New Yorkers are being urged to keep their distance from wildlife after bird flu was discovered in New York – amid fears the disease could spread to humans.
Geese, falcons and hawks living in Manhattan’s parks and green spaces have tested positive for the virus, officials say. Warning cases could be more widespread.
Residents and visitors are warned not to chase or capture birds and to wash their hands after contact with droppings.
There are fears that people could become infected after a farmer in Texas tested positive for the virus early this month, becoming the second US case in history.
Experts say each case in humans increases the risk that the virus will acquire mutations that make it better at infecting and spreading between people.
Geese, falcons and hawks living in Manhattan’s parks and green spaces have tested positive for the virus, officials say, although the cases could be more widespread (stock image)
The birds – including a chicken – tested positive for the virus in Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem, in the north of Manhattan.
Mount Sinai microbiologist Philip Meade warned people to be careful around animals: ‘You walk past a sick goose and get bird flu, that’s not how it works.
“(But) precautions that everyone should take would simply be to limit contact with wildlife.
“For example, you shouldn’t run up to a Canada goose and try to catch it.”
Over the past month, bird flu has been detected in 12 flocks of wild birds in seven states, half of them in Texas.
Five poultry farms in four states – including two in Texas – have also reported the virus. This includes a large chicken farm and a turkey farm.
But there are major concerns about its spread to animals in close contact with people, including livestock, with 20 herds now infected, as well as cats and dogs.
The map above shows states where bird flu was observed in wild flocks in March
The map above shows states with herds of livestock diagnosed with bird flu
This has raised concerns that the virus could infect people more frequently and possibly acquire mutations that would make it better able to infect people.
The patient in Texas was described as suffering from a “mild illness” with only one symptom: inflammation of the eyeball.
They were isolated and were reportedly recovering well at home. There are no signs that they have passed the disease on to others.
Doctors have been told to be on high alert for more cases among farm workers, but some say the mild symptoms mean infections could be missed.
One mutation was recorded in the Texas case, but this did not alarm officials and has previously been recorded in cases where the virus infected mammals.
Of the 20 infected herds of cattle, most are in Texas.
Herds in Idaho, Kansas, Michigan. New Mexico and Ohio have also tested positive for the disease.
Experts don’t know exactly how the virus spread among livestock, but there are suggestions that it could have come from livestock eating feed made from ground chicken carcasses.
They fear it has been transmitted to livestock through “poultry litter,” a mixture of poultry feces, spilled feed, feathers and other waste scraped from the floors of industrial chicken and turkey production plants.
Other theories suggest the virus may have spread among herds through cow milking machines that were not disinfected between uses.