Avian influenza and the impacts to agriculture

Bird flu, avian influenza or, more scientifically, H5N1 is a strain of influenza virus that typically infects waterfowl such as ducks and geese, but easily spreads to other bird populations. This avian influenza has been around since the 1950s, but it was a major outbreak in China in the 1990s that brought the virus to the world stage.

In 1996, it was determined that waterfowl are the natural carriers. The severity of that outbreak was intensified with the first documentation of human cases of the virus.

Most recently, an outbreak began in the US around 2021, affecting primarily poultry produc...