Mixed bag of results from avian flu testing

The good news first: all of the hunter-harvested waterfowl and collected eggs that were field-tested earlier this summer tested negative for avian influenza, according to results made public this week. But test results of birds that had been found dead at beaches near Nome in 2024 and 2025 and were stored in a freezer, confirmed that they died of the H5N1 strain of the bird flu.
Dr. Lisa Kercher with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital from Memphis, Tennessee, conducted testing in Nome for the highly pathogenic avian influenza, HPAI for short, from May 28 to June 8.
She set up shop at East End Park, inviting hunters to bring by their harvested waterfowl for a quick swab to analyze. A few people came by, presenting eggs they gathered from wild birds and had them swabbed as well. USDA confirmed that all the waterfowl and eggs Kercher tested were negative for HPAI. 
Why was Dr. Kercher interested in the avian flu? “St. Jude Children’s Hospital has done avian flu research for 50 years,” said Kercher in an interview with the Nugget in May. The St. Jude Children’s hospital treats catastrophic diseases in children, and if a child is sick with cancer or other serious diseases, getting a respiratory disease can be devastating, hence they do research on respiratory diseases and all kinds of influenza viruses, including the bird flu.
There are different kinds of strains of avian flu. Some are more serious than others and the H5 strain is of special concern. And that is the strain that was positively identified in five birds that were not harvested but were part of 32 birds found dead on Nome’s beaches in 2024 and 2025 and that have been preserved frozen. These birds were collected through a collaborative effort between the regional public, Kawerak Subsistence Director, and UAF Alaska Sea Grant.
Dr. Kercher took the time and ran field tests on these frozen birds and five of them did not test negative, meaning that there could be avian flu present. The samples were then submitted to an USDA laboratory which confirmed, yes, the H5N1 strain was detected in these birds: two common murres, two glaucous gulls and one black-legged kittiwake. These results indicate HPAI has been affecting several species of seabirds during 2022, 2024 and 2025 as well as an eider found in 2026.
According to Andy Ramey, the U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Science Center Director of the Molecular Ecology Lab, who presented in a Strait Science lecture last June, the bird flu virus has become more complex, but for the lack of large-scale poultry or dairy production in Alaska, the state sees the spread mostly among wild birds and animals.
According to the USDA, 576 confirmed cases of HPAI were confirmed in Alaska since 2021, including seven red foxes, one arctic fox, three polar bears, a black bear, a brown bear, an ermine and a mink.
In Nome, 126 samples from Game Management Unit 22 revealed HPAI in four animals: two red foxes, a mink and an eider. 
The federal USDA conducts a fall sampling program, and Ramey currently conducts a USGS research program, sampling waterfowl at Izembek Lagoon out of Cold Bay. But testing in Nome or the Bering Strait is not routinely done.
It is the regional residents and teams that respond when birds are seen behaving abnormally. Symptoms in birds are head shaking, staggering, spinning, lethargic behavior, hard breathing, diarrhea and sudden death.
UAF Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program Agent Gay Sheffield told the Nugget that more monitoring is needed to better understand the prevalence of HPAI in regional birds that are harvested. “That would help answer more of the potential risk questions,” she said. “Currently there are extremely few birds tested.”
To report distressed or dead seabirds and marine wildlife call Alaska Sea Grant  at 907-434-1149 or Kawerak at 907-443-4269.