BUNCOMBE COUNTY, N.C. (WLOS) — More preliminary positive cases of avian flu have been reported in Western North Carolina.According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) website, avian flu, or highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), can show no signs of illness and carry the disease to new areas through migrations, potentially exposing domestic birds to the virus....
BUNCOMBE COUNTY, N.C. (WLOS) — More preliminary positive cases of avian flu have been reported in Western North Carolina.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) website, avian flu, or highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), can show no signs of illness and carry the disease to new areas through migrations, potentially exposing domestic birds to the virus.
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Miranda Turner, a wildlife health biologist for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, told News 13 on Feb. 14 in an email that only one of the reported cases within local areas has been confirmed. But she said four other preliminary positive cases are being tested.
Turner said the confirmed case comes out of Lake Julian in Buncombe County, although two other fowl were sampled as preliminary positives from Lake Julian and sent to the national lab for confirmation.
Two other preliminary positive cases include Lake Louise, also in Buncombe County, and Lake Osceola, in Henderson County.
Turner said the birds from both lakes have been sampled as preliminary positives and sent to the national lab for confirmation.
"Unfortunately, the testing process for avian influenza can be very slow because the initial lab the carcass is taken to runs tests, and then if those come back positive, the carcass is then sent to the National Veterinary Services Laboratory for confirmatory testing," Turner wrote in an email to News 13. "Because of this, we are still awaiting results for the other carcasses from Lake Julian and a few other samples from across the state, and, unfortunately, this long testing timeline makes it tricky to give you an exact number of avian flu detections in WNC at this time."
Information on confirmed positive samples is available on the USDA's website, which provides all HPAI detections in wild birds nationally.
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According to the site, there are 339 confirmed positive cases of HPAI since Jan. 1, 2025, in North Carolina, with one new confirmed case as of Feb. 10.
For more information and updates regarding HPAI cases in North Carolina, visit the USDA's Detections of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza website.