Authorities Raise Concern Over Wider Spread of Bird Flu

The World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) on Thursday, April 4, 2024, raised concern over the widening geographic spread of avian influenza, popularly called bird flu. The authorities are also worried that the number of species the virus infected is also increasing. 

The comment from WOAH’s Director General Monique Eloit came after the U.S. government reported bird flu cases in dairy cows across different states, including one person in Texas. Eloit said she would be strongly worried if there was transmission between cows. The U.S. authorities are investigating.

In past years, bird flu has led to the culling of hundreds of millions of poultry across the globe. The virus is believed to be spread by migratory wild birds. The number of outbreaks this season has been lower than in previous seasons, but the spread of the virus to new regions including Antarctica and South America has been a source of worry. The virus has decimated colonies of rare species. 

Although foxes have been the mammalian species most affected by bird flu, the virus is now increasingly found in other species including bears, cats, dolphins, seals, and tigers.

“Over the last few months, we have had a whole series of diverse and varied mammals. It is worrying to see this extension to other species,” Eloit told Reuters. “Ultimately, we find ourselves with more and more species and more animals which are contaminated, therefore necessarily a higher viral load with a risk of contamination of humans.”

Some bird flu outbreaks can cause serious or fatal infections among people with close contact with poultry or wild birds. However, there has been no significant human-to-human transmission so far. According to scientists, unless the individual is exposed to infected animals, their chance of catching the disease from another person is very low.

However, the reason why authorities are worried is because human and animal flu viruses mutate. Therefore, there is the possibility that one of the flu viruses may mutate into a form that will become transmissible between mammals, including humans.

On Wednesday, April 3, 2024, the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) warned of the possibility of a large-scale bird flu pandemic if the virus somehow ‘learns’ to be transmissible between people as humans presently don’t have immunity against the virus.

H5N1 bird flu outbreak is sweeping through poultry farm in the Philippines

An outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu has been reported in the Philippines. The outbreak happened on a poultry farm in the center of the country, according to a statement by the WOAH on Thursday. Out of a flock of over 60,000 on a farm in the province of Leyte, the virus had wiped out 4,475.

“The affected farm is surrounded by rice field paddies and a river which are frequented by wild waterfowl. These free-flying wild birds could have introduced the virus via their droppings, as the first building to be affected was at the back of the farm nearest to the rice paddies,” said the authorities in the report.

In January, the Philippines farm ministry temporarily banned the import of poultry into the country from countries seemingly dealing with bird flu outbreaks including Belgium, France, and Japan.