WARNING: This story contains an image of a dead goose.

At least 500 bird carcasses, the majority Canadian geese, have been recovered near water streams in southern Manitoba over the last month — a die-off scientists say they haven't witnessed in the province before and are attributing to avian influenza.

"Anywhere there was open water, where birds were concentrated, now we're seeing carcasses," Frank Baldwin, a biologist with Canadian Wildlife Service, told CBC News on Thursday.

"We haven't experienced this in Manitoba yet at this scale."

Separate clusters of dead birds have been found near the Red River, north of Winnipeg's Perimeter Highway, in recent weeks.

Niverville, about 30 kilometres south of Winnipeg, has seen the highest concentration of bird carcasses in recent weeks.

Clos

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