If you thought it was just a problem for the birds, think again.
Humans and animals have always been connected. Animals provide us with essential resources such as food, clothing, transport and livelihoods, as well as companionship, while supporting healthy ecosystems. With growing populations, urbanisation and increased global livestock production, we are now sharing more spaces than ever.
This makes animal health critical — their well-being directly affects ours.
Monitoring animal health and disease outbreaks helps save lives, prevent economic losses and stop the spread of diseases — whether they are epidemics (disease spread in a specific geographic region) or pandemics (global spread of diseases). Avian influenza is a serious threat to both human and animal health.
Here are four things you need to know about avian influenza and how the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is working to protect animals and humans:
1. It is transboundary and zoonotic, impacting wild animals, domestic animals and humans
Avian influenza, or bird flu, is caused by influenza A viruses. As the name suggests, it primarily affects wild and domestic birds.
The current global outbreak of the H5N1 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) is particularly contagious and causes high mortality rates in poultry. The virus has also been found in dairy cattle, foxes, seals, mountain lions and even household pets, raising concerns about its spread across species and its risk to human health.
This outbreak, which started in late 2020, is causing the loss of rare and important wild bird species as well as poultry, impacting food security and global food supply chains – triggering egg shortages, as one example.
In cattle, avian influenza can lower milk production, with rare but existing reports of infections in dairy workers.
FAO has been monitoring the risks of avian influenza, providing joint assessments and monthly situation updates with its partners, ensuring that science-based guidance is available to all countries to help address the evolving risk.
2. It is mutating
Avian influenza viruses are RNA viruses, which means they mutate and evolve rapidly. New strains are continuously emerging, increasing the chance of adaptation to mammals. According to the World Organisation for Animal Health, outbreaks of bird flu in mammals more than doubled last year compared to 2023, increasing the risk of further spread and human transmission.
Historically, some of these strains spread to humans with deadly results. The 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, for example, was of an avian-origin H1N1 strain, infecting 500 million people globally.
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3. It is everywhere
Since H5NI first appeared in Asia in 1996, several avian influenza outbreaks have occurred around the world. While the migration of wild birds across long distances has greatly facilitated its transboundary spread, poor poultry production practices remain a crucial risk factor for the introduction and spread of the viruses.
Today, H5N1 outbreaks have been reported in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe and they have even reached Antarctica, impacting wildlife there. Since October 2022, more than 3 400 outbreaks have been reported globally. The result: quarantines, movement restrictions, heightened surveillance and culling of infected flocks. These disruptions in poultry industries affect food prices and animal protein availability in many countries.
FAO monitors, collects and disseminates information on avian influenza, as well as other diseases, through its global animal disease information system, EMPRES-i. This system allows governments and decision-makers to monitor and analyse HPAI viruses occurring worldwide. FAO also provides updates on the global avian influenza viruses with zoonotic potential to increase global disease intelligence and compile information from and for countries.
4. It requires a global and coordinated response
The health of animals, humans, plants and the environment are interconnected and interdependent.
For this reason, FAO partners with the World Organisation for Animal Health, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Environment Programme and national and regional authorities to prevent, detect and respond to animal disease outbreaks. This includes training field veterinarians and laboratory technicians to quickly identify and diagnose the disease.
Battling the outbreak where it occurs can help prevent the spread of the disease to neighbouring farms, other animals and humans—across borders—and prevent a chain reaction leading to economic losses, food insecurity and high prices down the line.
As the virus continues to spread across the globe, it is critical to invest in monitoring and early detection and response capacities to avoid greater losses and even further impact on our economies, livelihoods and well-being.
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This article was originally published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and is republished here as part of our editorial collaboration with the FAO.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of Impakter.com — In the Cover Photo: Since the outbreak, control measures such as quarantines, movement restrictions, heightened surveillance and culling of infected flocks have been implemented to mitigate the spread and impact. Cover Photo Credit:© FAO/Giulio Napolitano.
