Bird Flu, or the Avian Influenza A virus, is a naturally-occurring, infectious pathogen found among aquatic birds that has recently seen a spike throughout the United States in cattle and chickens. Usually, cases of this disease are found among birds like ducks, geese, swans and gulls. However, domesticated animals are also susceptible to the infection if they come into contact with contagious birds.
Most of the time, waterbirds don’t show any signs or symptoms of infection but still carry the pathogen and can spread it to chickens or cattle through their saliva, feces and/or mucus. Contagious waterbirds are usually isolated and the disease doesn’t get very far, but over the past few years, an uptick in cases as well as new sub-pathogens have appeared, posing an increasingly larger threat to farm animals, though at a slow-moving and cautiously-observed rate.
There are two variants, referred to as low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) and highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Poultry with LPAI typically don’t experience many symptoms or illness and rarely die. However, the number of poultry casualties reached a high of around 20 million in January due to an increase in HPAI.
The cause for concern is that this HPAI variant has begun to affect humans for the first time this year, with around 70 reported cases and one casualty- a patient from Louisiana in their late 60s. This patient was also suffering from a number of other medical issues. Symptoms in humans might include a fever, redness around or in the eyes, pneumonia and other common cold/cough/flu symptoms.
Humans have contracted the illness through contaminated products produced by infected poultry. Farmers with infected birds have had to eliminate flocks, resulting in a huge wave of inflation as the supply of eggs and chicken is strained. Egg prices have gone up significantly, almost doubling over the last year or so. The average dozen used to be around $2-2.50 at that time, but skyrocketed up to $4.95 just in January. Eggs used to be a commonly enjoyed breakfast for many, but now it has become a struggle for the average consumer to even purchase a regular dozen.
Heidi McManus, a culinary arts teacher at TuHS, provided her thoughts on the matter.
“The increase of egg prices is very concerning…the media is reporting that we will see another increase of 40 percent. This increase is affecting how we go about labs and will create an increase in our restaurant and cafe prices.”
While this recent spike isn’t necessarily considered dangerous as of right now, as not all variants of the bird flu are lethal, it is still under constant surveillance by several organizations focused on wildlife health. Such include the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
