Hello and welcome to living in the Lehigh Valley, where our focus is your health and wellness.

I'm your host, Brittany Sweeney.

Cases of avian influenza have infected flocks of migratory and farm raised birds across the Lehigh Valley in recent weeks.

Although no human cases have been reported locally at this time, health care providers are making sure people know what that could look like.

We paid a visit to the doctors at St. Luke's University Health Network for that information.

On the first cases of bird flu in the state this year have been identified in the Lehigh Valley among migratory birds.

At the end of the clean up, we removed more than 5000, dead snow geese from those sites.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission says two large scale mortality events happened in January 1st in Northampton County, another in Lehigh County.

The state Department of.

Agriculture also reported positive.

Cases on a commercial poultry farm in Lehigh County.

And now, with the introduction of some of the snow geese and what’s happened in Lehigh Valley, it's now both in the air and on the ground.

We've had a killing of, you know, thousands of birds, in our area, which has kind of brought to light like, oh, could we be an area now that is possible to transmit to other animals and even to humans?

Doctor Mascitti is the medical director of health care Epidemia Allergy and Infection Prevention at St. Luke's University Health Network.

She says while no human to human transmission has occurred yet, there is the potential for the strain to mutate.

Any time a novel virus that humans have never seen before are able to infect humans, that's when they get very sick, because their immune system doesn't know how to react to it.

With the presence of bird flu locally, St. Luke's doctors want people to know the signs and symptoms of the strain, which is similar to the human flu strain.

The first symptoms that occur with bird flu are eye irritation or redness, of the, outer portion of the eye.

The conjunctival also known as conjunctivitis.

And then that can be either associated or followed with low grade temperatures, muscle aches, cough, sneezing, runny nose.

Doctor Jeffrey Jahre, St. Luke's senior vice president for medical and academic affairs, says the incubation period can be anywhere between 2 and 7 days.

If someone suspects they've come in contact with bird flu, Doctor Jahre says there are a few guidelines to follow.

It's important for and for their physician or whoever evaluates them to ask, have you been around any dead birds?

Do you clean out a backyard bird feeder?

Have you been to any agricultural shows?

Have you been around any other livestock?

Do you have cats that, are outdoor cats?

And that may have come in contact with dead birds?

If any of those things are true, then specific testing needs to be done.

The infectious disease specialist says a regular flu test would indicate that the person has influenza, but not that they have this type.

More testing would be needed.

While the avian flu strain is brand new, we do have some partial immunity so that, you know, it'd be the hope that we would have some protection.

All of the nearly 70 cases of bird flu across the country, including the one death from the illness, were transmitted from an animal to a human with more than 1500 flocks of birds impacted since 2022.

Both doctors and animal experts say taking extra precautions around animals is of the utmost importance.

We asked people to always view wildlife from a safe distance, to avoid wildlife species and and then also to report second dead birds to us.

Again, if you see a sick or dead bird, do not attempt to touch it.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission asks people to report any sightings to their dispatch center at 1 833 PGC wild.

Officials also say if you have backyard birds like chickens, it's important to follow the Department of Agriculture guidelines.

That'll do it for this edition of living in the Lehigh Valley.

I'm Brittany Sweeney.

Hoping you stay happy and healthy.