Pets and Livestock Online Encyclopedia

The COVID-19 pandemic may have reduced seasonal flu to historic lows, but avian influenza, sometimes known as bird flu, has shown no indications of dying down. Severe bird flu has been discovered in poultry farms across Europe and Asia in the last month, with Japan reporting its third epidemic of the winter season thus far. While bird flu viruses are usually restricted to infecting birds, they can occasionally spread to other animals, including humans, posing a serious threat. The outbreaks come on the heels of Japan's worst avian flu season ever. In the years 2020-21, about 3 million chickens were killed. Following several outbreaks involving three different strains of the virus, six Victorian farms, including an emu farm, slaughtered hundreds of thousands of birds in 2020 and early 2021. Avian Influenza During COVID-19 Pandemic In May, for example, China reported the first verified human case of a rare avian influenza variant. An infectious disease epidemiologist at the ...