Wildlife managers across the country are wondering what’s next after a deadly strain of bird flu was discovered in wild turkey flocks for the first time ever.

“Highly pathogenic avian influenza” (HPAI), caused by a virus known as H5N1, has been sweeping the continent since it first hit Canadian shores back in December 2021. From there, the virus made its way into a large commercial turkey operation in southern Indiana.

Since arriving stateside, HPAI case numbers have continued to balloon, and now, the U.S. is in the midst of its biggest outbreak of avian influenza to date.

The last big outbreak spanned the winter of 2014 and persisted until June of 2015, when temperatures in more northerly parts of the country finally warmed enough to stop the cold-adapted virus. Like the outbreak of 2014 to 2015, the current bird flu strain came to North America from China via migratory bird movement.

While the latest strain of HPAI is killing domestic birds by the tens of millions, it’s the toll that the outbreak is taking on wild birds, and wild turkeys in particular, that’s turning heads in the hunting and conservation communities.