In New York and Indiana, new cases of avian influenza have been discovered in domestic flocks.

As the bird flu spreads across North America and the world, cases of Eurasian H5 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) have been discovered in domestic flocks in New York and Indiana in recent days.

On Saturday, HPAI was detected in a small, non-commercial backyard flock in Suffolk County, New York. The flock of eight birds will be euthanized to prevent the virus from spreading and will not enter the food chain.

The New York Department of Agriculture urged poultry farmers to take extra precautions to protect their flocks and restricted outside access for poultry.

In addition, another outbreak of Eurasian H5 HPAI was discovered in a commercial turkey flock in Indiana, the state’s fourth this season. This season, the virus has impacted a total of 118,673 commercial turkeys in Indiana.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the United States Department of Agriculture indicated that it is working with federal and state partners to conduct increased surveillance and testing in order to detect the disease.

The new infections came only days after domestic flocks in Virginia and Kentucky were discovered to have been infected.

Earlier this month, the first verified incidence of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in a US commercial flock since 2020 was discovered in an Indiana turkey flock. The flock was infected with the H5N1 subtype, which was originally discovered in wild birds in North Carolina in mid-January, when the first instances of HPAI this season were discovered in the United States.

The first H5N1 case in North America this season was discovered in late December in Newfoundland and Labrador. Since then, the virus has spread to other places in Canada and the United States, as well.

As of Saturday, over 240 wild birds had been identified as being infected with Eurasian H5 HPAI in South and North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Delaware, and Florida, with a number of cases being identified as H5N1.

Although the public health risk from avian influenza remains low, outbreaks in domestic poultry could result in greater exposure in some groups of people, particularly poultry workers, according to the US Centers for Disease Control. According to a recent World Health Organization update, the overall pandemic risk associated with the H5 lineage has “not significantly changed” from past years.

HPAI can be carried by wild birds without showing symptoms, but in industrial poultry, it can cause disease and death. Infections in humans can arise following physical contact with diseased birds, but they are rare. In the United States, no human infections with HPAI have ever been discovered.

Since 2003, the H5N1 subtype has been linked to 864 human infections and 456 deaths in 19 countries. A man who owned ducks in the United Kingdom was the most recent human infection; he recovered from the virus.

According to the World Organization for Animal Health, a substantial number of bird flu outbreaks have been documented in Europe, Africa, and Asia in recent weeks and months, largely attributable to the H5N1 subtype of the H5 lineage (OIE). According to the organization, further outbreaks are likely in the following months.

According to information received by The Telegraph from the OIE, 14 million cases of avian influenza were reported in birds in 2021, more than in the previous five years combined. 61.4 million birds died as a result of the infection or they were killed to prevent it from spreading.

According to an article in The Telegraph, scientists have cautioned that the rise in outbreaks could enable the virus adapt to spread between humans.

“An increase in poultry outbreaks inevitably brings the virus into closer and more frequent proximity to humans, which is always a risk with viruses like influenza that can rapidly evolve,” Dr. Holly Shelton, head of the Influenza Viruses Group at The Pirbright Institute, told The Telegraph.

Because the virus has been reported in over 40 countries since July, the OIE has recommended governments improve surveillance for HPAI outbreaks.

Image Credit: Getty

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