Agriculture Market Wakes Up to Bird Flu Outbreak

As a result of Covid fatigue, many of us are numb to the risks associated with other viruses. But the mutated bird flu spreading via mammals and ominously affecting wild and domesticated animals worldwide should be even more worrying. H5N1 - which has a 50% fatality rate in humans - was prevented from becoming a pandemic in the past due to its inability to spread from one mammal to another. While it's unclear if this version, which is transmitted through minks, would be easily transmitted to humans, it has taken a step in the wrong direction.

‍

In the case of a new disease, lockdowns or mask mandates are unthinkable, which is why the best course of action is to take simpler, less costly measures early on. Especially dangerous practices need to be eliminated from farm animals and surveillance needs to be increased. Cheap eggs and mink coats may just not be possible.

‍

Several dangerous animal viruses can be found around now due to crowded conditions in mass-farmed animals - as well as the high global demand for meat, dairy products, and eggs. Several investigations have demonstrated that chickens laying eggs in big operations are genetically identical, are not immune to influenza, and are easy sorting material for viral fires.

‍

A safer chicken farming practice may cost more, but ignoring the issue is even more expensive. In 2011, egg prices rose by 58 million due to H5N1 outbreaks that killed nearly 58 million US birds.

‍

Spanish mink farms are being questioned due to the outbreak that sparked the latest fears. Professor Jeff Bender, a veterinary medicine professor at the University of Minnesota, said the spread of the disease is quite alarming. 

‍

Over 50,000 minks were euthanized after the surveillance system identified the outbreak, tested them, and found they were negative. The fact remains that there is no evidence that all farms around the world are under good surveillance, and since a positive test could lead to the loss of valuable animals, farmers may be inclined to avoid taking the risk. 

‍

In addition to improving, an integrated surveillance system serves a useful purpose, Bender said. There is a long way to go, but we have been discussing improving it." 

‍

In addition to posing a pandemic risk, mink farms may introduce parasites that can spread disease. Neither are they food sources nor are they a source of fur that is safe. Their close quarters make them susceptible to contracting viruses from the animals they are fed, and they are carnivores, unlike most farm animals. It's common for minks in farms to eat chicken carcasses that are discarded, Bender said, and the meat might contain H5N1. Mink farmers are plenty likely to contract the disease. Workers could contract a variation of this virus that could spread from one person to another in the worst-case scenario. We worry about exactly that kind of pandemic scenario, says Bender. 

‍

Researchers have discovered that the virus originated from a few hotspots, suggesting that one or two infected animals likely spread the disease to their neighbors. The origin of the virus isn't yet clear, but researchers believe that several animals picked up the virus independently during a contaminated batch of food. Tests on this virus showed that it contains a mutation that allows it to spread among mammals and among gulls. Consequently, this variant is still carried by gulls. 

‍

Some wild waterfowl may carry H5N1 around the globe during their migrations, which makes them natural hosts for the virus. A discovery that it could jump to humans was made in the 1990s in southern China and Hong Kong, and since then the virus has spread around the world. Grizzly bears and seals are not the only hosts it is getting into - eagles, owls, foxes, and even grizzly bears. 

‍

According to Purdue University virologist David Sanders, H5N1 is transmitted by droppings in birds but can develop into a respiratory virus in mammals. Viruses can easily adapt from one respiratory tract to the other due to their similarity to the gastrointestinal tract.

‍

Scientists call this bird flu virus promiscuous because it can get into the cells of mammals. Most bird influenza viruses cannot get into the cells of mammals, Sanders said. Unless it has had time to become specific to mink, there is a good chance it can spread to humans if it has been transmitted to mink. Human-to-human transmission of the disease has not yet been observed - but only by pure chance. 

‍

A bird flu virus that spread to humans in 1918 led to the deadly 1918 flu pandemic, and the 2009 swine flu virus spread from humans to pigs in the 1920s before re-emerging in humans. SARS-CoV-2's omicron variant is also believed to have acquired its mutations by jumping from humans to other animals and then back to humans again. 

‍

Despite the fact that H5N1 is 50 percent lethal, Sanders offered the counterintuitive reassurance that it might be easier to contain if it spreads to humans. Covid-19 is being fuelled by people who go without symptoms while they spread the disease and those who transmit it before symptoms appear. Omicron is even more contagious because of its location in the upper respiratory tract.

‍

Therefore, an H5N1 pandemic is not guaranteed to be "even deadlier" than SARS-CoV-2. Additionally, we already have a vaccine that can protect against H5N1, although scaling up production would take months.

‍

It would be useless to wait until a human H5N1 pandemic is realized to find out how deadly it would be. Foot and mouth disease and mad cow disease were both brought on by cost-saving measures and mass farming. Our urban lifestyles make us appear to a virus as just one vast, interconnected farm populated with captive animals.