Concerns about bird flu in the Lehigh Valley prompted the closure of additional recreational amenities in the region, including the D&L Trail through Northampton Borough.<\/p>\n
The Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor on Friday announced the closure<\/a>, in effect until further notice. It comes a day after borough officials said they closed Canal Street Park<\/a> along the trail and the Lehigh River following the discovery of dead geese.<\/p>\n Allen Township on Friday also announced the closure of Howertown Park<\/a> until further notice due to waterfowl exhibiting symptoms of the highly pathogenic avian influenza that is circulating across multiple states.<\/p>\n In Northampton Borough, Pennsylvania Game Commission officials said Friday they recovered 30 to 50 dead Canada geese from the Lehigh River that were reachable from the bank. <\/p>\n \u201cHowever, due to the ice and moving water, it is unsafe to retrieve the dead geese in the middle of the water,\u201d commission spokesman Josh Zimmerman told lehighvalleylive.com.<\/p>\n HPAI is suspected, although testing was not immediately completed to confirm the cause of the die-off, he said. <\/p>\n Geese exhibiting symptoms of a bird flu infection \u201cthat are obviously not going to make it would be humanely euthanized,\u201d Zimmerman said, with no plans to cull geese that appear healthy.<\/p>\n The ongoing outbreak of bird flu includes more than 1,100 dead or sick wild birds<\/a> reported to authorities in recent days across neighboring New Jersey. <\/p>\n According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an A(H5) strain of bird flu is widespread in wild birds worldwide and causing outbreaks<\/a> in poultry and U.S. dairy cows with sporadic human cases in dairy and poultry workers domestically.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile the current public health risk is low, CDC is watching the situation carefully and working with states to monitor people with animal exposures,\u201d the agency says on its website. \u201cCDC is using its flu surveillance systems to monitor for A(H5) bird flu activity in people.\u201d<\/p>\n