(Radio Iowa) – Iowa D-N-R State Veterinarian Rachel Ruden says the cold weather freezing up waterways likely led to the deaths of Canada geese in southwest Iowa from avian influenza. Dr. Ruden says the birds grouped together on the remaining open water at Green Valley Lake and Lake of Three Fires. “A lot of places really closed up in terms of the open water, closed up in the past week with all the cold weather. Now that it’s warming up again, we can expect that the birds won’t have to congregate in as high of numbers, at least they maybe will distribute, you know more across the landscape, which can really help quell an outbreak,” she says. She says the forecast is calling for warmer temperatures, which would keep the water open and spread the birds out.

“We just have to kind of see where the winter goes, but if this year operates anything like last year, by early January, we really saw. outbreak activities subside,” Ruden says. Ruden says she first heard of mass deaths of snow geese in the Dakotas from avian influenza at the end of November. She says the pattern has been for deaths then happening in Missouri, and these deaths in Iowa are rare. “We have a lot of just eyes on the ground in the Des Moines metro, so we’re usually getting reports out of there. But southwest Iowa and really even southeast Iowa, we just don’t get many reports of mass mortality events south of I-80,” Ruden says. She asks the public to report any sick birds or dead birds.

“Either to the local wildlife biologist for that county or the county conservation officer so we can track those impacts, you know what species are being impacted,” she says. “We primarily see Canada geese, but we certainly see others animals that might be consuming the affected carcasses. So things like Red Tail Hawks are quite common to see also involved in these influenza outbreaks.” Ruden says you shouldn’t handle or touch sick or dead animals. “A lot of people have that impulse to help an animal in need, which is a wonderful impulse, but when there’s a infectious disease that can actually infect people as well, we really we advise you to keep your distance, report it,” she says. Ruden says once you report it the professionals will take over and handle it.

At least 60 geese died at the two southwest Iowa Lakes and testing confirmed it was from bird flu.