Health officials are growing more concerned about the disease and warn New Yorkers to keep their distance from wildlife.
Philip Meade, a postdoctoral fellow at Icahn School of Medicine, says bird flu has been found in several geese, a peregrine falcon, a red-tailed hawk and a chicken in Marcus Garvey Park in Manhattan.
So far, only two humans have been infected with H5N1, or bird flu, in the United States since 2022, including one case that was reported earlier this month in Texas.
The patient in Texas had been in close contact with dairy cows that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were presumably infected with H5N1, and the patient infected in 2022 was a poultry worker in Colorado.
“You’re not gonna walk past a sick goose and get the bird flu. It won’t work like that,” Meade said. “Precautions that everybody should be taking would be just to limit contact with wildlife … You shouldn’t be running up to a Canada goose and trying to catch it.”
Health officials say both of the recent human cases were mild. The CDC says there is no sign of bird flu spreading between people at this time.
Anyone who sees sick or dead aquatic birds or raptors in the city should call the state Department of Environmental Conservation at (718) 482-4922 or (518) 478-2203.
