Bird flu is back in the United States.No one knows what will happen next

[ad_1]

To understand the importance of these three ducks and the viruses they carry, we need to take a quick look at the flu school. Lesson 1: The influenza virus family tree is large and vast; it contains types—A, B, C, D—and subtypes, designated by Hs and Ns. (These are shorthand for the proteins that allow the virus to infect cells.) Just in As, there are nearly 200 subtypes; a few affect humans, but nearly all of them infect birds.

Lesson 2: Scientists have long believed that humans are virtually immune to all other influenza viruses. This assumption was shattered in 1997, when an avian influenza H5N1 crossed species in Hong Kong and infected 18 people, 6 of whom died. To shut it down, the local government slaughtered every chicken in the area, denying that the virus was the host. This worked for a few years, but in 2003, H5N1 started spreading around the world again, and it keeps spreading.

Lesson 3: Bird flu is dangerous to people, but it also threatens some birds. Water birds, mostly ducks, don’t get sick with it, but it can make chickens sick. Again, here are the subcategories: Avian Influenza is likely to be low pathogenic, meaning it can cause mild illness in birds and slow egg production. Or it could be highly pathogenic, or high-pathway: a rapidly spreading infection so severe that it can kill an entire flock within two days. (One prominent poultry researcher once called it “chicken Ebola.”)

To summarize (there will be no quiz): The flu found in the Carolinas is H5N1, which means it’s a subtype that usually infects birds but has sickened people in the past. It is a high-path breed that can wipe out domesticated flocks. It belongs to a strain associated with the first cross-species jump in 1997. Worse yet, it is just one example of the large number of highly pathogenic H5N1s currently emerging in the world.

Last year, the World Organization for Animal Health (known by its French acronym OIE) estimated Between 1 May and 1 November, HPAI outbreaks occurred in 41 countries, with 16,000 virus isolates reported in October alone. Fifteen countries also reported outbreaks between October and December.

Occasionally isolated bird flu in wild birds is not uncommon, but last autumn, the heightened H5N1 virus began to break out with unusual strength in the UK. since October and entering this year, the virus has been found in wild species including swans, geese, water birds and birds of prey. But it has also invaded poultry farms, mainly in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. by January, over 1 million chickens Other birds have been destroyed to stop its spread. In December, the UK’s chief veterinary officer said there was “bird flu” thereAstonishing,” said the strain had spread to the largest number of farms ever.

At about the same time, the Dutch authorities order the slaughter Hundreds of thousands of poultry on farms in the country.In the Czech Republic, more than 100,000 hens died Avian flu broke out on an egg farm, and another 100,000 birds and about 1 million eggs were destroyed to stop the virus from spreading further. In France, farmers are concerned that the virus will infiltrate duck farms in the southwest, home to foie gras. Last week, the Agriculture Department ordered the killing of 2.5 million birds. In Italy, more than 4 million poultry were killed or slaughtered between October and December.The German government’s animal disease research agency, the Friedrich Loeffler Institute, said at the end of December that European is going through “Worst ever outbreak of bird flu”, with cases as far north as the Faroe Islands and south as Portugal.

[ad_2]

Source link

Recommended For You

About the Author: News Center