Turkeys being raised on a turkey farm. USDA photo by Scott Bauer.

Experts say previous outbreaks should have taught us how to avoid new ones, like the one that’s killing millions of birds right now.

Wildlife

May 18, 2022 – byErica Cirino

Last month a man in Colorado became thefirst humanknown to have contracted a new, highly infectious strain of avian flu.

The man — a prisoner culling infected poultry while on a work-release program — only experienced a case of mild fatigue.

The birds contracting this new version of the H5N1 flu have not been so lucky.

Since it first turned up, this highly transmissible and lethal new strain of avian flu has circulated at high rates among domestic fowl on backyard and commercial farms, resulting in the deaths of a reported 37 million birds on farms in the United States alone. Some died directly from…