Rising spread and turkey prices: A CSU expert provides an update on bird flu
From higher turkey prices to recent outbreaks in commercial poultry flocks across California, Michigan, Minnesota and Canada, reports of the impact of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, commonly called bird flu, are on the rise. These kinds of seasonal impacts, however, have been standard during the past several years, with the virus more likely to spread during colder months and during the time of year when wild birds migrate.
As of Nov. 14, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported outbreaks in 76 commercial or backyard poultry flocks across 20 states, affecting approximately 1.66 million birds over the past 30 days. There are currently no reported cases affecting commercial poultry in Colorado.
For the latest on the virus’s spread and the outlook in Colorado, SOURCE spoke with Colorado State University avian influenza expert Dr. Kristy Pabilonia. Pabilonia is a microbiologist, veterinarian and an expert on poultry diseases. She has dedicated much of her career to studying avian influenza viruses. Pabilonia also serves as the executive director of CSU’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratories, which play a key role in regularly testing avian influenza virus samples from birds, cattle and other species.
Is it normal for bird flu cases to increase this time of year?
Yes, we see an influx of avian influenza virus cases in the fall. That’s when we have wild birds migrating and colder weather. More avian influenza virus circulating among wild birds can then spill over to commercial poultry, backyard flocks and other wild mammals. The virus dies in hot and dry environments and survives in cold and wet ones, so we always see more cases in the colder months. (Same as with the seasonal flu in humans!)
With Thanksgiving coming up, should people be worried about potential impact on turkey prices?
Yes, turkeys are very susceptible to the circulating H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus. For the past few years, we have seen a number of cases in the U.S. in commercial turkeys due to transmission from wild birds and sometimes flock-to-flock spread. We no longer have large scale commercial turkey operations in Colorado, so this does not impact us as much as it does other states that have commercial turkeys. But yes, poultry is a commodity, and any time there are avian influenza outbreaks affecting commercial poultry, this could impact pricing.
What has the activity looked like in Colorado recently, and what has testing been like at the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratories?
The amount of testing we do in any given month is dependent on the current situation in Colorado and across the U.S. We have surges in the number of samples we receive during certain periods, such as when we had significant cases in our dairy cattle operations in Colorado or when we responded to detection of the virus in raw pet food. Generally, we detect fewer cases in the summer and manage an increase in the fall and winter due to wild bird testing and increased virus transmission to poultry and wild mammals. The same is true globally: We generally see a significant increase in detections in wild birds and more spillover in colder months.
Do you anticipate an uptick in cases in Colorado?
We could potentially see some spillover from wild birds to commercial or backyard poultry or wild mammals, but let’s hope we don’t. The commercial poultry industry is working hard to increase biosecurity to prevent any possibility of contact between wild birds and their flocks. I recommend backyard flock owners take the same precautions, as much as possible. We have been detecting cases in wild mammals for the past few years and continue to detect cases in new species. We recently detected the virus in a sample from a wild black bear. There have been a few detections in bears in the U.S., but not many — although there are likely many more cases than we detect in laboratories. We’ve detected the virus in many wild mammal species – it’s been really interesting and important work, and I’m really proud of the work of our laboratory.
Are you concerned about additional spread from somewhere other than wild bird migration?
Outside of specific outbreak periods — such as when we saw transmission of bird flu between dairy operations in Colorado or cats infected by commercially-available raw pet food — most of the transmission we see is due to wild birds transmitting the virus to commercial poultry or other wild mammals. Some of the more unusual transmission events, such as transmission from wild birds or wild mammals to domestic cats, are less frequent.
Author: CSU MarComm Staff
Source: https://cvmbs.source.colostate.edu/
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