JACKSON – Mississippi saw 41 new Highly Patheogenic Avian Influenza positives in the 2024 to 2025 waterfowl season. The United States Department of Agriculture Animal Plant Health Inspection Service reported the positives. 

Of those 41 positives, 20 were found in mortality events in Leflore and Tallahatchie Counties on Dec. 3, 2024. The remaining 21 birds were hunter-harvested and tested for HPAI. 

USDA APHIS reports 18 of the hunter-harvested birds were taken in Leflore County on Dec. 1, 2024. One HPAI positive duck was killed by a hunter in Issaquena County on Jan. 8, 2025, one positive duck was killed in Tallahatchie on Jan. 15, 2025 and one positive duck was killed on Jan. 21, 2025.

As previously reported by The Daily Leader, avian influenza is caused by the influenza type A virus which can infect poultry (such as chickens, turkeys, pheasants, quail, domestic ducks, geese, and guinea fowl) and wild birds (especially waterfowl). Houston Havens, MDWFP Waterfowl Program Coordinator, told The Daily Leader in the past that HPAI spreads primarily through fecal and oral transmission.

The risk posed to humans from HPAI infections in wild birds is still considered to be low, but care should be taken to minimize risk. HPAI can also be found in poultry production with a producer in Copiah County losing 210,000 birds to the disease in December. 

Check back for more updates as The Daily Leader continues to monitor diseases in wildlife and agriculture.