The H5N1 avian influenza virus has reached an unprecedented scale, wiping out hundreds of millions of birds worldwide and increasingly infecting mammals. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations warned that the spread of the virus poses significant risks from food and public health perspectives.
The crisis threatens to have serious impacts on food security and supply in countries, particularly in the US where egg prices hit record highs due to the culling of over 166 million birds. The FAO reported that at least 300 new species of wild birds have been affected since 2021, posing a threat to biodiversity.
Beyond the food crisis, the virus has led to spillover from birds to mammals, raising concerns among researchers. In the US, the circulating viruses are poorly adapted to humans and cause mild symptoms such as conjunctivitis, fever, and cough. However, there have been reports of severe cases, including a senior citizen in Louisiana who became the first person in the US to die from bird flu.
Pierre Bessière, a virology researcher at the National Veterinary School of Toulouse, warned that H5N1 viruses have the potential to acquire pandemic potential and that human-to-human transmission chains must be avoided at all costs. In France, vaccination programs for farmed ducks have significantly reduced farm outbreaks, with only 10 reported in 2023-2024 compared to more than 400 in earlier seasons.
The French government’s successful vaccination campaign has been attributed to a study that estimated the number of poultry farm outbreaks without vaccination. The study found that France could have experienced between 273 and 701 poultry farm outbreaks in 2023-2024, significantly exceeding the 10 reported cases across poultry farms during this period.
Source: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/bird-flus-unprecedented-global-spread-sparks-alarm-2025a10007w2?form=fpf