By Martha Teichner

February 2, 2025 / 10:19 AM EST / CBS News

• https://www.cbsnews.com/news/as-bird-flu-ravages-poultry-industry-the-damage-spreads/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIN0OhleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHQ_9RTLe2u66WiYL7Nl3xscxHJ_52DcCUFTD_SUCYcrsOyVmXDEcAOhWNA_aem_YWZh1rKKrFwF8EGUlatIuA

There are seven generations of Corwins in the Aquebogue, Long Island, town cemetery. Their graves overlook the farm that’s been in the family since the 1640s. Some family members’ tombstones are adorned with ducks. “I’m gonna say it was my grandfather’s idea, because he did it first,” said Doug Corwin.

It was Corwin’s great-grandfather who started raising ducks in 1908, when Long Island was famous for its duck farms. Now, Crescent Duck Farm is the only one left. It produced a million ducks a year, until two weeks ago, when bird flu shut the farm down. Corwin said, “I saw a flock one day that was great, and the next day was lethargic, wasn’t eating. It looked like something I’d never seen before.”

Dozens of state and local agricultural workers, dressed in biohazard suits, assisted in the euthanasia of the entire flock – 100,000 ducks. Whether it’s ducks or chickens, since the current strain of bird flu, H5N1, reached the United States in 2022, over 148 million birds have been ordered euthanized. 

“It’s a staggering number, there is no doubt,” said Jodie Guest, a professor of epidemiology with Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta. “But it is, and always has been a policy across administrations, with the USDA, that this is how they handle infections like this among poultry. And as we’ve seen bird flu move [across] species, it becomes even more important to try to contain that infection in the flocks that it’s in, so that we don’t continue to see spread.”

Except that’s exactly what has happened. H5N1, Guest said, was in all 50 states by the end of 2023, transmitted by wild birds through their feces and saliva. “So, in 2024 we saw bird flu jump from our poultry and wild birds, to mammals, to cows. And that was a very startling change,” she said.

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Until 2024, there was only one human case in the U.S. In just a few months, the number jumped to 67, with one death. Most of those cases were workers at dairy operations and poultry farms. They experienced mild symptoms.

Guest said, “So far, we’ve not seen human-to-human transmission, and that would have to happen in order for us to be on the verge of an epidemic or a pandemic.” She added, however, that she is not scared of that happening: “I feel very strongly that human risk is still very, very low.”

But the spread of H5N1 is not being contained … and look what culling has already done to the price and availability of eggs.

The issue has become politicized. Last week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “The Biden administration and the Department of Agriculture directed the mass killing of more than 100 million chickens, which has led to a lack of chicken supply in this country, therefore lack of egg supply, which is leading to a shortage.” In fact, the last Trump administration followed the same policy.

Doug Corwin says, “A vaccine program is the only thing that’s gonna get us out of this.”

The proposal is controversial: allow poultry farmers to vaccinate their birds against H5N1, something theoretically doable but currently forbidden, because it would cripple U.S. poultry exports to the many countries which ban vaccinated birds. “The disease is becoming much bigger than the export situation, because the disease is so getting out of hand right now,” Corwin said.

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Corwin can’t decide which is worse: losing 100,000 ducks, or having to lay off 48 people.

I said, “You seem ambivalent about whether or not you even want to try again?”

“Martha, think about what I’ve been through over the last two weeks,” Corwin replied. “It’s devastating, utterly devastating. It reminds me of losing both of my parents, that sudden … that grief. It’s just that feeling like you’ve lost something that’s part of you.”

        
For more info:

• Crescent Duck Farm, Aquebogue, N.Y.
• Jodie Guest, professor of epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University

• Adriel Bettelheim,
• Tina Reed
• https://www.axios.com/2025/02/03/bird-flu-crisis-new-phase

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Dozens of newly confirmed cases of avian influenza in wild birds and the first verified U.S. case of a new strain of the virus are raising concern the bird flu crisis may be entering a troubling new phase.

Why it matters: While the developments don’t necessarily raise the risk of a pandemic, they could create more havoc for farmers, exacerbate egg shortages and expose more gaps in government disease surveillance.

• The outbreak is intensifying as the Trump administration maintains a pause on most external federal health agency communications, including publication of CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), a venerable source of scientific reports on public health.

Driving the news: The Department of Agriculture last week confirmed 81 detections of highly pathogenic avian flu in wild birds collected across 24 states between Dec. 29 and Jan. 17.

• Wild birds can be infected and show no signs of illness, allowing them to spread the virus to new areas and potentially expose domestic poultry.
• Officials in Pennsylvania and New York have culled thousands of wild geese, as well as commercial poultry flocks, after detecting cases of flu.

What they’re saying: “If you look at what’s happened the last eight weeks, the number of poultry operations that have gone down — and more recently, the duck operations — is absolutely stunning,” Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota told Axios.

• The virus is being spread as wild birds comingle with birds in commercial poultry operations.
• Changes in migratory patterns may be worsening the issue in northern states, which now see certain wild birds stay for the winter because water sources aren’t freezing, Osterholm said.

“There is a lot of H5N1 out there. And we’re going to see more cases in humans,” he said.

• But “they’re going to be single, isolated cases,” he said.

The intrigue: A new strain of avian flu called H5N9 was recently identified on a duck farm in California that had an outbreak of the more common H5N1 flu last fall.

• The new type is a sign that two or more viruses could be infecting the same animal and swapping genetic material. Ducks make good hosts for what scientists call “reassortment” because they aren’t badly sickened by many types of avian flu.
• About 119,000 birds on the farm were euthanized following the discovery.

Such mutations, in and of themselves, may not pose a greater threat to human health.

• The H5N9 strain originated in China and is itself a mix of several other strains. It isn’t thought to be more of a threat to humans than the H5N1 strain that’s widely circulating in U.S. poultry, cattle and wild birds.
• But its presence could become a major problem if there was a reassortment between avian flu and a seasonal human flu, Richard Webby, director of the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Center for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza, told the Los Angeles Times.
• That combination could result in a virus that is more easily transmitted between people.

Catch up quick: The bird flu crisis has struck 113 flocks in the past 30 days, affecting more than 19 million birds, per USDA. It’s also been confirmed in 943 dairy herds, the vast majority in California.

• The Trump administration hasn’t publicly outlined steps it’s taken yet to address the spread. HHS didn’t respond to a request for comment.
• HHS Secretary-designate Robert F Kennedy Jr. said he intended to “devote the appropriate resources to preventing pandemics” during confirmation hearings this week, leading some Democratic senators to point to past statements he made about giving infectious disease research “a break.”

Between the lines: The partial blackout on health communications has effectively blocked publication of a pair of studies on bird flu, including one on whether veterinarians who treat cattle have been unknowingly infected by the virus, KFF Health News reported.

• The other report looked at whether people carrying the virus might have infected domestic cats.
• The reports were due to appear in the MMWR, which hasn’t published since January 16 and is subject to the pause ordered by acting HHS Secretary Dorothy Fink to allow the new administration to set up a process for review and prioritization.

The communications freeze has been met with outrage in some medical and science circles. “This idea that science cannot continue until there’s a political lens over it is unprecedented,” Anne Schuchat, a former principal deputy director at the CDC, told KFF Health News.

• There’s a lot of uncertainty around whether the administration is merely pausing communication or making a wholesale change in how the agency functions, Patrick Jackson, a UVA Health infectious diseases expert, said on a call with reporters Friday.
• “Frankly, getting CDC up and running at full speed is going to be essential to keep track of avian influenza,” he said.