Contributed report
Governor Walz on January 3, approved a recommendation from the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR) for $1,267,000 from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF) to address the novel and escalating threat posed to wildlife by highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), commonly known as “bird flu,” in Minnesota.
This support for the Wildlife Health Network, made possible through the LCCMR’s Emerging Issues Account, will allow researchers at the University of Minnesota’s College of Veterinary Medicine to collaborate with state, federal, and tribal biologists, wildlife rehabilitation centers, zoos, the Humane Society’s wildlife unit, and others to ramp up testing of HPAI in wildlife and better understand the current threat beyond the state’s wild and domestic bird populations.