Bird flu infects backyard flock in Clinton County

A backyard flock of about 60 birds in Clinton County was recently infected by a highly contagious avian influenza, according to the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.

It marks the first detection of the virus in domestic birds in Iowa in three weeks, after a spate of eight in December that affected about 6.8 million birds — mostly chickens and turkeys at commercial facilities — in northwest Iowa.

The Clinton County flock had chickens, ducks and geese, said Don McDowell, a spokesperson for the ag department, on Monday.

Entire flocks are destroyed to prevent the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza. The virus is often transmitted by wild, migrating birds, and it is lethal to domestic birds.

The virus infrequently infects people and typically causes mild symptoms, but a Louisiana resident recently died after contracting it, the state's Department of Health reported Monday. It is the first known human death in the United States that is related to the virus.

The person was exposed to the virus by a backyard flock and wild birds. The person was older than 65 years and had "underlying medical conditions," the Louisiana health department said.

More than 60 people in the United States have been infected this year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than half were people who were exposed to infected dairy cattle in California.

One of the infections happened in Iowa last month — a worker at a commercial flock in the northwest part of the state, the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services reported. That person had unspecified, mild symptoms.

The infected flock reported on Monday is the ninth in Iowa since the start of the fall bird migration. The others were:

Comments: (319) 368-8541; jared.strong@thegazette.com