avian influenza / bird flu
H5N1 strain of the flu is very deadly to local flock birds.  The concern, other then culling thousands and thousands of birds to stop the spread of the disease, is that the H5N1 strain will get into a human and combine with a 'human' flu and then there will be a new stain of flu that will be as deadly to the humans as it was to the birds AND be able to be transmitted easily from person to person.  That would cause a pandemic situation as this generation has not seen.

Birds dying from bird flu will differ from those with WN in several ways.  Birds with WN are wild birds that die off individually (crow, blue jay).  Those with avian influenza will die enmass and will be local domestic bird flocks (chickens, turkeys).  The State Vet can answer any questions or send an investigator any time there is a 50% flock death or an unusual occurence.. Δ