Bird flu spreads to Southern California, infecting chickens, wild birds and other animals in San Diego County
Wentzville man tells of seeing bird flu at San Diego Zoo
Chicks are dying after coming into contact with birds infected with the dangerous H5N1 bird flu virus.
The H5N1 virus, which is not lethal to humans, has been detected in wild birds in Southern California and in at least one instance in a person visiting the San Diego Zoo.
Wentzville man Dan Pimentel said he saw the virus in wild birds and decided to share his story.
He said he was in his backyard on Friday morning when he noticed a strange bird flying around his yard.
He said the bird looked sick and scared, so he decided to take a picture using the digital camera he had in his pocket.
He said he later went to San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Pimentel said he went there with his son and saw a juvenile ostrich, but said there was no sign of the bird flu when Pimentel looked at the bird through a pair of binoculars.
He said the zoo had told him that no cases of human infection connected to the H5N1 virus had been identified in the last few weeks.
Pimentel said he found out about the virus from a former colleague and had no concerns until he started looking at chickens and turkeys for signs of infection.
He said he started to notice that some of those chickens were acting sick even though he didn’t see the symptoms of the virus when he looked at them through the binoculars.
He said some of the sick birds didn’t even seem to be moving around.
He decided to take the chickens to the veterinarian.
He told the veterinarian that the chickens were coughing and acting “very poorly,” adding that the veterinarian suspected they were infected with bird flu.
Pimentel said the veterinarian confirmed that some of the chickens had H5N1 virus.
Pimentel said the doctor told him he wouldn’t give the chickens any antibiotics and instead would try to control their movements.
Pimentel also contacted