A lethal form of avian flu continues to spread

Excerpts from a Reuters report (image cropped for size):

CHICAGO, Feb 11 (Reuters) - U.S. poultry producers are tightening safety measures for their flocks as disease experts warn that wild birds are likely spreading a highly lethal form of avian flu across the country.

Indiana on Wednesday reported highly pathogenic bird flu on a commercial turkey farm, leading China, South Korea and Mexico to ban poultry imports from the state...

The disease is already widespread in Europe and affecting Africa, Asia and Canada, but the outbreak in Indiana, which is on a migratory bird pathway, particularly rattled U.S. producers. A devastating U.S. bird-flu outbreak in 2015 killed nearly 50 million birds, mostly turkeys and egg-laying chickens in the Midwest.

The United States is the world's largest producer and second-largest exporter of poultry meat, according to the U.S. government...

Disease experts said a wild bird likely spread the H5N1 virus, which can be transmitted to humans, to Indiana from the East Coast, where officials have confirmed that wild ducks were infected with the strain.

I'm just waiting for QAnon and the crazies to find out about this. 

Addendum: 

Avian flu has now been detected in flocks of birds in Virginia and Kentucky, just days after Indiana officials had to euthanize 29,000 turkeys due to the spread of the virus, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Monday. 

Reposted from February of 2022 to add some updates. 

About a month after I wrote the post a report came out about 32,000 turkeys euthanized in North Carolina.  Then 800,000 birds had to be euthanized in South Dakota.

In February of this year, an Atlantic article was entitled "Eagles are Falling, Bears are Going Blind."

The virus has been steadily trickling into mammalian populations—foxes, bears, mink, whales, seals—on both land and sea, fueling fears that humans could be next. Scientists maintain that the risk of sustained spread among people is very low, but each additional detection of the virus in something warm-blooded and furry hints that the virus is improving its ability to infiltrate new hosts...

The epidemic, which first erupted in Europe in the fall of 2021, appears to have crossed the Atlantic into Canada, then zigzagged down into the U.S. around the start of last year. American scientists have detected the virus in more than 150 wild and domestic avian species and at least a dozen different types of mammals. It’s by far the longest and most diverse list of victims the virus has ever claimed on this side of the world...

The neurologic problems can be among the worst: Swans might swim in listless circles; geese might waddle shakily onto shores, their necks twisted and turned; eagles might flap defeatedly from their perches, unable to launch themselves into the air. Michelle Hawkins, a veterinarian at UC Davis, told me that several of the red-tailed hawks she’s treated in her clinic have arrived with their eyes shaking so vigorously from side to side that the spasms turn the animals’ head; others appear to gaze off into nothingness, unresponsive even when humans approach...

Predation or scavenging of sick or dead birds is probably how certain mammals—grizzlies, foxes, opossums, and the like—are catching the virus too...

"Science in Action" - the BBC Science podcast that I listen to every week, featured a segment on how efforts are underway to save the endangered California condors.  Volunteers who helped save the birds from extinction are now having to recapture them and vaccinate them against the avian flu.

This week, a report in The Guardian that 600 arctic tern chicks were found dead at Britain's largest colony, in Northumberland.  There are fears that if migratory birds carry the virus to Antarctica, immense colonies of millions of penguins may be at risk.

Reposted from July because of a report of bird flu arriving in Minnesota:

Minnesota's first major bird flu outbreak of 2023 has struck a Meeker County turkey farm, state officials announced Wednesday.  The flock of 140,000 birds were culled to prevent further spread, and the site has been quarantined... Compared to last year's outbreak, there has been minimal spread nationally so far in 2023.

Two other bird flu outbreaks were reported this month at commercial turkey farms, in South Dakota and Utah, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. About 200,000 birds were affected.

The epidemic is not expected to affect turkey prices for this year's Thanksgiving festivities.