- Podcasts
Podcasts - Videos
Videos - Policy Issues
Policy Issues - About
About
Worried, but not Panicking
Wisconsin’s state veterinarians are watching the bird flu, and are worried. But they say they’re not panicking.
Dr. Keith Poulsen, Director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, Dr. Angie Maxted, State Public Health Veterinarian and Dr. Darlene Konkle, State Veterinarian sat down for an interview with WisEye, and said the good news is that the bird flu has not spread to Wisconsin’s dairy cows, and the state hasn’t seen a new case in chickens or turkeys since December.
But state vet Dr. Darlene Konkle said the bird flu is not going away either.
“The fact that the virus still continues to be in wild birds, and continues to circulate in dairy cattle in other states, and continues to spill over into poultry brings the virus into contact with people more often,” Konkle said.
Wisconsin saw four confirmed bird flu cases last year. Three of them were in commercial flocks, while the fourth was a backyard flock in Kenosha County.
In all, the state’s Department of Agriculture said farmers had to put down more than 73,000 birds because of the flu.
Wisconsin also saw one human case of the virus last year. That person worked with chickens at one of Wisconsin’s three outbreaks at a poultry farm. Doctors say the man has fully recovered.
The CDC reports there have been 70 human cases of the bird flu across the country since last year. The CDC also reports one death.
But the CDC also says the public health risk from the bird flu is “low.”
Poulsen said the risk in Wisconsin is low as well.
“All of our public health and animal health experts have been talking about how this influenza is probably the biggest risk of a next potential pandemic-pathogen in people,” Poulsen said “Yet…there's a lot of large barriers to get to that.”
Interested in the content of this Article?
Reach out to the MacIver Institute to aquire more information
