As of December 2024 , an outbreak of the H5N1 virus , also cognise as birdie flu or avian influenza , has spread from California and infected 58 people in seven state . Almost all of them are farm worker who , harmonize tothe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , in all likelihood capture it through contact with taint dairycows . Here what you necessitate to know about the disease and its potential jeopardy to the public .
The virus been found in more than 100 bird species.
H5N1 is respiratory virus that mainly infectsbirds . It ’s one of a group of computer virus that cause highly morbific avian flu ( HPAI ) , which has been found inmore than 100avian species . Wild waterbird such as duck , bozo , swans , and fool seem to be frequent carriers and they make pass it on to farm birds , like chicken and turkeys . Outbreaksare most commonin the saltation and pass when bird transmigrate . Wild waterbird are much less likely to get sick or break down from H5N1 than domesticated bird .
Human infections are rare—but often serious.
Bird influenza has likely been autochthonous for century . In 1878 , Italian parasitologist Edoardo Perroncito first described a “ domestic fowl plague . ” In the tenner after , farmers and naturalists marked several outbreaks , including mass sickness and death in New York City ’s hot razzing mart in the mid-1920s . By the 1950s , the phenomenon had been documented on five continents , and in 1959 , scientist isolated the first virus responsible for for highly pathogenic avian grippe : H5N1 .
Avian flu was not considered a threat to humansuntil 1997 , when an irruption in Hong Kong cooccur with 18 people becoming sick with severe flu - like symptoms . Six of them died . The strain was unique from past H5N1 viruses , indicate that “ chick ” flu hadmade a jump to humans .
Infections are still very rarefied among people , but the fatality pace is more than 50 percent . Since 1997,948 peoplehave been known to be infected with H5N1 and 464 of them die .
Humans are usually infected through close contact with domestic birds.
infect birdsshed avian influenza virusesthrough saliva , mucus , and faecal matter . Of the comparatively few people who have become ill with H5N1 , most came into contact with this material through work on poultry farms .
Transmission of H5N1 from man to humanhas been documented , but it ’s very rare and scientist think the disease does not easily transmit that way . Public health authorities say you may not get bird grippe from eating properly prepared nut and fowl [ PDF ] .
Bird flu is making eggs more expensive.
Occasional H5N1 outbreaks have been a fact of life in the fowl diligence , but in the last three years , the trouble has gotten a luck unfit . A particularly crushing U.S. outbreakbeganin February 2022 . The CDC approximate that more than 108 million shuttlecock in 48 state were infected . In October 2024 , as the disease tarry and rebounded , more than 2.8 million chick give out .
The bird flu deaths are definitively a factor in the late increment in orchis prices , which uprise from an norm of $ 1.84 a 12 in September 2021 to $ 3.82 in September 2024 .
H5N1 was recently found in dairy cow herds—and scientists are alarmed.
In March 2024 , investigators disclose dairy cows in the U.S. were infected with H5N1 . For those who study the disease , this was a wake - up call . Bird flu is rarified in cows , and it had never before infected entire herds . “ There ’s the casual moo-cow infected , but they are not a natural server for flu A viruses , ” University of Colorado immunologist Jenna Guthmillersaid , “ and so this is really quite shocking to the field . ”
The virus has since spread out to more than 700 herds in the U.S. Somefarms in CaliforniaandColoradohave been place under quarantine and some statesare need testingfor cows acquired from out of state .
Cows are much large than birds andshedmore biological material that could carry H5N1 . The mental process in which they are packed into storage warehouse - like readiness and milked with mechanically skillful equipmentis causing concernthat infectious effluvia could be passed around a herd quickly .
Pasteurized milk is safe to drink.
To be extra cautious , the U.S. Department of Agriculture hasstarted requiringcompanies that process and transport milk to test it for H5N1 . Butthe CDC saysthat people should not be occupy about contracting bird influenza from dairy products as long as they have been pasteurized , a stock part of the production process before milk goes on sale or is used in any other products in the U.S. Pasteurization involve heating milk to at least 154 ° atomic number 9 for a set menstruation of time to kill pathogens , and 99 percent of the Milk River sold in the U.S. is pasteurise .
Raw milk can carry the virus.
There are peoplewho are into in the altogether ( unpasteurized ) milk and , depending on thelawsof their country , get it at stores , buy it flat from farm , or acquire it through buying blood line in a moo-cow herd . Some feel it ’s better for digestion or that it jibes with their unprocessed lifestyle . But wellness expert are warning that now is a particularlybad timeto join the membership of dairy truthers .
One of the farms that has generated headlines in the current outbreak , Raw Farm of Fresno , California , particularize in raw milk . California Department of Food and Agriculture officialsfound razzing flu pathogensin its merchandise and quarantine the farm . Raw Farm voluntarily recalled two flock of merchandise .
One tiddler who salute Milk River from the farmbecame sickwith fever and vomiting , but physicians are n’t sure if the culprit was H5N1 . Two pet cat that consumed products from Raw Farmtested positive forbird flu .
Scientists are concerned about the virus mutating into something more dangerous to people.
properly now , bird flu is seldom carry to human race . When it is , in most face , the somebody catches it through contact with biologic material brisk from an septic bird . Transmission from cow to human is probably similar , though the large - weighing machine jump of the virus from birds to bovines was unexpected and worrisome .
Like many viruses , H5N1 mutates and adapts as it replicates itself with new genetic cloth from its host organism . Astudypublished inScienceby researchers at the nonprofit Scripps Research Institute recentlysuggestedthe variation now propagate among dairy farm cows isone mutation awayfrom becoming adept at latching onto human cells .
But the researcherstold theWashington Postthat bird flu is not well - accommodate to human cell receptors ( the exact entryways for an infection ) , and there are cause to call back it would be a challenge for H5N1 to mutate to become a pandemic among people .
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