"Intensifying U.S. Bird Flu Surveillance Amid New Infections and Research Findings"

U.S. bird flu surveillance is intensifying this week as new animal infections and fresh research findings keep H5 viruses in the spotlight.

In Texas, Focus Daily News and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department report highly pathogenic avian influenza detections in multiple regions of the state, prompting warnings to hunters, landowners, and poultry producers to avoid contact with sick or dead wild birds and to tighten farm biosecurity. The San Antonio Express News notes Texas poultry producers are bracing for possible supply disruptions and higher egg prices if outbreaks spread in commercial flocks.

In Delaware, the state Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control announced that a sick snow goose found in eastern Kent County has tested presumptive positive for H5 avian influenza, the first such detection in a snow goose there this season. Delaware Online reports officials are urging poultry and livestock owners to keep domestic birds away from wild waterfowl, restrict farm visitors, and follow strict cleaning and disinfection protocols.

On the human health front, Iowa Public Radio highlights new research indicating that mammary glands in humans, sheep, and other livestock may be capable of harboring H5N1, raising questions about how the virus behaves in dairy herds and whether milk tissue could be a reservoir. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cited in that report, says at least 71 people in the U.S. have been infected with H5N1 so far, with two deaths, almost all tied to close contact with infected birds or dairy cows and no confirmed person to person spread.

Globally, the World Health Organization’s Western Pacific office reports 30 new highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreaks in animals from late November to early December, including major H5N1 events in Japanese poultry and wild birds and additional cases in wild birds in South Korea. Separately, My Vet Candy reports that nearly nine million poultry have been culled worldwide since October, with large losses in the United States, Canada, and Germany, and experts warning that migratory birds continue to drive international spread.

Public health agencies continue to stress that the overall risk to the general public remains low, but they advise avoiding contact with sick or dead birds and thoroughly cooking poultry and eggs.

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