Category: Avian Influenza
CDC Summary What is already known about this topic? Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5) virus infections have been detected in humans exposed to infected dairy cattle. What is added by this report? Public health officials conducted a serosurvey among 150 bovine veterinary practitioners. Three practitioners had evidence of recent infection with HPAI A(H5) virus, […]
Feb 19, 2025
The wind may be partly to blame for bird flu spread between farms, a new study suggests
CNN In February 2024, government veterinarians in the Czech Republic investigating a bird flu outbreak found themselves in the middle of a puzzling case. The highly pathogenic H5N1 virus was devastating a flock of chickens on a highly secure farm, home of a breeding program that produced hybrid birds with specially colored feathers and eggs. […]
Feb 19, 2025
Canada reports outbreak of H5N5 bird flu on backyard farm
Retuers Canada has reported an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N5 avian influenza on a non-commercial backyard layer poultry farm in the eastern part of the country, the World Organisation for Animal Health said on Tuesday. The spread of avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, has ravaged flocks around the world, disrupting supply and fuelling higher […]
Feb 19, 2025
The Latest on Bird Flu in Humans, Chickens, and More
Scientific American Human Cases Within the past 10 days, three different states in the U.S. have reported new known and likely bird flu infections in humans: The first two are a confirmed case in a dairy worker in Nevada and a probable one in a farm worker in Ohio who had handled dead poultry. The third […]
Feb 19, 2025
USDA accidentally fired officials working on bird flu and is now trying to rehire them
NBC The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Tuesday that, over the weekend, it accidentally fired “several” agency employees who are working on the federal government’s response to the H5N1 avian flu outbreak. “Although several positions supporting [bird flu efforts] were notified of their terminations over the weekend, we are working to swiftly rectify the situation and […]
Feb 18, 2025
As egg prices soar, Trump administration plans new strategy to fight bird flu
MSN With egg prices soaring, the Trump administration is planning a new strategy for fighting bird flu that stresses vaccinations and tighter biosecurity instead of killing off millions of chickens when the disease strikes a flock. The federal government will seek “better ways, with biosecurity and medication and so on” rather than the current standard practice of […]
Feb 18, 2025
How a bird flu pandemic could emerge
CBS News Video The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued conditional approval for a bird flu vaccine for use in chickens. There have been at least 68 confirmed cases of bird flu among humans since 2024, according to the CDC. CBS News medical contributor Dr. Céline Gounder joins to discuss the state of the virus […]
Feb 18, 2025
First Cows, Now Cats. Is Bird Flu Coming for Humans Next?
WSJ With so much H5N1 virus circulating across the U.S., scientists worry we are a few mutations away from a potential human pandemic. Bird flu is here to stay. The H5N1 avian influenza is proliferating among U.S. cows and there are now two strains circulating among mammals and birds. Though there are only 68 confirmed cases in […]
Feb 18, 2025
HPAI vaccine receives conditional approval from USDA
WATT Poultry Whether to implement a vaccination strategy against avian influenza in commercial poultry is a contentious issue in the U.S. An avian influenza killed vaccine for chickens manufactured by Zoetis received conditional approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Center for Veterinary Biologics (CVB) on February 14. A conditional license is valid for a finite […]
Feb 18, 2025
What Happens When Bird Flu Gets Worse?
The Atlantic Most of Trump’s health picks are uninterested in using most of the tools that can limit the spread of infectious disease. resident Donald Trump might have campaigned on lowering the prices of groceries, but even as egg prices have become a minor national crisis, he has stayed quiet about the driving cause of […]
Feb 12, 2025