Dozens of dead geese found in parts of a New Jersey borough’s parks have tested positive for the avian flu, leading local officials to keep the properties closed and ask that a popular event be moved.

Allentown Borough officials posted a notice to their website on Thursday that Dr. Farmer’s Park, Pete Sensi Park and a portion of Heritage Park will remain closed after some 30 dead geese were removed earlier this month.

Local officials were informed Thursday by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection that the birds removed by a contractor tested positive for H5N1, the virus that causes the illness, said Borough Administrator Laurie Roth. The decease was suspected in the deaths earlier this month.

The virus was suspected in the deaths in Allentown, as well as several other municipalities in Monmouth County, where dead geese have appeared over the past weeks.

The parks will remain closed indefinitely, Roth said.

“We’re hoping that when it gets warmer, we’ll be able to (reopen the parks), but at this time, right now, we want to be cautious and keep the parks closed,” Roth said in a brief phone call with NJ Advance Media on Monday.

The birds were removed Feb. 4 by a contractor. The borough spent about $6,000 on removing the dead waterfowl, the lowest cost from all of the entities borough officials contacted, Mayor Thomas Fritts previously said. About 50 animal control-type businesses were contacted, he said.

Since the removal, at least three more dead birds were found and collected, Roth said.

Meanwhile, the borough asked the local Lions Foundation to relocate its popular Easter egg hunt, an annual event scheduled this year for April 12. The organization did not immediately return an emailed request for comment on the relocation.

Most of all three parks are affected by the shutdown, keeping the public from recreational activities from canoeing and fishing.

The dead birds are tied to the Conines Millpond, a body of water in the borough’s center. Geese have increasingly occupied the millpond after a habitat at Mercer Corporate Park, in nearby Robbinsville, was destroyed.

For about three weeks, dead geese gradually appeared in the park, particularly at the dam spillway, which deposits water from the millpond into a smaller body of water on the opposite side of Old York Road. The mayor estimated that upward of 20 dead geese accumulated at the spillway’s top, preventing them from going down the waterfall.

The outbreak, which began in January 2022, has led to the deaths of thousands of commercial poultry in the U.S. This trend, along with culling to curtail the virus, has contributed to higher egg prices in recent months.

New Jersey’s first case of avian influenza was found last week at a Union County market, NorthJersey.com reported. No human cases have been reported in the state, officials told the news outlet.

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Eric Conklin may be reached at econklin@njadvancemedia.com.

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ALLENTOWN — The dead geese are gone but questions remain about whether or not they were infected with the avian flu, which has driven up the price of eggs.

More than a dozen geese were found late January on top of the dam along Main Street, in and around the adjoining parks and in Heritage Park behind the old mill, Mayor Thomas Fritts told New Jersey 101.5's Eric Scott on Thursday morning. The borough placed a call to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

"We were told to call New Jersey Fish and Wildlife, and we were told at that time we would need to take care of the birds. They are going through testing, but we would need to try to figure out how to dispose of it ourselves, because they're short-staffed," Fritts said.

Fritts said firefighters were not equipped to remove the birds because of a lack of training and proper equipment to handle potentially diseased birds.

"It just put these first responders at the potential risk of bringing something back to a department, infecting others, and then potentially slowing down services and resources when we have other emergencies in the area," Fritts said.

How to dispose of dead geese

After contacting numerous pest control companies, the list was narrowed down to three. Fritts said he was able to negotiate a rate with a company that came out the next day.

Fritts said that Fish & Wildlife initially told him the geese tested positive but then got mixed messages about whether or not they had been tested by the DEP's labs.

"I've reached out to so many elected officials, and I have to say Assemblyman Alex Sauickie, his chief of staff, they really went to bat," Fritts said. "They made a ton of calls and we were told we'd be contacted by the DEP. We still have not received a call from the DEP, and as of yesterday (Wednesday). We attempted to call them again, and they told us to call Fish and Wildlife. So we're just going in circles."

Positive or negative?

Fritts says he has heard of other surrounding towns Lakewood, Freehold and Southampon finding groups of dead birds and is concerned about their possible impact if they are in fact positive. Thousands of eggs at farms have needed to be destroyed because of potential exposure.

"I'm under the understanding that if you have a chicken that's tested positive within 100 miles of your farm, that your chickens need to be tested weekly. But speaking to local farmers, these geese are flying in and out of their farms every single day. So I'm not really sure how you can control it to what degree," Fritts said.

A spokesman for the DEP told New Jersey 101.5 they were checking on the test results.

Mayor Dave Fried from adjacent Robbinsville said in a statement there have been no reports of dead birds at any of its parks.

"For your safety, Robbinsville encourages everyone to avoid contact and interaction with geese. Should you discover dead geese, please do not attempt to remove and/or dispose of the geese yourself. Please contact the Township to report the dead geese so they can be removed and disposed of properly," Fried said.

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Health officials in New Jersey are warning residents after H5N1 avian influenza -- or bird flu -- was found in dead wild Canada geese in Burlington and Monmouth counties recently.

In Burlington County, officials said bird flu was found in a dead goose that was recovered from a location in Pemberton.

Here, officials said, the bird was found with other dead geese and it was tested as part of a monitoring program.

Officials said that this positive test marks the first confirmed case of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Burlington County since the nationwide outbreak started in 2022.

Earlier this month, in Monmouth County, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection closed Dr. Farmer's Park, Pete Sensi Park, and Heritage Park until further notice after dead geese found at the millpond and surrounding areas in Allentown Borough tested positive for bird flu.

According to officials in New Jersey, clusters of sick and deceased wild birds have also been discovered in several other counties, including Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, Salem and Warren.

In a statement, New Jersey health officials stressed that the respiratory disease is still primarily an animal health issue and the risk to humans is still low.

"Humans with close or prolonged contact with infected animals can become infected, but the virus is not known to be transmitted from human to human at this time," officials said in a statement.

Also in a statement, Burlington County Health Department Director, Dr. Holly Funkhouser Cucuzzella, said the county had expected bird flu would eventually make its way to the community and preparations to handle this discovery were already underway.

“Our Health Department was expecting H5N1’s eventual arrival and we had already started making preparations,” said Funkhouser Cucuzzella. “The risk to public health in Burlington County is still low but we want residents to be informed and vigilant. Residents should avoid all contact with dead or sick birds and those keeping poultry flocks should take special precautions. We are also asking residents to report deaths of wild or domestic birds, especially large groups of them.”

The Burlington County Health Department has created a special H5N1 Avian Influenza webpage with the latest information and guidance about the outbreak at https://www.co.burlington.nj.us/2115/H5N1-Bird-Flu.

For more information on the bird flu cases in Monmouth County, click here.

ALLENTOWN, NJ — Parks in Allentown have officially re-opened after closing in February due to dead geese discovered throughout the area, borough officials said Thursday afternoon.

Dr. Farmer’s Park, Pete Sensi Park and the parking lot along the waterway of Heritage Park have re-opened following a period with no reported bird deaths, officials said.

Borough officials did not specify how long the period of time with no reported bird deaths was. Patch has reached out to the borough for more information.

“Visitors to the area are asked to report any deceased birds to Borough Hall at 609-259-3151,” borough officials said. “Thank you for your patience and cooperation in this matter.”

In early February, around 25-30 dead geese were discovered in Allentown’s millpond, according to Borough Administrator Laurie Roth, though all three parks were closed out of precaution since they share the same waterway.

Once the dead geese were recovered, the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (NJ DEP) said the geese tested positive for Bird Flu, leading the borough to keep the parks closed throughout the remainder of February and early March.

Since those geese were collected, Roth said four more dead birds were discovered throughout the parks in late February. Patch has reached out to the borough on how many dead geese were collected in total.

In addition to the geese found in Allentown, dead birds have also been reported in Belmar and Hillsborough, according to local officials. In northern Ocean County, a dead hawk is also being tested for Bird Flu.

The current strain of bird flu, H5N1, also known as avian influenza, is suspected to have caused localized deaths of multiple wild birds, predominantly snow geese and Canada geese, in parts of New Jersey since the end of December, according to the state DEP, which is responsible for tracking the spread in wild birds.

More than 140 sick or dead snow geese and Canada geese (plus lower numbers of raptors and other avian scavengers) have been reported from more than 30 locations throughout the state, DEP officials said.

As of March 10, confirmed detections of H5N1 in wild birds have occurred in Warren and Salem Counties, state officials said.

Presumptive positive detections have occurred in Atlantic, Bergen, Burlington, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Somerset, and Sussex Counties.

Though cases of H5N1 have been reported in animals, there are no reported cases of human infection of H5N1 in New Jersey, officials said.

The US Center for Disease Control & Prevention has also declared that the H5N1 outbreak is primarily an animal health issue, and poses a low risk to public health, according to NJ DEP Spokesman Larry Hajna.

If more dead birds are discovered in Allentown’s parks, borough officials are asking visitors to call Borough Hall at 609-259-3151, and to not attempt to interact with the birds or remove/dispose of the birds themselves.

DEP Fish & Wildlife is recommending the following safety measures for the general public:

Occurrences of avian influenza can be tracked here. For further guidance or information on H5N1, you can click here.

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