known to be susceptible, and possibly be reassorted into something new.
This could be potentially catastrophic for Milwaukee's bird collection depending on how the Wisconsin state vets and the USDA decide to handle the situation. They could very well be asked to depopulate the entire bird collection. This will set the precedent for how positive cases in collection animals are handled in other facilities moving forward.
Are these the first captive birds in the US to die from the flu? All of the birds of prey at Milwaukee are housed in the same building for bird show presentations, so as much as I hate to say it, it really wouldn't shock me if there are additional deaths in the coming days or weeks.
These would be the first deaths of collection animals in a zoological setting, yes. The Brevard Zoo has had wild birds test positive on its grounds, but they have luckily not seen any positive cases in their collection. It will certainly be very interesting to see how things proceed...We were told to expect to lose the entire collection if a positive case was found in the collection at my facility.
It's promising to hear that at least some states are being more lenient with zoological facilities during this outbreak. I would be interested to know if the infected birds ended up recovering or if they eventually succombed to the disease and if that outcome would affect the decision of the state vets and USDA regarding the rest of the avian collection.
These individuals were only ever used in bird shows, so there was no proper exhibit for them to be moved out of.
