Simply while you stopped commonly listening to about COVID-19 within the information, one other infectious illness started to dominate headlines this spring: hen flu.
The excellent news is—for now, at the least—public well being consultants don’t see this newest bout of avian influenza evolving into the likes of the coronavirus pandemic. However given the illness has unfold to poultry in 48 states, dairy cows in 9, and two folks in Texas and Colorado, you could be frightened about its potential impression in your well being.
Fortune spoke with a trio of epidemiologists, who beneath reply essential public well being questions on hen flu.
What’s hen flu?
The kind of hen flu that’s at present circulating is a extremely pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI)—a illness that may critically sicken wild and home birds, posing a significant risk to the poultry business and thereby the worldwide economic system, in line with the U.S. Division of Agriculture (USDA). The opposite type, low pathogenicity avian influenza, causes gentle an infection in wild fowl however can flip into HPAI in poultry.
Influenza viruses are divided into 4 varieties, A, B, C, and D, explains Edwin Michael, PhD, an epidemiologist on the College of South Florida Faculty of Public Well being. What we consider because the seasonal flu in people is attributable to varieties A and B. Chook flu falls below the umbrella of influenza A viruses. The pressure at present spreading within the U.S. is H5N1, an HPAI named for proteins on the virus’s floor.
“It can spread very quickly through the bird population—wild birds. That can spread it all across the world,” Michael tells Fortune. “From the bird, the virus is shed in mucus, saliva, feces, and then that can go and get into domestic poultry.”
When HPAI strains attain home poultry, they will kill whole flocks inside days, the USDA says. Birds with HPAI an infection might present a slew of signs together with diarrhea, lack of vitality and urge for food, and a drop in egg manufacturing. As a result of HPAI can’t be handled, poultry depopulation is the only resolution.
Such culling will be efficient in curbing the unfold in birds essential to U.S. agriculture and meals manufacturing, says Dr. William Schaffner, a professor within the Division of Infectious Illnesses at Vanderbilt College Medical Middle.
“This particular bird flu virus, in its variants, has actually been around for a long time—over a decade,” Schaffner tells Fortune. “It’s been gradually spreading but recently, somehow, for reasons that at least I don’t understand, its spread around the world has become much more prominent and much more widespread.”
DIGICOMPHOTO/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY VIA GETTY IMAGES
How does hen flu unfold to people and different mammals?
H5N1 is a shapeshifter, so to talk, as a result of its segmented DNA, Michael explains.
“For example, if a human gets infected with a bird flu and also carries a human influenza A virus, these two viruses can exchange genetic material. This is known as genetic shift,” Michael says. “That can form very new viruses [and] cause epidemics.”
Flu pandemics are uncommon, although, occurring roughly 3 times a century, Michael says. Maybe essentially the most notable is the so-called “Spanish flu” of 1918–1919, when the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) estimates “an avian-like H1N1 virus” killed 50 million, and presumably as many as 100 million, folks worldwide.
You in all probability bear in mind the swine flu pandemic of 2009, attributable to a beforehand unknown H1N1 virus that contained swine, human, and avian genes. How did that occur? As a result of hen flu viruses don’t all the time successfully unfold amongst people, they generally need assistance from different species to thrive, Schaffner explains.
“The pig’s respiratory tract is set up in such a way that it can accept bird flu infections and—and—infections with a human virus,” Schaffner says. “You could think of the pig as a test tube into which goes a bird flu and a human flu, and if that happens simultaneously in the same pig, then those two viruses get together and can have the capacity to exchange genetic elements.”
Whereas the most recent H5N1 pressure isn’t recognized to unfold amongst people, it has already spilled over to greater than a dozen species of untamed mammals, from black bears to a bottlenose dolphin. As not too long ago as Might 3, pink foxes in New York and Michigan examined constructive, in line with the USDA’s Animal and Plant Well being Inspection Service (APHIS).
“This bird flu virus is not relying on pigs but is mutating on its own to become a more effective infection in a variety of different mammalian species,” Schaffner says. “The one that has been in the news is dairy cattle, which surprised every virologist.”
When did hen flu most not too long ago seem within the US?
Authorities businesses have been monitoring the newest hen flu outbreaks since Jan. 12, 2022, when a Northern Shoveler duck in Hyde County, North Carolina, examined constructive for a Eurasian pressure of H5N1.
Amongst wild birds, the illness had unfold all through greater than 1,100 counties as of Might 8, 2024, infecting practically 9,400 fowl.
The state of affairs is worse in U.S. poultry. As of Might 7, practically 91 million birds, together with industrial poultry and yard flocks, had been contaminated. This encompasses greater than 1,100 outbreaks in 522 counties throughout 48 states.
APHIS recorded the first poultry an infection in a industrial turkey flock in Dubois County, Indiana, on Feb. 8, 2022.
Although H5N1 has been circulating nationwide in wild birds, home poultry, and mammals since 2022, you will have solely been listening to about it not too long ago due to its soar to dairy cattle. The primary constructive case was documented in Texas on March 25, 2024.
As of Might 7, practically 40 dairy cattle herds had been contaminated throughout 9 states.
The logistics of contemporary industrial farming could also be fueling the H5N1 unfold to cattle, Michael says.
“Look at the density of animals in those farms—those are not natural settings,” Michael tells Fortune. “So as soon as you get [an infection], these things will spread very quickly among farm animals.”
Michael provides, “We have to shed a light on how farming is done. That’s the trade-off, you want cheap meat and all the rest of it, but then you farm animals in this way and you’re opening the door up for other things.”
Is it secure to drink milk and eat hen?
The Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) acknowledges the presence of hen flu in dairy cows is “a novel and evolving situation.” That stated, no earlier research have been accomplished on the results of pasteurization—a sterilization measure that kills dangerous micro organism—on HPAI in bovine milk. Nevertheless, the FDA says current analysis has knowledgeable its understanding and conclusion that milk consumption is secure.
The FDA and USDA are conducting a nationwide industrial milk sampling research, which incorporates milk-derived child components. As of Might 1, no HPAI had been detected in any components merchandise. Whereas hen flu had proven up in milk, bitter cream, and cottage cheese samples, pasteurization inactivated the virus.
“There is no need to be concerned about milk, eggs, [and] chicken as sources of infection,” Schaffner tells Fortune. “I’m out there drinking milk, and we had chicken last night for dinner.”
Each Schaffner and the FDA urge the general public to avoid uncooked, unpasteurized milk. The CDC recommends cooking eggs and poultry to an inner temperature of 165 levels to kill micro organism and viruses, H5N1 included.
How frightened do you have to be about H5N1 affecting folks?
Merely put, don’t panic, says Michael Osterholm, PhD, director of the Middle for Infectious Illness Analysis and Coverage on the College of Minnesota.
“There’s no evidence yet at this point that this is an imminent risk to humans,” Osterholm tells Fortune. “We’ve not seen it cross over to people in a method that will help that it’s going to be the subsequent pandemic virus.
“On the other hand, a reassortant event, or continued mutations, could occur tomorrow.”
Two people have to date caught H5N1, in line with the CDC. An individual uncovered to dairy cattle in Texas examined constructive April 1, 2024, and an individual in Colorado concerned in culling poultry examined constructive April 28, 2022. No human-to-human transmission has been confirmed, and the more moderen affected person’s solely symptom was conjunctivitis, or pink eye.
“We do have two, three receptor sites in our eyes, and so having a case of conjunctivitis would not be considered unusual,” Osterholm says. “There was no evidence of any kind of respiratory infection, which is the key piece for serious illness and then being able to transmit the virus.”
The Texas case marks the primary time a human has been contaminated with H5N1 by means of contact with a mammal, in line with the World Well being Group (WHO). Even so, WHO considers the general public well being threat to the overall inhabitants low. For farmworkers and different business employees more likely to be uncovered to the virus, the danger is low to reasonable.
Going ahead, assuring the well being and security of agriculture staff is paramount to protecting H5N1 from spreading to the broader inhabitants, Michael says.
“I don’t think this one is going to be a major outbreak (in humans),” Michael says. “[But] the risk is always, always there because of the way we manage nature.”
For extra on the most recent hen flu outbreak:
