[ad_1]
Current strains of bird flu, also known as avian flu, are more dangerous than previous strains, a study suggests, suggesting that the dangerous situation needs to be addressed urgently. The new study, led by a team of University of Maryland researchers, found that the current strain is killing millions of birds in unprecedented numbers.
“We’ve been dealing with low-pathogenic avian influenza in the poultry industry for decades, but this time is different,” said study co-author Jennifer Mullinax, an assistant professor in the University of Maryland’s Department of Environmental Science and Technology. Sexual viruses are wiping out everything in unprecedented numbers,” Mullinax added.
To determine how previous strains differed from current strains, the study, published in the journal Conservation Biology, tracked the arrival and development of a deadly bird flu pandemic in North America.
It includes five data sources from the United States and Canada of Poultry and global data sources from 2014 to 2023.
Unlike the H5N8 outbreak in 2015, the H5N1 bird flu strain that emerged in 2021 is highly pathogenic, the analysis of the study showed.
“Unlike H5N8, this disease has severely affected wild birds,” said Johanna Harvey, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Maryland. But we” “we’re seeing the disease taking a huge toll on raptors, seabirds and social nesting birds. We’re losing the most poultry to bird flu right now, so it’s a worst-case scenario.”
Researchers found that 7 million birds in Canada and 58 million poultry in the United States were either infected with influenza or killed to prevent its spread. Recent outbreaks of bird flu may have shifted from seasonal to year-round disease, research suggests
According to reports, bird flu outbreaks in 2015 typically occurred in the fall, giving farmers more time to plan and recover losses. But the current prevalence of wild bird cases peaks in summer, while poultry cases are on the rise in spring and autumn.
WATCH | India home to nearly one-fifth of humanity
The research team concluded that bird flu is likely to become endemic, which could have food security and economic implications. The report recommends that national and local authorities cooperate to control the spread of the disease.
“This paper illustrates how unprecedented it is and describes what we think is about to happen. It’s really a call to arms: We can’t solve this problem in our personal silos,” Mullinax said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CPC) stated earlier that “since 2022, despite widespread worldwide transmission of the highly pathogenic A(H5N1) avian influenza A (HPAI) virus to wild and domestic birds and sporadic spread to mammals, but only a few sporadic human cases of A(H5N1) have been identified.”
“Since 2022, all reported human cases have been associated with recent exposure to poultry, and no cases of human-to-human transmission have been identified.”
you can Writing now for wionews.com and become part of the community.Share your stories and opinions with us here.
[ad_2]
Source link