In 2022, an avian flu strain reached the United States. Over the past year, more than fifty-eight million domestic poultry and thousands of wild birds have died from the viral H5N1 flu strain. According to biologists, it is the largest bird flu outbreak in U.S. history and doesn’t seem to be going away. As its name suggests, the virus mainly affects wild and domestic birds but can also infect mammals.
In Alaska, more than twelve hundred chickens and ducks have died from the avian flu, and it has killed more than two-hundred wild birds, including eagles, ravens, and shorebirds. Biologists have also found the virus in wild mammals, including bears and foxes. Migrating wild ducks and geese spread the virus when they defecate contagious droppings across the areas where they travel.
Scientists have no treatment for avian influenza, and the mortality rate is high for poultry and wild raptors such as hawks, eagles, and owls. Symptoms in diseased birds include fatigue, difficulty walking, nasal discharge, decreased egg production, and swollen combs or wattles.
Transmission to humans is rare, but flu viruses tend to mutate easily, so this disease could affect humans in the future. Scientists have already identified the virus in marine mammals around the world. Biologists have detected outbreaks among seals and other marine mammals in Maine, Chile, and Peru.
The remoteness of most areas in Alaska makes it difficult for biologists to know how widespread the disease is here. In October 2022, researchers found a sick black bear cub in Glacier Bay National Park that tested positive for the H5N1 virus. A month later, a deer hunter on Kodiak Island collected the carcass of a dead brown bear cub that tested positive for the virus. A necropsy on the brown bear cub revealed infection in the cub’s brain, lungs, and liver. Biologists suspect both cubs scavenged on wild birds that had died from influenza and inhaled the virus while tearing the birds apart. Luckily, at this point, the virus cannot be transmitted from bear to bear.
Kodiak bears are at risk if a deadly novel virus spreads among them. A 1998 study on the genetic diversity of North American brown bears indicated that Kodiak bears have less genetic diversity among them than other populations of North American brown bears. Several of the genetic samples from bears on Kodiak showed identical genotypes, meaning the bears were so genetically similar that biologists could not measure the differences between them. According to a 2006 report conducted for the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge, the genetic variation among Kodiak bears is much lower than the variation found among any other brown bear population. While the Kodiak bear population presently remains healthy, this low genetic variability makes this population susceptible to decimation by novel parasites or pathogens, which could reach Kodiak and infect bears.
If you see a sick wild bird in Alaska, report the animal to a hotline managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at 866-527-3358 or by email at ak_mbm@fws.gov. In particular, look for signs of disorientation, twitching, or tremors, and birds with necks twisted back.
For those of you in the Anchorage area, I have a book signing at Barnes and Noble on Saturday, May 27th, from 1-5 p.m. Please stop by and say hi. I would love to meet you. I will be at Mosquito Books at the Anchorage airport on Tuesday, May 30th.
Robin Barefield is the author of five Alaska wilderness mystery novels: Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, The Fisherman’s Daughter, Karluk Bones, and Massacre at Bear Creek Lodge. She is also the author of the non-fiction book Kodiak Island Wildlife and the true-crime book Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier. Sign up below to subscribe to her free monthly newsletter on true crime and mystery in Alaska, and listen to her podcast, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier.
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