“12 months and 70 cases since the first human bird flu infection: Are we any safer?
by Youri Benadjaoud and Tommy Brooksbank“With rapid detection of cases, culling of infected birds and isolation of sick cows, there has not been a major outbreak in the last month.But Dodd points out as springtime approaches, we may see increasing spread as wild birds begin to migrate.”Birds don’t recognize the state borders. This is a national problem. We have to be able to work together,” Dodd said.”to read the full article go tohttps://abcnews.go.com/US/12-months-70-cases-human-bird-flu-infection/story?id=120355303
“Worrying Signals Emerge As Bird Flu Gains Resistance Mutation”
By John Drake
“Two new studies released in 2025 provide a mixed picture of how well our current antivirals are holding up against H5N1, the highly pathogenic bird flu virus that continues to spill over into mammals and humans. The good news: H5N1 viruses from recent human cases remain susceptible to frontline antiviral drugs. More concerning is a resistance mutation that emerged and spread rapidly during a poultry outbreak in Canada, raising flags about the virus’s potential to evolve past our defenses.”
to read the full article go to
https://www.forbes.com/sites/johndrake/2025/03/27/worrying-signals-emerge-as-bird-flu-gains-resistance-mutation/
“Trump’s response to bird flu could be the defining test of his second term”
by Gene Baur
“Despite troubling signs that the virus is mutating and could become more transmissible, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s $1 billion strategy to fight bird flu is likely to create more danger, as the federal agency funnels $400 million into factory farms as reimbursements for chickens lost. In so doing, it is propping up the very industry fueling the spread of zoonotic disease.”
“We already know that 75 percent of emerging human pathogens are zoonotic. Thus, by farming animals in the billions, we are playing with fire. Factory farms confine thousands of animals into unsanitary facilities, where workers are often left unprotected from disease.”
to read the full article go to
https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/5220002-united-nations-bird-flu/
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“Bird flu could be on the cusp of transmitting between humans—but there are ways to slow down viral evolution”
by Ron Barrett
“When a disease-causing pathogen such as a flu virus is already adapted to infect a particular animal species, it may eventually evolve the ability to infect a new species, such as humans, through a process called spillover.
Spillover is a tricky enterprise. To be successful, the pathogen must have the right set of molecular “keys” compatible with the host’s molecular “locks” so it can break in and out of host cells and hijack their replication machinery. Because these locks often vary between species, the pathogen may have to try many different keys before it can infect an entirely new host species. For instance, the keys a virus successfully uses to infect chickens and ducks may not work on cattle and humans. And because new keys can be made only through random mutation, the odds of obtaining all the right ones are very slim.”
to read the full article go to
https://phys.org/news/2025-03-bird-flu-cusp-transmitting-humans.html
“AI is for the birds: How machine learning can help predict and manage avian flu outbreaks”
By Rozita Dara
“AI can offer much in the way of advance pandemic information and planning. Remember the early days of COVID-19? What if we had more time to prepare? What if health officials had known weeks earlier where the virus was spreading, which neighbourhoods were most at risk, and what we needed to do to stop it?
AI can analyze vast amounts of information, from wildlife health reports, geographical data, satellite images to social media trends, online content, farm data and even weather patterns to answer some questions about how, when and why pandemics happen. It spots patterns, anomalies and relationships humans cannot see in real-time.
AI can alert monitors to where an avian influenza outbreak might occur before a region is impacted, how severe an outbreak might be and what type of intervention may be most effective. AI can help responders and governments act quickly, precisely and efficiently.”
to read the full article go to
https://theconversation.com/ai-is-for-the-birds-how-machine-learning-can-help-predict-and-manage-avian-flu-outbreaks-252550
“This Is the Great Mystery of Bird Flu in America”
By Caitlin Rivers
“I fear that the apparent mildness of infections in the United States has confounded calls to act more decisively. Agricultural and health authorities were slow to look for the virus in dairy herds, reimburse affected farmers and answer important research questions. A national strategy for testing milk began in December, months after the virus was found in dairy cows.
During the early stages of Covid-19, the first Trump administration underestimated the threat, repeatedly assuring the public that the risk to the population was low. While the future course of H5N1 is more difficult to predict, the administration should adopt a “no regrets” policy, doing everything it can to prevent the worst-case possibilities and resisting the temptation to downplay potential dangers.
It’s possible that H5N1 will never make the jump to spread human to human. After all, it hasn’t done so yet. But we shouldn’t give it the opportunity.”
to read the full article go to
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/25/opinion/bird-flu-america-death.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
“Bird flu: will our luck run out?”
https://caitlinrivers.substack.com/p/bird-flu-will-our-luck-run-out
“Bird flu biosensor detects virus in less than 5 min”
https://cen.acs.org/analytical-chemistry/chemical-sensing/Bird-flu-biosensor-detects-virus/103/web/2025/04
“Capitalism vs. the bird flu”
https://www.theverge.com/decoder-podcast-with-nilay-patel/637180/bird-flu-forever-war-capitalism-rfk-anti-vax