The current avian influenza (bird flu) outbreak has affected farmers’ livelihoods and the food trade while decimating animal populations, including poultry, wild birds, and certain mammals.
The World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the World Health Organization (WHO) have urged nations to collaborate across sectors to preserve as many animals as they can while also safeguarding people.
Fear of a new pandemic
Concerns about the virus adapting and becoming more readily contagious to humans are increased by the rising frequency of H5N1 avian influenza cases among mammals.
Some mammals may serve as mixing bowls for influenza viruses, which could result in the creation of fresh viruses that are more dangerous to both people and animals.
- Avian flu impacts farmers, food trade, and animal populations.
- Rising H5N1 avian influenza cases raise concerns about virus adaptation.
- 2022 H5N1 high avian influenza outbreak causes over 131 million deaths globally.
Since its initial appearance in 1996, the goose/Guangdong lineage of H5N1 avian influenza viruses has been responsible for bird outbreaks.
Since 2020, an H5 clade 2.3.4.4b form of these viruses has caused an extraordinary amount of wild bird and poultry mortality in numerous nations throughout Africa, Asia, and Europe.
In 2022, 67 nations across five continents reported an H5N1 high avian influenza outbreak in domestic poultry and wild birds to WOAH, resulting in the death or culling of more than 131 million domestic fowl in the affected farms and communities.
As the disease continues to spread, outbreaks were reported in 14 additional countries in 2023, mostly in the Americas.
