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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nBetty Baty never misses the opportunity to watch the swans whenever she\u2019s near Lake Morton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur swans are very special,\u201d said Baty. \u201cI go to church across the lake and see the swans all the time but wanted to come see the other birds as well today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those other birds, including pelicans, ducks, and geese, have veterinarians worried about the bird flu spreading to Lakeland’s swans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is concern that one of them could be carrying it. Unfortunately, there really aren\u2019t good ways to keep migratory birds from stopping. Unfortunately, as development has continued there are fewer places for those birds to rest when they’re migrating,\u201d said Dr. Price Dickson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Dickson cares for the city’s swan population. She said birds that gather together are even more susceptible than the swans, who typically live alone or with one mate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While there have not been any bird flu cases reported in Polk County, Dickson said this particular strain of H5N1 avian influenza virus is a jumping species and can spread to people\u2019s pets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which is why Dickson advises to take extra precautions when interacting with birds at the lake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cInstead of feeding them directly from your hand, sprinkle the food. That provides a little bit less mucus to hand contact,\u201d Dickson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dickson said you should wash your hands before feeding birds and again when you get home before touching your own pets. Bird flu symptoms in your pets can show up as fatigue, sneezing, and seizures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The United States Department of Agriculture is working on a vaccine to stop the spread of the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI would be very interested once it\u2019s been proven to be safe and effective in that species for getting the swans vaccinated. Most vaccines are yearly vaccines so that is something we could easily add into their roundup protocol if needed,\u201d Dickson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bird flu cases are rising across the country, putting Lakeland’s beloved swan population at risk. Betty Baty never misses the opportunity to watch the swans whenever she\u2019s near Lake Morton.… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"6","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDJcL3N3YW5zX19fMjkyMTQzNTYyODcud2VicD9maXQ9ODA1JTJDNjA0JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiTGFrZWxhbmQgc3dhbnMgc3VzY2VwdGlibGUgdG8gZmFzdC1zcHJlYWRpbmcgYmlyZCBmbHUiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.osbD0DlLyYA_k2Z0edJzs58Rf-TkM5D7gEN4kwv3PL8MQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":53962,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/swans___29214356287.webp","type":"image\/webp"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[10913],"class_list":["post-53961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-lakeland-swans-susceptible-to-fast-spreading-bird-flu"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53961"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53963,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53961\/revisions\/53963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}