Reading Time: 2 minutes While the United States government continues to monitor the spread of bird flu in the country, the Biden administration said it won’t order the stockpiling of a vaccine for humans. U.S. health officials stressed the chances of a human contracting the H5N1 variant of avian influenza remain very low.
U.S. government not stockpiling bird flu vaccine
US issues order mandating bird flu testing of milk supply
Virus has infected nearly half of California's 1,100 dairy farms
Reading Time: 2 minutes The U.S. issued a federal order on Friday mandating that the national milk supply be tested for bird flu, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told Reuters, as authorities seek to grapple with rapid spread of the virus among dairy herds.
WHO calls for stronger surveillance of H5N1 bird flu among animals
Reading Time: 2 minutes A World Health Organization official on Thursday called for stronger surveillance in animals for evidence of infection with H5N1 bird flu in order to curb its spread.
Federal government pledges funds to bird flu research
Reading Time: < 1 minute The federal government has pledged $5.2 million in for 35 projects researching bird flu.
Virus in B.C. human bird flu case genetically related to farm strain
Reading Time: 2 minutes Health officials have confirmed that the strain of bird flu that hospitalized a B.C. teenager in critical condition is related to the same virus causing outbreaks in the province’s poultry.
Teen in critical condition with Canada’s first presumptive human case of bird flu
Reading Time: 2 minutes A teenager is in critical condition in a British Columbia children's hospital, sick with Canada's first presumptive human case of avian influenza.
US expands bird flu testing after finding symptom-free infections in people
Reading Time: 2 minutes Farm workers who have been exposed to animals with bird flu should be tested for the virus even if they do not have symptoms, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.
UK confirms bird flu cases at commercial poultry farm
Reading Time: < 1 minute The UK government said on Tuesday that cases of bird flu had been confirmed in commercial poultry at premises in Yorkshire, hours after it increased the risk level of the disease from medium to high.
Bird flu detected in pigs – here’s why virologists are concerned
Reading Time: 4 minutes H5N1 influenza has now been detected in pigs. This was something virologists had been worrying about ever since this highly pathogenic strain of bird flu started its rapid global spread in 2020. But why were we worrying specifically about pigs? And does this case – detected on a farm in Oregon on October 29 – change anything?
U.S. poultry to face new rules at Canadian border
Reading Time: < 1 minute Canada is introducing new rules for U.S. bird and poultry shipments in an effort to curb highly pathogenic avian influenza spread.
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
