TRACKING EMERGING VIRUSES – August 16, 2025 – BIRD FLU
“A preprint study suggests that the H5N1 avian influenza virus is widespread on dairy farms, including in wastewater, in the air in milking parlours and in the exhaled breath of cows — indicating how it is spreading so readily in those environments. “It is everywhere,” says microbiologist and immunologist Seema Lakdawala, who co-authored the study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed. “We need to be expanding biosafety measures, biosecurity measures and trying to control where the virus is.”” (1)
““The most likely scenario is that someone will get infected with both H5N1 and a seasonal flu virus, and they will swap genes, and that reassortment could kick off the next pandemic,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, a professor of epidemiology and director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health.
And the emergency’s end comes after the Trump administration canceled hundreds of millions of dollars it had awarded to Moderna to help the company develop an mRNA vaccine for flu strains with pandemic potential — including avian flu — leading some experts worried the U.S. isn’t doing enough to prepare for the possibility of an avian flu outbreak.
“We are going to see another influenza pandemic, and it could be much worse than we saw with Covid, and we’re not preparing for that at all,” said Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “We have an opportunity with mRNA technology to make a vaccine much faster … and yet, if you look right now, we’ve cut all funding within the U.S. government for that type of work.”” (2)
“A critical vulnerability in the U.S. pandemic response—ignored by the Trump-Vance administration—is the nation’s heavy reliance on chicken eggs for influenza vaccine production. Most flu vaccines are manufactured using embryonated chicken eggs, a process that is not only time-intensive but also inherently dependent on the stability of the poultry industry.
This production method becomes untenable during an avian influenza pandemic. A rapidly spreading H5N1 outbreak could decimate poultry flocks nationwide, disrupting the very supply chain needed to manufacture vaccines. Mass culling of infected or exposed chickens, already a hallmark of the USDA’s response to H5N1, directly reduces the availability of high-quality eggs required for vaccine production.”
In other words, a bird flu pandemic could destroy our ability to produce the vaccines intended to fight it.” (3)
1.Daily briefing: Bird flu is ‘everywhere’ on dairy farms, By Flora Graham, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02579-7
2.Experts’ bird flu warning, By SOPHIE GARDNER and KELLY HOOPER, https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-pulse/2025/08/04/experts-bird-flu-warning-00491548
3.How mRNA Vaccine Cuts and Egg Dependency Leave the U.S. Exposed to a Bird Flu Pandemic, By Global Biodefense Staff, https://globalbiodefense.com/2025/08/06/how-mrna-vaccine-cuts-and-egg-dependency-leave-the-u-s-exposed-to-a-bird-flu-pandemic/
curated by Jonathan M. Metsch, Dr.P.H.
Clinical Professor of Environmental Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai