Officials: 90 dead birds removed from pond, deaths possibly caused by bird flu

LITTLE CHUTE, Wis. (WBAY/Gray News) - At least 90 dead ducks were removed from a pond in Wisconsin, and officials are investigating if their deaths were caused by bird flu.

Kent Taylor, the public works director for the Village of Little Chute, said crews removed 90 dead mallards from a storm pond Wednesday.

“Several of our employees were viewing Facebook or social media, and they had seen that there were several reports that there were some dead ducks in our Buchanan storm pond,” Taylor said.

Officials contacted the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for help in removing the dead birds from the pond in Little Chute.

“We took their advice and they said we could clean up the ducks out of the pond, so our guys went in the pond with their waders on, and pulled all the ducks out,” Taylor said.

Taylor also said there is no danger to the public at this time. However, residents are wanting to know exactly what caused that number of birds to die.

“Is it pollution? Is it bird flu? I’d like to know what it is?” Ken Affeldt of Little Chute asked.

The DNR took samples from six of the dead mallards from the storm pond.

They said the results of of the tests may not been seen for a couple of weeks.

“Their biologists came out and explained to us that it looked very similar to what they had seen elsewhere in the county, particularly over in Kaukauna (Wisconsin) most recently, and they said it looked like it would be associated with the avian bird flu,” Taylor said.

Despite the unsettling scenes, Taylor said the village will continue to monitor the storm pond and take additional measures if dead birds keep turning up.

“That pond has harbored as many as a 1,000 to 2,000 waterfowl, most recently because it is open, there’s a warm water outlet into that pond. It’s a spot we take care of on a regular basis,” Taylor said.

After the ducks were removed from the pond, the DNR placed their carcasses in bags and brought them to the Outagamie County Landfill to be disposed of.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 12,215 cases of avian flu have been found in wild birds in the country.

The vast majority of avian flu cases have been found in poultry, with at least 166 million birds affected.

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