Avian Influenza Spread Wider and Wilder

Experts on highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) don’t see immediate relief from the year-long deadly bird flu, as the outbreak has become the deadliest animal disease in U.S. history.”I’ve stopped thinking about this as an outbreak, but as a new reality,” said Carol Cardona, chair of avian health at the University of Minnesota. Cardona and others updated some of the challenges of the current bird flu outbreak last week at the USDA Outlook Forum. The 2022-23 outbreak has hit 317 commercial farms and has hit domestic birds in 47 states. So far, more than 58.5 million birds have been infected or culled over the past 10 months. At least 15 states have reported cases over the last month. The 2015 outbreak hit 211 farms in 15 states, infecting or forcing more than 50.4 million domestic birds to be culled. That outbreak also lasted about six months before cases subsided. Read more