[Nhcoll-l] Dealing with Bird flu specimens

[Derieg, Katrina]

There was only one confirmed case in livestock birds in Montana earlier this year, but my team has been picking up an unusual number of dead crows around town this month, mostly nestlings and juvenile birds. We're going to prepare them outside in full PPE and take good samples to send to our local veterinary diagnostics lab because it does seem suspicious.

If your lab and protocols are set up to safely handle potentially infected animals, collections should be on the forefront of this kind of work. I see this as an opportunity to archive really valuable material for tracking the spread of avian flu. Partnering with local disease researchers will be key.

I'm sure many of you know this paper, but it is a good reminder of our role in the field of zoonotic research:
Thompson et al. (2021) Preserve a voucher specimen! The critical need for integrating natural history collections in infectious disease studies. MBio, 12(1), 10-1128.<https://journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.1128/mbio.02698-20>

Stay safe out there!
-Katrina


KATRINA DERIEG (she/her)

Curator | Museum Collections and Outreach Coordinator

Philip L. Wright Zoological Museum (UMZM)

https://www.umt.edu/zoological-museum/

Shipping: Health Science 104 | 32 Campus Drive | 406-243-4743

Office: Health Science 211

katrina.derieg at umontana.edu | umzm at mso.umt.edu

University of Montana


Search the UMZM collections on Arctos: Birds<https://arctos.database.museum/search.cfm?guid_prefix=UMZM:Bird> | Mammals<https://arctos.database.museum/search.cfm?guid_prefix=UMZM:Mamm> | Eggs & Nests<https://arctos.database.museum/search.cfm?guid_prefix=UMZM:Egg> | Parasites<https://arctos.database.museum/search.cfm?guid_prefix=UMZM:Para>

________________________________
From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of Schultz, Eric <eric.schultz at uconn.edu>
Sent: Friday, June 26, 2026 8:34 AM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Dealing with Bird flu specimens


We have in fact been refusing salvage specimens. We are preparing skins from a backlog of salvage we saved from before bird flu pandemic began. Salvage in the freezer for the period when we were taking salvage but the bird flu was afoot is awaiting our decision to destroy or have tested at a Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Lab here. Preparers are wearing PPE of course.





Eric Schultz

Professor Emeritus

Director of Vertebrate Collections, BRC<https://biodiversity.uconn.edu/>

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology<https://eeb.uconn.edu/>

University of Connecticut<https://uconn.edu/>

Treasurer, Southern New England Chapter<https://snec.fisheries.org/>, American Fisheries Society<https://fisheries.org/>





From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Penck, Maya (SAM)
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2026 10:29 PM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Dealing with Bird flu specimens



*External sender: This message was not sent through the UConn email system. It might be safe, but use caution before interacting with links, attachments, or requests.*



OFFICIAL



Dear All,

H5N1 has hit Australian shores for the first time with several confirmed cases in the last week, and so far has been restricted to seabirds. It is inevitable that it will spread now.

I’d like to ask how others at museums have dealt with incoming specimens. Presumably you have not outright refused donated birds and mammals which may be infected? How have you dealt with processing animals, and with taking and storing tissues? Were the animals tested beforehand?



Thanks in advance for any comments.



Maya Penck

Collection Manager, Ornithology (Mon/Tues/Thu/Fri)

South Australian Museum

North Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000

P: +61 (8) 8273 9151

maya.penck at samuseum.sa.gov.au<mailto:maya.penck at samuseum.sa.gov.au>



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