MILWAUKEE — More than a dozen birds suspected of bird flu were admitted to the Wisconsin Humane Society Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in the past week.
"It has been critical severe cases that we've been getting in," said Mary Landry, wildlife rehabilitator at the Wisconsin Humane Society Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.
The birds recently brought to the center were beyond the point of treatment, according to Landry.
Dead and sick birds have been discovered near Lake Michigan in Wisconsin and Illinois in recent days.
Birds highly suspected of having bird flu have been admitted from Fox Point to Kenosha, including Milwaukee, Cudahy, Oak Creek and Caledonia.
Landry says some cases were from public parks, in or near roads and the shoreline.
The 14 birds that came into the center in the past week included eight red-breasted mergansers, two herring gulls, one ring-billed gull, one great-horned owl and one mallard.
Watch: Wildlife rehabilitator explains suspected bird flu cases in Wisconsin
The red-breasted mergansers that spend most of their time in water have made up a large number of the calls coming in.
In Illinois, hundreds of were found on the shoreline.
"It's even more alarming that we are finding some of them more inland because that's a sign that they truly are in distress," Landry explained.
Bird flu is highly contagious and often fatal in birds.
It can spread to some mammals and on rare occasions to humans.
"We're concerned that numbers will continue to spike, but we're just taking it day by day. We're hoping that we see cases coming in less," Landry stated.
If you find a sick or injured bird call the Wisconsin Humane Society Wildlife Rehabilitation Center at (414) 431-6204.
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