What to know about the bird flu outbreak
From Wyoming to Maine, an outbreak of the highly contagious bird flu has swept across farms and backyard flocks in the United States this year, prompting millions of chickens and turkeys to be culled.
Iowa has been hit particularly hard, with disasters being declared in some counties and the state canceling live bird exhibits in an order that may affect its state fair.
Better known as the bird flu, avian influenza is a highly contagious and deadly virus that can prey on chickens, turkeys and wild birds, including ducks and geese. It spreads via nasal secretions, saliva and fecal droppings, which experts say makes it difficult to contain.
Symptoms of the virus include a sudden increase in the mortality of a flock, a drop in egg production and diminished consumption of feed and water.
The virus, Eurasian H5N1, is closely related to an Asian strain that has infected hundreds of people since 2003, mostly those who had worked with infected poultry. Its prevalence in the United States is not unexpected, with outbreaks previously reported in Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
The risk to humans is very low, said Ron Kean, a faculty associate and extension specialist in the University of Wisconsin department of animal and dairy sciences.
“It’s not impossible for humans to get this virus, but it’s been pretty rare,” Kean said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had been monitoring people in the United States who were exposed to infected poultry and other birds. So far, no cases of H5N1 infection have been found among them, the CDC said.
The U. S. Department of Agriculture has said properly prepared and cooked poultry and eggs should not pose a risk to consumers.
The chance of infected poultry entering the food chain is “extremely low,” the agency has said.
Because of the mandated culling of infected flocks, experts say, the virus is primarily an animal health issue at this time.
Egg prices soared when an outbreak ravaged the United States in 2014 and 2015. Recently, the average price of premium large white eggs has been “trending sharply higher,” according to a March 25 national retail report released by the USDA.
If infections course through more flocks, experts said, there could be some shortages of eggs.
Prices for white and dark chicken meat also were rising, according to the USDA. Experts warned that turkey prices could become more volatile.
As of Thursday, the highly pathogenic form of the avian flu had been detected in 19 states, a tracking page maintained by the USDA showed.
The combined number of birds in the infected flocks — the commercial and backyard type — totaled more than 17 million, according to the agency. A spokesperson for the USDA confirmed that those birds would be required to be euthanized to prevent the spread of the virus.
The U. S. outbreak in 2014 and 2015 was blamed for $ 3 billion in losses to the agricultural sector and was considered to be the most destructive in the nation’s history.
Nearly 50 million birds died, either from the virus or from having to be culled, a majority of them in Iowa or Minnesota.
The footprint of the current outbreak, extending from the Midwest and Plains to northern New England, has raised concerns. “I think we’re certainly seeing more geographic spread than what we saw with 2014- 2015,” said Dr. Andrew Bowman, associate professor at Ohio State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.