| | | It looks like Birdenomics didn't address the problem
From chickens to foxes, here's how bird flu is spreading across the US
 Dinah Voyles Pulver
USA TODAY
A bird flu outbreak that has alarmed health officials by its pervasive spread across six continents, sickening birds, cows and other mammals, has claimed the life of a Louisiana resident, officials said Monday, Jan. 6.
The bird flu was first described in Italy in 1878 as a "fowl plague."
This current outbreak, from a strain that emerged among poultry flocks and wild birds in Europe in the fall of 2020, has been the most pervasive in the U.S. and Europe. Once the highly contagious strain – H5N1 – was identified, it quickly began spreading across Europe and into Africa, the Middle East and Asia. By October 2022, it had been declared the largest avian flu epidemic ever in Europe.
As it spread around the world, tens of millions of chickens and turkeys were euthanized and thousands of birds have been killed or sickened, as well as land-based mammals and marine mammals.
Around the world, bird flu has killed about half of the people known to have been infected.
For now, the risk to people remains low, but the longer it lingers, researchers become more concerned about the possible mutations that could make it easier to transmit among humans and have a greater impact on human health.
Here are some of the key events in the transmission and spread of the virus.
May – July 2021- Wild fox kits at a rehabilitation center in the Netherlands test positive for the virus during an outbreak in wild birds.
- Virus found in great skuas – a type of seabird – on Fair Isle, Scotland.
November – December 2021- H5N1 first detected in North America, in poultry and in a great black-backed gull in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
- Four ducks harvested by hunters North and South Carolina test positive for the virus, the first bird flu infection among wild birds in the U.S. since 2016.
January – February 2022
April – September 2022
Fall 2022
2023Bird flu spillover into mammals continues. Several human cases reported internationally.
March – April 2024
May 2024On the front lines of bird flu: Dead chickens, biohazard suits and shrugs
October 2024Experts in California say the virus was rapidly taking hold in California's Central Valley, home to the nation's largest dairy production.
December 2024Samples from the first severe human case of bird flu in the U.S., a case in the state of Louisiana, is showing signs of mutation, raising fears the virus could become more transmissible among humans, according to the CDC.
Cats were reportedly sickened have contracting bird flu following consumption of raw pet food, while other cat deaths were reported to the consumption of raw milk.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency to combat bird flu, which has spread to more than a quarter of all the state's dairies.
January 2025The Louisiana patient, a 65-year-old patient with underlying medical conditions, died after contracting bird flu from contact with a combination of a backyard flock and wild birds, the state's Department of Public Health announced on Jan. 6.
(This story has been updated to include new information.) |
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