3 days ago · Officials urged residents of the Chicago area not to touch -- or let their pets touch -- dead or sick birds as a bird flu outbreak sickens and kills many across the region. The warning comes amid ...

2 days ago · Bird flu is a type of influenza and a subtype of the disease humans normally contract, said Dr. Robert Murphy, an infectious disease specialist at Northwestern Medicine and executive director of ...

3 days ago · A group of dead mergansers on Chicago’s lakefront. (Courtesy of Chicago Bird Collision Monitors) Avian influenza has been circulating in wild birds since the late 1990s, with some strains deadlier than others. The latest strain, H5N1, which broke out in 2021-22, is what’s known as “highly pathogenic” or HPAI for short, meaning it causes ...

4 days ago · Hundreds of ducks infected with avian influenza — H5N1 bird flu — have been found along the shores of Lake Michigan in the Chicago area, prompting warnings from area health officials. The ...

5 days ago · Chicago Bird Collision Monitors/Provided Share Hundreds of red-breasted mergansers have been found either dead or sick over the past few days along Lake Michigan in Chicago and into the northern ...

Jan 23, 2025 · A number of bird flu cases have been reported in the Chicago area in recent weeks, leading to many questions about how quickly the virus is spreading and how worried residents should be.

The Chicago Bird Collision Monitors (CBCM), a volunteer conservation project dedicated to the protection of migratory birds, said in a post on its Facebook page Sunday that the bird flu outbreak “is posing a serious threat to the bird life in the Chicago region this winter.”

4 days ago · The Brief. Avian flu is devastating bird populations along Chicago’s lakefront, with hundreds of dead waterfowl reported in recent days. Volunteers are finding large numbers of sick and dead ...

General information about H5 bird flu is available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention along with a summary of the current situation. Virus can spread through the saliva, mucous, and feces of infected birds, or through body fluids (e.g., milk) of other infected animals.

4 days ago · Catch up quick: Bird flu has struck 113 U.S. flocks in the last 30 days, affecting 19 million birds and spiking egg prices and, soon, local bakery costs. In the last year, at least 66 people in the U.S. contracted bird flu — one fatally — …