Bird flu spread by the wind? Poultry veterinarian explains amid outbreak
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Minnesota is in the midst of another wave of avian influenza. The virus is affecting commercial poultry flocks, wild birds and other animals. The cause could include wind.
“Even back in 2014 and 2015, when we had the really large outbreak of H5, now 10 years ago,” said Michelle Kromm, a poultry veterinarian and disease mitigation expert, “there was some suspicions that wind might be playing a role.”
There are 21 active cases of bird flu in the state right now, and the majority of infections this year have been in commercial turkey flocks, according to the Minnesota Board of Animal Health.
In animals, bird flu is often spread by direct contact or by contact with infected bodily fluids; but a recent investigation by ProPublica showed that wind can indeed be another form of transmission — allowing the virus to travel on dust and feathers blown across the landscape from farm to farm. That finding makes calls for a bird flu vaccine for flocks more urgent.
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One man in Washington state has died from complications of the H5N5 strain of the virus, health officials there said Friday, though they also stated the risk to the public remains low. There’s no evidence of the virus transmitting between people.
Kromm joined Cathy Wurzer on Morning Edition Monday to talk more about the spread of bird flu.
Listen to the conversation by clicking the player button above. Below is a transcript lightly edited for clarity.
Is wind a plausible theory for why this virus spreads so fast?
Yeah, I think, here in Minnesota, especially our turkey growers, have always been kind of suspicious that wind could play a factor.
Even back in 2014 and 2015, when we had the really large outbreak of H5 now 10 years ago, there was some suspicions that wind might be playing a role, especially in areas where you have poultry farms relatively close together.
The science to back up those suspicions is nice to see, but from a practical standpoint, it really doesn't meaningfully change the way producers in our state or across the U.S. really will change their behavior on how they protect flocks or respond to positive flocks.
Why can’t farmers or producers change how they try to protect their flocks?
The key to think about here is that, largely, what farmers try to do is minimize the amount of virus a positive flock can produce, which reduces risk for all the potential ways that virus can spread.
So, not just through the wind, but from people or traffic or even the other critters that we might find around farms, like raccoons or mice or something like that. And really, farmers tried to do a couple different things, and the first one is really about early identification of sick birds.
So the faster we can find those positive flocks, the quicker we can depopulate them, which is a really critical step in stopping viral replication, because the virus needs live animals to replicate. So the faster we can find sick flocks and depopulate them, the less viruses in the environment.
And we really don't have specific tools, at least at this moment, that would allow some type of filtration or something like that to really mitigate risk when it comes to airborne diseases — at least at this point in time in the poultry industry.
Can farmers get ahead of this with a vaccination?
Vaccination is a critical tool. And yes, if vaccines were made available, it would help protect birds, again, from all routes of transmission, not just airborne spread.
The trick with vaccines is that, although turkey producers in Minnesota would love to have that as an option, we also export a lot of turkey to critical partners, such as Mexico.
And the way that we have trade agreements in place right now, if we were to choose to vaccinate turkeys here in Minnesota, that would have an impact even for a turkey grower in North Carolina, or a chicken grower down in Georgia, and their ability to export their product.
So although we have vaccines that could help reduce the amount of virus that would be spread, they're largely not a viable option. Because if we were to choose to vaccinate, it would cut off important trade and export opportunities for poultry producers.
