Minnesota Chickadee Tests Positive for Bird Flu

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Minnesota has confirmed its second case of highly pathogenic avian influenza in a wild bird.

The Department of Natural Resources says a chickadee found in Ramsey County and delivered to a wildlife rehabilitation center on June 10 later tested positive for H5 bird flu. But DNR wildlife research manager Lou Cornicelli says the lab was unable to determine if it was the same H5N2 strain that has devastated commercial poultry farms in Minnesota, Iowa and other Midwest states, or if it's a different highly pathogenic strain.

A Cooper's hawk found in Yellow Medicine County in April was the state's first wild bird to test positive for H5N2. Some other wild bird species in other states have also tested positive, but Cornicelli says this is the first detection in a songbird.