From tracking the disease’s spread in wild birds to updating human vaccines, there are measures that could help keep avian influenza in check.
. Since the beginning of 2022, more than 50 million poultry birds in the United States, and a similar number in Europe, have either died of the disease or been killed in efforts to stem its spread. Can bird flu be stopped, and if yes, how?Poultry farms are a key battleground in the fight against H5N1, the strain of avian influenza that is. Outbreaks on farms threaten food security and provide opportunities for the virus to spread to farm workers.
Scientists are in the early stages of developing vaccines that might solve this problem. Microbiologist Adel Talaat at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and his colleagues are developing a vaccine that uses only a small part of the virus’s DNA. Tests targeting other genetic regions could differentiate between birds that have been vaccinated and those that are infected.
Vaccines could help to protect certain species, Stallknecht says. Bald eagles , for example, can be severely affected by the virus, and some scientists are worried about the long-term impact of bird flu on the population. But the strategy could only be used for species under grave threat when “you’re doing everything you possibly can to keep them on the planet”, he says.
That knowledge could help farmers target measures to protect poultry, such as cleaning up grain that could attract wild birds and washing boots before entering farms. “It’s extremely hard to do that 365 days of the year,” Hill says. Shorter time frames are more feasible.The death of the girl in Cambodia — and the fact that her father also tested positive for avian influenza — has renewed concerns about whether bird flu could spark widespread infection in people, or even a pandemic.
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