Just after the restrictions from COVID-19 began to loosen, another disease arrived in North America – Avian Influenza. The Executive Direct of Living Sky Wildlife Rehabilitation says 2022 was an interesting and trying year. Jan Shadick says many birds died, both waterfowl and the raptors that prey on them, but Living Sky did their best to contain the damage and prevent further fatalities.

It was also a tight year for finances, with the added costs from the PPE and quarantine requirements. Their protocols including wearing PPE in each of the areas where birds were quarantined until they could be tested, then taking them off and putting on new protection when heading into the next area. Shadick says hours were spent each week swabbing the birds for testing, and then once a week the results would come in and those that weren’t sick would no longer have to be quarantined.

Later, it was discovered that songbirds aren’t susceptible, and neither are baby birds. Now they just have to quarantine high-risk corvids, raptors and adult waterfowl. Shadick notes that Avian flu can also be transmitted to the mammals that eat the birds, like foxes, skunks and raccoons. She expects Avian flu is not going to go away now that it has arrived, so they may have to incorporate quarantining permanently.