09.01.2015

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said that an H5N8 avian influenza virus has been found in another wild bird in the West. In a report to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the USDA said an H5N8 virus was found in a hunter-killed gadwall duck in the Pacific flyway. The USDA said genetic sequences from the gadwall duck virus are "essentially identical" to corresponding sequences from an H5N8 virus reported Dec 16 in a captive gyrfalcon in Whatcom County in northwestern Washington state. The gyrfalcon had been fed hunter-killed birds.