Health and wildlife officials confirmed a dramatic rise in rabid foxes in Nome and the region, after a winter of increased fox attacks on dogs and people.

The Ministry of Health of Chile notified WHO of the detection of human infection with avian influenza A(H5) virus. The patient is a 53-year-old male from the Region of Antofagasta in the north of Chile.

A pet dog in Oshawa has died after testing positive for avian flu, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says. The CFIA says the number of documented cases of H5N1 — also known as avian flu — in other species like cats and dogs is low, and based on current evidence, the risk to the general public remains low.

Avian flu has decimated the marine creatures on the country’s Pacific coastline and scientists fear it could be jumping from mammal to mammal

There are miles of dead fish washing up on the beach. That's not all. Just breathing the air can be harmful.

Harbor seal looking sick with patches of fur missing.

By Diana Haecker

"Since about May 25, crews have been seeing multiple species showing what we believe are signs of highly pathogenic avian influenza. The signs we are seeing widespread is a headshaking that we equate to "getting the cobwebs out", like a person may do when they first wake up. This behavior occurs regularly every couple minutes. This behavior has been observed in: black brant, cackling geese, bar-tailed godwits, dunlin, lapland longspurs, spectacled eiders, emperor geese, greater white-fronted geese, sabines gulls, glaucous gulls, and red-necked phalaropes."

Over the past five days there have been increasing reports of unusual behavior in a variety of bird species including brant goose, snow goose, white-fronted goose, and Canada goose.

This brant was seen at Mile 16 of the Nome-Council Road exhibiting spinning behavior.

The tomcod harvests in the Kongiganak, Cavuuneq and Ilkivik Rivers have been a failure. Also in other areas, based on observations from Chevak and Chefornak. Both the surface and bottom trawl results show a clear decline in tomcod biomass in the North Bering Sea.

Not a single catch was reported in the village of Chefornak. Meanwhile in Kivalina, dozens and dozens of tomcods are pictured and posted on "The Alaska Life" Facebook page.

There is usually an abundance of this fish in the fall and early winter season. This is a usual harvest for most YK Delta coastal villages. Note: According to NOAA Bering Sea Bottom Trawl data, there has been an 88% decline reported in the biomass of saffron cod from 2020 to 2021 in the N. Bering Sea.

St. Lawrence Island, home to two native villages in the region, is also the summer home of several migratory seabird species, including kittiwakes, auklets, murre and shearwaters. Over the last several years, though, the bird colonies on the island have been shrinking, and no one has been able to determine why.

"The first wave of dead mussels washed ashore on July 14th, possibly earlier but this was the first report we received. I took the pictures included in my LEO observation on July 16th, and the temperatures were only just then beginning to climb into the upper 70s and lower 80s."

A recent spate of attacks on humans and pets by foxes in Topsham may be in part due to a new strain of rabies. As of April 18, there have been five such attacks in Topsham this year. State Veterinarian Michele Walsh theorizes a rabies strain more associated with raccoons has begun infecting gray foxes.

Three foxes from three Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta communities have tested positive for rabies in recent weeks.

Happy Wade jumped into action when he saw the wild animal clawing and biting at his wife, Kristi. Both are currently being treated for rabies.

Nome and the surrounding area, including St. Lawrence Island, is fighting rabies almost as hard as it is fighting COVID-19. Because of the high level of rabies infection Fish and Game requested assistance from the National Rabies Management Response Program. Their job is to manage a wildlife disease outbreak. Several technicians and a rabies biologist are in Nome reducing the number of foxes.

The head of Alaska’s Wildlife Disease and Health Surveillance Program confirms that the City of Nome has a higher than normal case count of rabies in the red fox population. Usually in winter, most of the cases come from Prudhoe Bay and Utqiagvik. This winter most of the cases are from Nome, as well as from Kivalina and other villages around Kotzebue.