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University of Nebraska Medical Center

Seriously, Now Is the Time to Stop Kissing Sick Birds

NYT

A citizen-science collaboration in New York has turned up a half-dozen birds infected with the avian flu virus.

New Yorkers, beware: If you come across a bird or animal that is sick, dead or behaving strangely, keep yourself and your pets at a safe distance. The bird flu virus, H5N1, is present in at least some small fraction of New York City birds, according to a new study.

The finding is not entirely surprising, given that H5N1 has now been shown to affect migratory birds, a wide range of wild animals, poultry and, as of last month, dairy cows. Still, its discovery in the city is an unpleasant reminder that urban spaces are not exempt.

People generally associate zoonotic diseases with rural settings, farms or the wilderness, said Florian Krammer, a flu expert at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York who led the study, which was published online last week.

But New York City has many green spaces and bodies of water used by migratory and local birds, he said: “There is an extensive interface between wild animals and humans in cities.”

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