Will Avian Flu Permanently Change the Future of Birds in Zoos & Aviculture???

I was thinking about how over the last year or so there's been temporary long-term closures of outdoor bird exhibits in the fall and spring seasons during migration and how facilities don't want to risk their birds catching avian flu. Since many visitors enjoy birds and some even travel to certain collections to view specific species will this be a turning point for zoos and other public facilities to change how bird exhibits are constructed or just scale back on the number of birds in their collections? It seems horrible to think that an innocent rare zoo bird can catch it due to a bird or flock stopping by on their migration and then passing away due to contracting it. I hate the idea of visiting a facility in the fall and spring when the flora is looking its best but there are no birds to view and photograph/film.

Which species are most at risk and will zoos that are just starting up have to consider completely indoor flight habitats like the National Aviary or the old bird houses to enable the public to be able to view them more often? What about vaccines? Is the Avian Scientific Advisory Group working on one so that facilities can keep their birds out for longer?

Lastly, as someone who's always wanted to own exotic birds in a large free flight aviary one day as an avocation all the news regarding avian flu has made me think that perhaps I should only have a couple large birds outdoors (pair or cranes/storks) and the rest in an indoor conservatory type environment. I hope that avian flu can be resolved. It's horrible what it can potentially do across bird collections both public and private.

 

Yes, Avian flu will change the future of how birds will be kept. I reckon we will see certain species be phased out from walkthrough aviaries, and possible a decline in walkthrough aviaries since those need to be closed during outbreaks.

 

In my part of Europe, bird flu usually comes with arrival of migrating north Russian goose flocks in late autumn and dissappears when they return north in February/March. Most bird flu victims are found at/near ponds where large concentration of wild waterfowl occurs.

In recent years this annual cyclus is less strict with cases even during summer especially in farm birds - where spread is probably solely human-related (contaminated feed, clothes, cars or other equimpent).

If we look at history, first really big wave of Bird Flu hit Czechia in winter 2006 and propmted our state veterinary agency to order all bird owners (farms, private or zoos) to keep their animals in closed buildings till end of spring.

Zoos asked then for special treatment and were allowed a special compromise - they can keep birds outside if they are in cages/aviaries, feeding bowls are placed under a roof and drinking/bathing water is from underground wells (and not from surface water which could be contaminated by feces of wild birds). There were also other measures to prevent human-related danger (desinfecting matts at entrance, longer quarantine of newly sourced birds etc.). This set of rules for zoos seemed to work and not a single local zoo had any case that year, while hundreds private keeprs and farms had positive cases and saw their birds get euthanized.

After end of this big scare, zoos started to think how to live with this danger in future. Hluboká/Ohrada was especially in danger because it´s located at large fish pond bank - and it decided and managed to cover with permanent nets and aviaries every single bird enclosure they had in a matter of weeks. Other zoos were more reluctant (due to related costs) but many built aviaries at least for some of their species they deemed more valuable and generally not suited for permanent indoor stay (typically flamingos). As years go, zoos weight danger of bird flu when they plan their new bird enclosures. They build them either as aviaries or have a large enough indoor space. Open-topped bird enclosues slowly dissappear. However walk-though aviaries seem to be more and more popular here.

The US is now going through what my zoos experienced 15 years ago.

First - will bird flu ever be resolved and go away? Sorry, no. It will return almost annually, with smaller or larger vegreance. What species are most in danger - any bird that gets in close contact with wild birds or their faces - especially at/near an outside pond. Most risky seem geese/ducks/pelicans/herons/cranes. Does it mean it will ne neccessary to keep birds only indoors in future? No. Aviaries plus some more precautions seem to work well even in highly endangered places. Vaccines? I think there will be some but I´m unsure they will cange the tide.

 

Bird flu is nothing new, the USFWS monitors it annually on the wildlife refuges. Some strains are more virulent than others, and this year's is particularly bad. As Jana explained for Europe, our main vectors are likewise the northern geese, especially the Snow Goose. It generally arrives and leaves as they do.

Its impact on poultry farms is not unsurprising, often with thousands of birds in very small spaces. This allows for quick and massive spread leading to catastrophic numbers. This is likewise where colonial seabirds have been heavily affected.
However as most land birds are generally far more spead out, they seem to have been relatively little affected. The main exception being the raptors who feed on waterfowl and scavengers. Thus even with the bad outbreak most zoos went without a case reported.

 

So would it be better to have most birds indoors for a private individual since obtaining them is expensive and you can't easily replace them???

 

Not necessarily, you're not likely to have a problem as long as you're mindful when the disease is in the area. Having indoor areas is wise anyways due to storms, cold weather, and whatnot so if necessary the option would be available to lock in. Covering the top of the aviary with a solid material would largely eliminate chances anyways, only leaving sanitation of shoes and whatnot.

 

I wouldn't mind if the bird flu forced more Zoos to enclose bird exhibits. This would also improve animal welfare by eliminating the need to pinion/wing clip the birds. A trend I hope to see with cranes, storks, and Flamingos regardless of the bird flu status.

 

As someone who visits zoos primarily for the birds, I have followed the whole crisis. The information shared by @Jana and @Great Argus are correct.

From what I've read so far, the blame seems to point to the practices of large scale, commercial, poultry farms, given how avian flu has been around for quite some time in wild birds.

According to the USDA's website and when I filtered to California, the first reported death came from a snow goose last year in January. But by July 2022 (when California announced that it has arrived in the states), the first reported deaths came from a Canada goose and an American white pelican. So far, here in California, this variant has affected not just affected both wild and domestic waterfowl but also:

• Pied-billed grebes
• Horned grebes
• Western grebes
• Snowy plovers
• Bonaparte's gull
• Western gulls
• California gulls
• Northern fulmars
• Double-crested cormorants
• Brown pelicans
• Great egrets
• Snowy egrets
• Green herons
• Black-crowned night-herons
• Turkey vultures
• Cooper's hawks
• Bald eagles
• Red-shouldered hawks
• Red-tailed hawks
• Great horned owls
• Peregrine falcons
• American crows
• Common ravens

Out of captive, wild birds, there were a couple of white-faced ibises from San Diego that died because of this.

I know at the Sacramento Zoo, not only did they drain their flamingo pond, they also drained the ponds at William Land Park to avoid infection from the wild birds; volunteers even moved the "resident", domestic mallards and Muscovy ducks.

This strain of the avian flu, both domestic and the Eurasian variant is the bird's equivalent to our COVID.

I really hope that the zoo community in here in the United States don't eliminate walk-through aviaries. That's what essentially got me more involved with the zoo community in the first place.

 

It is my understanding that most of the European zoos keep their flamingos, cranes, and storks in covered aviaries. It would be great if the United States would follow suite with Europe. More species that would benefit from covered, walkthrough aviaries would be bustards and ground hornbills. I really hope that the pinioning of vultures has been (or currently will be) a thing of the past.

I know a concept that was put forth by Vogelpark Avifauna was a 2-acre, covered aviary with hoofstock also occupying the space. How cool would that be if the United States could implement something like that?!

 

Well and unsurprisingly most of the affected species are those that often live in close proximity to waterfowl as well as those that prey on them/scavengers.