#18,391
It's been 2 weeks since their last update, but this afternoon the USDA added 24 new entries to their Mammalian Wildlife with H5N1 list , including 11 domestic cats, 6 striped skunks, and 3 black bears.
The USDA began tracking H5N1 in mammals in May of 2022, although their list is highly dependent upon individual states actually looking for, testing, and reporting infected animals. The 575 cases reported to date (which excludes livestock) are believed to only represent a small percentage of actual cases.
Even though there appears to be a lot of virus in the environment, a number of U.S. states have yet to report any wildlife infections (see map above), while many others have only reported 1 or 2.
Admittedly, many infected animals either recover - or die unnoticed in the wild - particularly in less accessible areas like the Everglades of Florida, the bayous of Louisiana, or desert and mountainous regions out west.
Even so, it seems as if some states are far more diligent in seeking out, testing, and reporting cases than others. For now, the CDC continues to rank the risk to general public from avian flu as low.
