Glacier Bay National Park’s black bear cub was killed this fall after it tested positive for bird flu. This is the first time in the country that a highly contagious strain has been detected. After noticing the unusual behavior of the animal, park visitors alerted wildlife officials.

The cub had difficulty walking and was struggling to keep up with its mother and siblings at Bartlett Cove, Glacier Bay National Park.

Kimberlee Beckmen works as a wildlife veterinarian at the Department of Fish and Game. Concerned park visitors captured video of the cub in October, she says.

Beckmen stated Tuesday that they thought the child was drunk and it was stumbling. The mother then abandoned it,” Beckmen told us in a telephone interview.

These symptoms are common for the H5N1 strain. It can cause exhaustion, as well as neurological problems such seizures.

Beckmen claims that the bear was not likely to survive at that moment.

She said, “It was very sad (to see) the animal (was not) going to recover.” “Its brain was swollen and it would have died within hours if it hadn’t been euthanized.”

Scientists took brain samples and swabs from the cub after it was killed. The samples were sent to New York and Washington labs for analysis.

Beckmen said that the results were positive for highly pathogenic avian flu, also known as “high-path AI”.

She said that all wildlife that has clinical signs or is suspicious of developing inflammation in their brains — encephalitis — are tested for rabies. We had to perform rabies testing on the animal before we could test for high-path AI. This was because of the potential risk from the tissues if the animal was infected by rabies.

This is the first time that the strain has been detected in an Alaska bear. Officials from the Wildlife Department say that two other foxes tested positive for the strain this year, one in Unalaska, and one in Unalakleet.

Beckmen claims that the only other bear with the strain was an adult female Black bear from Quebec.

“Because it is the first reported in the U.S.A, it can be reported to the World Organization for Animal Health. She said that they will report to the federal government because it is considered an international animal disease.

Beckmen believes that the cub discovered at Bartlett Cove had been infected by a bird or a sick bird.

She said that they must inhale large amounts of the virus while they are scavenging birds infected with the virus, and then have that virus in their respiratory tracts. It does not spread from bear to bear.

Ingestion of water contaminated with sick waterfowl can lead to animal infection. The risk to humans is low, she says. Only four people have been confirmed as having the H5N1 virus in the world and one in North America.

However, the virus has also affected wild birds and poultry — almost 50 million were killed or euthanized in the last year alone according to the CDC.

Officials in Alaska say that Matanuska Susitna Borough continues to be a hotspot of infection for backyard flocks. Beckmen says Sitka recently had eagle-related infections. Fish and Game also reported this summer that there were infections in the state among shorebirds and waterfowl

Officials from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game advise residents to report dead, sick, orphaned animals to them.