Avian flu has killed 12,000 birds in the state

The highly pathogenic avian influenza — or bird flu — sweeping across the globe has killed more than 12,000 wild birds in Colorado and the virus is jumping into mammal populations as well, state wildlife officials say.

And it’s unclear when the spread might relent.

“This is unprecedented,” Kristy Pabilonia, director of clinical diagnostics for Colorado State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biological Sciences, said. “The fact that it’s now so distributed with our wild bird populations, there are a lot of questions about the best next steps.”

That death toll is likely a “significant underestimate” of the true number of Colorado’s wild birds killed by the virus, Travis Duncan, spokesman for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, said.

The number of birds in commercial flocks — largely chickens and turkeys — killed by the virus is far higher, which has led, in part, to an egg shortage and price increase across the country.

State officials tracked large-scale “die-offs” of more than a thousand geese twice in northeast Colorado, Duncan said. Once at the Jumbo Reservoir and then at the Prewitt Reservoir. Additional, smaller die-offs were tracked at most of the reservoirs near Lamar, he added.

Data collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows cases of bird flu in at least 30 of Colorado’s 64 counties. Among the birds killed are Canada and Snow geese, great horned owls, red-tailed hawks and five bald eagles.

In Denver, the virus claimed two Chilean flamingos (classified as captive wild birds), a swan goose and a scaly-sided merganser, among a slate of geese, ducks and owls, the data shows.

Domestic flocks have been hard hit (with nearly 6.3 million birds affected in commercial operations, USDA data shows) but at least humans have the ability to quarantine those flocks and control the spread of the disease, Pabilonia said. In the wild, officials have little or no control.

The virus spreads easily among certain species of geese as well as the raptors that feed on infected birds, Pabilonia said.

As bird flu spreads throughout wild creatures it also evolves, Pabilonia said. The virus is decades old and it’s changed repeatedly throughout the years. Certain variants jump into species of mammals.

In Colorado, a mountain lion, black bear and skunk have all been confirmed to have contracted the virus. Duncan said wildlife officials are testing many more animals for the virus, though he couldn’t say how many test results remain outstanding.

Dogs and cats could be susceptible to the virus, Pabilonia said. Particularly in the Front Range, which has a higher concentration of people and pets than rural Colorado. But so far there haven’t been any reports of dogs or cats contracting the virus, she said.

Pet owners should be aware of the risk, but Pabilonia doesn’t recommend any major lifestyle changes. People who own dogs and cats should already avoid letting their pets interact with wildlife in general and the bird flu outbreak underscores the importance of that rule, she said.

Since Mayor Hancock took office nearly 12 years ago, rents have more than doubled and the cost of a typical home has risen 165%, pushing out many low-income households and severely stretching others. The next mayor will need to tackle the city’s housing problems in bold and innovative ways, people working closely on the issue say.

“All you hear about from the candidates and in the forums are questions around affordability,” said Jeff Martinez, president of Brothers Redevelopment, an affordable housing developer. “From our perspective, that is the primary issue and the next mayor is going to have to address it quickly and come on strong.”

About three in 10 Denver households are costburdened when it comes to housing, meaning they expend 30% or more of their incomes on housing, said Laura Brudzynski, executive director of Denver’s Department of Housing Stability (HOST), which spun out from the city’s economic development office in 2019.

For households earning below 80% of the city’s median income, more than 7 in 10 are burdened, with nearly 4 in 10 devoting half or more of their income to shelter costs. Meeting basic living expenses becomes problematic at that point, much less saving for retirement or setting aside money for children’s higher education.

Denver’s midpoint rent has more than doubled during Mayor Hancock’s tenure, going from $853 a month when he took office in July 2011 to $1,783 a month late last year, according to a dashboard maintained by HOST.

The Zillow Home Price Index, which measures both condos and singlefamily home values, has risen 165% in Denver since Hancock took office. The median price of a singlefamily home sold in January in Denver County was $590,000 while the median price of a condo or townhome sold was $430,000, according to the latest numbers from the Colorado Association

of Realtors.

Gains in home and condo prices are even more startling, rising so much they are now approaching New York City levels.

Limited land, higher material costs and labor shortages have restricted the ability of developers to provide starter homes and lower-cost apartments and contributed to a focus on higher-cost homes and luxury apartments. Strong job growth and rising incomes have created a pool of buyers for those higher-cost housing options.

But Denver has done a better job than most cities in lifting its minimum wage. A worker earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour would need to work four jobs or bring in three roommates to comfortably afford a two-bedroom rental, which in the U.S. averages around $1,325 a month, according to an analysis by Zillow. Although a two-bedroom cost more in Denver at $1,825, the minimum wage of $17.29 an hour means that same worker would have to hold 2.2 minimum wage jobs or find one other roommate to be able to afford a typical two-bedroom. For a onebedroom, that ratio is 1.7 in Denver.

Despite the large number of apartments added in recent years, Denver hasn’t seen a big shift away from homeownership, with half of all residents renting, down from 56% back in 2006. What has changed though is the type of housing being produced and who can afford it.

What the next mayor will have to tackle is the problem of the two pyramids, said Roger Hara, owner of Community Builders Real Estate Services, and a consultant to affordable housing developers. One pyramid reflects incomes. At the base are low-wage and middle-income earners and the pyramid rises higher to a tiny point of very high-income earners.