OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium has had to close some of its exhibits due to the detection of avian flu in at least one of its birds.
"Part of the difficulty with avian influenza (is) it affects the birds so fast you don’t have time to treat them or do anything about it," said Dr. Sarah Woodhouse, Director of Animal Health at Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium.
Cases around the country have slowed during the summer, but are now resurging due to the fall migration. Wild waterfowl like ducks and geese largely carry and spread the disease, which is how Woodhouse believes it was contracted at the zoo.
"Our biggest concern is waterfowl feces. Waterfowl, when they poop they shed the virus in their feces. So our biggest concern is largely having people walk through waterfowl feces on accident and then walk into one of our exhibits like the jungle, or the desert dome, or the aviary where we have a lot of free-ranging birds and that gives the birds an opportunity to come into contact and get the virus," Woodhouse said.
The avian flu is also affecting consumers. Prices of poultry and eggs are up.
"As it relates to high-path avian influenza, that's certainly impacting supply. So, production is down in 2022 compared to 2021 and some of that is due to high path avian influenza and the impact on production," said Lee Schulz, associate professor of agricultural and natural resource economics at Iowa State University.
Schulz says prices can be impacted by less production or higher production costs, right now both are happening.
"It’s roughly 50% higher cost of production today than it was back in 2020 so that's certainly impacting producers' profits and their ability to expand production," Schulz said.
Consumers are seeing this reflected especially in egg costs.
"There’s more substitutes for turkey than eggs. We need eggs in certain products when we’re making things, as well as having table eggs, but when you think about consuming turkey there’s other options," Schulz said.
While there may not be much that can be done about egg prices, zoo workers are making efforts to curb the spread.
"We’ve closed down the koi feeders so people can usually buy some fish food for the coy they also end up feeding the waterfowl around the lagoon so we empty those out. We’ve gotten a few wavy-arm guys to try to discourage the waterfowl, the erratic movement discourages them essentially. We’re looking at trying to get waterfowl off the premises."
The Kingdoms of the Night exhibit is still open.
