When a wave of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) began sweeping the U.S. in early 2022, its impact was felt far beyond the ravaged poultry farms that often made headlines. 

The disease also spread through wild raptor populations. That year, The Raptor Center (TRC) at the University of Minnesota admitted more than 200 birds that tested positive for HPAI. The center’s medical director, Dana Franzen-Klein, sprang into action and implemented comprehensive biosecurity protocols that allowed the facility to continue operating safely. She also guided efforts to systematically collect and analyze data that helped the greater wildlife rehabilitation community better understand the disease and navigate the outbreak in the years since. 

“All of the work I’ve done around HPAI with the support of my staff and the volunteers at The Raptor Center has been not only to keep our doors open, so that we can keep taking care of birds in Minnesota, but also with the goal of trying to help the wildlife rehabilitation community as a whole,” Franzen-Kleins says.  

For her leadership during the HPAI response, Franzen-Klein recently received the National Wildlife Rehabilitation Association’s Significant Achievement Award. The award is given to an individual who has made a major contribution to the field of wildlife rehabilitation within the last two years. 

Data gathered from raptors admitted to TRC shed light on how the disease presented and progressed. Franzen-Klein shared this information widely through publications, webinars, direct mentorship, and conversations, ensuring rehabilitators everywhere had access to practical evidence-based information.

Since March 28, 2022, TRC has tested more than 4,890 individuals on admission for avian influenza virus, with 273 confirmed positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza, and two individuals preliminarily testing positive for avian influenza with confirmatory testing still pending. The center continues to maintain an HPAI data dashboard and a collection of educational materials. 

“This is a very challenging situation that we have all been dealing with in the wildlife rehabilitation community for the past several years, and the hope is that we can help everyone be successful in this situation,” Franzen-Klein says. 

Franzen-Klein joined TRC as a full-time veterinarian in 2019. In addition to providing medical care for the more than 1,000 wild raptors that are treated on an annual basis, she also maintains a wellness program for captive educational raptors, conducts research, provides remote consultations, and trains veterinary interns, residents, and students, as well as post-graduate veterinarians and wildlife rehabilitators.