{"id":479728,"date":"2026-02-20T10:36:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T10:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/479728\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T10:36:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T10:36:28","slug":"mysterious-bird-deaths-solved-njdep-reports-active-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/479728\/","title":{"rendered":"Mysterious Bird Deaths Solved, NJDEP Reports ‘Active Outbreak’"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Our highest suspicion at this time is highly pathogenic avian influenza,” said New Jersey State Wildlife Pathologist Dr. Patrick Connelly to News 12<\/a>. “This is a significant number of birds dying on the landscape in single locations beyond what we have seen in previous years.”<\/p>\n

The outbreak is being monitored by the NJDEP Fish & Wildlife and federal partners.<\/p>\n

More than 1,100 reports of dead or sick birds came in between Saturday, Feb. 14, and Monday, Feb. 16. Almost all reports are of Canada geese, with a few of other bird species, including brant along the coast.<\/p>\n

Dead Canada geese were reported to the NJDEP over the past weekend in Holmdel, Manalapan, and Matawan in Monmouth County; Basking Ridge in Somerset County; Hainesport, Burlington County; Edison, Middlesex County; and Sicklerville, Camden County.<\/p>\n

“Since the beginning of the U.S. outbreak in January 2022, avian influenza has impacted wild birds in every state,” according to the NJDEP.<\/p>\n

The NJDEP is urging the public to report any sick or dead birds they see, particularly in groups of 5 or more, to the Wild Bird Disease Reporting Form<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Typical signs of HPAI include diarrhea, discharge from the nose, coughing, sneezing, and incoordination, but some birds may show no signs before death.<\/p>\n

H5N1 has killed two people in the U.S. since 2024, according to the CDC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NJDEP Fish & Wildlife is coordinating with local officials to safely dispose of bird carcasses at several landfills across the state.<\/p>\n

The NJDEP Fish & Wildlife reports that in 2025, confirmed detections of avian influenza in wild animals have occurred in all counties except Hudson and Union.<\/p>\n

Have a news tip? Email alexis.tarrazi@patch.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“Our highest suspicion at this time is highly pathogenic avian influenza,” said New Jersey State Wildlife Pathologist Dr.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-479728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}