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 University of Queensland, Ricardo Soares Magalhães, says the recent outbreak of new bird flu strains that can spread to people is unfamiliar.
Dr. Soares Magalhães added that usually, these viruses only impact the poultry population, with very few, if any, human instances. Despite the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic was caused by a coronavirus, epidemiologists are "extremely suspicious" of developing flu strains, he added, with influenza still ranking first among pandemic-risk diseases.
Where Does Avian Flu Come From And What Causes It?
Bird flu is caused by a number of influenza viruses, similar to the seasonal flu that spreads each winter. With the exception of one case of avian flu, seasonal flu infections peak in the fall and fall off in the spring, and easily travel throughout human populations.
Because it's mostly carried by migratory waterfowl, the virus is primarily found in the wild bird population. A microbiologist and World Organization for Animal Health reference specialist on highly pathogenic and low pathogenic avian influenza at the CSIRO Australian Animal Health Laboratory, Frank Wong, noted that large birds, such as geese and ducks, tend to spread bird flu viruses over the world.
Shorebirds and other smaller migratory birds are more likely to delay or abandon their journeys if they are afflicted with bird flu. According to Dr Wong, Europe and Asia are seeing an increase in bird flu epidemics because of the high autumn waterfowl migration season in the northern hemisphere.
When birds gather together to forage and breed, viruses, including influenza, are also mixed. They carry such viruses with them when they move south or west for the winter. Wong added that there is a risk that the viruses carried by these wild birds could spread to domestic poultry if they come into contact with domestic poultry.
More so, free-range farming may also increase the chances of overflow. The vast majority of bird flu viruses are low pathogenic strains, causing little to no sickness in the wild birds they infect.
It's an issue, however, because they can soon turn infectious, viral, and deadly. Highly pathogenic avian flu can quickly spread through a chicken farm and kill entire herds.
It’s A Bird’s Flu. So, What Happens To Us?
When it comes to catching bird flu, humans must come into intimate touch with birds that are sick or feces from birds that are sick. Eating raw eggs or cooked meat does not transmit the disease.
According to Dr. Soares Magalhães, there has been no human-to-human transmission of bird flu so far, but that doesn't imply it won't happen in the future. One such example is COVID, which was most likely developed by bats.
For example, pigs have the ability to act as a virus mixing vessel in the production of new flu viruses when they are infected with multiple flu viruses. In most cases, mutations of this nature are extinguished. You never know when one of these mutants will give rise to a particularly harmful strain!
H5N1 is a good example of a virus that arose from the interplay of a chicken virus and swine virus, and has elements of a human virus according to Dr. Soares Magalhães in a press conference.
There are, however, a few exceptions to that rule. When it comes to H7N9, a pig was not necessary. It was transmitted directly from chickens to humans.
Be Careful Of These Viruses
Of the different bird flu viruses, H5 and H7 subtypes have the propensity to mutate from low to high pathogenic strains. Since its discovery in Hong Kong in the 1990s and 2003 outbreak, the H5N1 subtype has killed at least 280 people worldwide.
H5N1 has been confirmed in 860 human cases, with 456 of those deaths. As a result, when the conditions are favorable, it can spread quickly throughout the year.
After that is H7N9, which was discovered in China and has since spread to the United States and Europe. Since then, more than 1,500 people have been diagnosed with it, and it can cause serious illness.
It's difficult to contain this virus because birds don't show many symptoms. That virus, Dr. Wong explained, is actually a little more elusive.
Detection of a low-pathogenic H7N9 strain in poultry is more difficult because infected birds may not show any symptoms of illness. There were several spillovers into people because of the correct interaction of the virus's genes.
Humans have only lately been discovered to have a third H type. Virus H10N3 infected a 41-year-old male in China, according to reports.
Dr Soares Magalhães, an epidemiologist in Brazil, said that when the H10 virus was found in birds, epidemiologists were not concerned about it spreading to humans because there is no history of H10 viruses infecting us. Even though that virus infected humans, the transmission method was identical to H7N9, with no evidence that pigs were involved.
As A Result, How Concerned Should We Be About A Bird Flu Outbreak?
Increased financing for disease surveillance programs like avian flu has been made possible because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even before the epidemic, Dr. Soares Magalhães claimed that China and other regions where the majority of bird flu strains originally appeared had increased their poultry farm biosecurity measures.
Using spatial epidemiology, Dr. Magalhes's spatial epidemiology group is helping a World Health Organization program assess countries in South-East Asia based on their ability to control diseases like bird flu, which may spread from animals to people. However, he's keeping an eye on a different region of the world.
According to Dr. Soares Magalhães, that it's extremely likely that new viruses will start to arise; not in the traditional places where that has happened, but in [what was known as] the Eastern Bloc.
The biosecurity of farms in the region, despite recent increases, is still generally inadequate according to one expert. Several outbreaks of the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu have been reported in Poland, which is next door.
Poland is Europe's greatest poultry producer, hence its at-risk population is the largest. There is no surprise that Poland is the hardest hit.
Bird flu viruses could be influenced by climate change as well. Birds may be able to spend their winters elsewhere, where they may come into contact with various bird populations, as well as viruses, as the earth warms.
According to Dr. Soares Magalhães' statement, every year we will have wildlife-originated avian influenza viruses in the poultry population, and I am confident that a virus comparable to H5N1 will appear.
This new generation of developing viruses has the potential to be disastrous since there are so many nave flocks out there. Many people believe there will be an enormous revival in the coming years.
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