Over the last three years, a highly contagious, often deadly form of bird flu has taken a staggering toll on animals around the globe. Since the beginning of October, the virus has hit more than 1,000 poultry flocks in 47 states, according to the USDA. The bird flu is now raising concerns in parts of New York state.

A potential outbreak of avian flu has raised concerns among residents in Webster following the death of nearly two dozen geese at Charles E. Sexton Memorial Park.

“Tuesday, when we were back in for normal office hours, I think at one point we were up to about a dozen phone calls of people just calling [and] wanting to know one that there were a number of dead geese,” Parks and Recreation Commissioner for the town of Webster Christopher Bilow said. “And I think at that point, word started to spread a little bit. So, people were just trying to be a little bit ahead of the game in regards to what was going on.”

According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the town of Webster, the first of the geese were found on Saturday at North Pond Trail. With approximately 18 geese removed, officials urge residents to contact the Parks and Recreation office if they continue to come across any deceased birds.

“We pick our direction directly from the DEC and the DEC has indicated that this outbreak, while obviously very critical to the geese for human contact, it's not as concerning,” Bilow said.

The Webster Parks Department is coordinating with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, avian influenza or bird flu are viruses naturally spread among wild aquatic birds worldwide and can infect domestic poultry and other bird and animal species.

“The way the winter has gone this year, the geese we expect to probably be around in the park for quite some time,” Bilow said. “So unfortunately, it's going to be something that I think we're just going to have to kind of go through this process.”

The DEC has collected deceased geese for testing at the Cornell Wildlife Health lab in Ithaca. While the CDC states that recent avian influenza detections do not present an immediate public health concern, the town of Webster remains vigilant in monitoring this situation.

“Our park staff is doing several sweeps of the park per day, trying to dispose of any of the geese that they may encounter with,” Bilow said. “But again, from all indications from the DEC, this is something that we can manage.”