Category: Avian Influenza
H1N1 Flu Pandemic of 2009 May Be Protecting Against Bird Flu
JAMA New animal research suggests that the H1N1 influenza pandemic of 2009 may have provided the public some protection against illness during the ongoing bird flu outbreak, which has affected wild birds, poultry, dairy cattle, and other mammals. Between March 2024 and July 2025, there have been 70 confirmed bird flu cases among people in the US and 1 death. But most […]
Sep 10, 2025
Scientists Begin Testing Bird Flu Vaccine in Seals
NYT If the results are promising, veterinarians hope to give the shots to wild Hawaiian monk seals, which are endangered. Wildlife veterinarians have begun testing bird flu vaccines in marine mammals, which have suffered enormous losses in the ongoing global outbreak. The first trial, which began in July, is tiny, enrolling just six northern elephant seals that were already […]
Sep 10, 2025
Lessons from HPAI in dairy cattle: Preparing for the next disease outbreak
Ohio Country Journal In 2017, as I was preparing for the board exam for the College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine, I spent long days buried in textbooks and long evenings in small-group discussions about hypothetical disease outbreaks. These tabletop scenarios covered everything from foot-and-mouth disease to zoonotic threats, and one in particular still sticks with […]
Sep 3, 2025
Avian flu found in North Dakota, South Dakota turkeys
North Dakota Monitor Avian flu has hit turkey farms in North Dakota and South Dakota, the first cases in commercial flocks in the United States since early July. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service on Aug. 28 confirmed an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Faulk County in northeast […]
Sep 3, 2025
Cambodia records more avian flu cases in poultry, people
Watt Poultry Since the start of August, the Cambodian medical authority has confirmed three further infections with influenza A(H5N1) virus. This brings the nation’s total so far this year to 15, according to the latest update on the health situation in the Western Pacific Region from the World Health Organization (WHO; as of August 15). The most recent cases […]
Aug 27, 2025
Seventy U.S. Bird Flu Cases Underscore How Much We Still Don’t Know
Forbes When a highly pathogenic avian influenza virus jumped into American dairy cows in the spring of 2024, scientists worried about the next step: spillover into humans. Sure enough, that is precisely what happened. Between March 2024 and May 2025, seventy human H5N1 infections were confirmed in the United States. Now, a new study in Nature Medicine, led […]
Aug 27, 2025
Bird flu hits three poultry farms in southern Bulgaria
The Poultry Site Bulgaria reported outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza on three farms in the southern part of the country, Reuters reported, citing the World Organisation for Animal Health on Monday, as Europe faces a seasonal upturn in the deadly disease. The H5N1 virus was detected on three farms with a total flock of 28,000 birds […]
Aug 27, 2025
Promising bird flu vaccine advances as organoids reveal how H5N1 scars airways
Medical Express Researchers at Texas Biomedical Research Institute have developed a new, proof-of-concept vaccine to protect people from the bird flu strain currently circulating in the United States. The team, led by Professor Luis Martinez-Sobrido, Ph.D. and Staff Scientist Ahmed M. Elsayed, Ph.D., recently published initial results in npj Vaccines. The live attenuated vaccine contains a weakened (attenuated) […]
Aug 20, 2025
Bird Flu on Dairy Farms May Be Airborne After All
Scientific American Infectious bird flu virus was found in milk, on equipment, within wastewater and aerosolized in the air on California dairy farms. The H5N1 avian influenza virus can now be found not only in milk and on milking equipment but also in farm wastewater and in the air, say researchers who have been trying […]
Aug 13, 2025
Tracking HPAIV H5 through a geographic survey of Antarctic seabird populations
Nature An extensive survey for the detection of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza virus (HPAIV) H5 in seabird species is reported here. It was conducted between December 2023 and January 2024, in thirteen breeding sites spanning from the northeastern sector of the Antarctic Peninsula to the Ross Sea, including the coasts of the Bellingshausen Sea and […]
Aug 13, 2025