Strains of highly pathogenic avian influenza have been killing migratory and resident birds, as well as poultry. In Jefferson County alone, waves have struck twice. The problem is getting worse — in part because of mild winters and climate change as a whole.
Only one human case has been reported in the United States. But some people are calling for measures to protect avian and human health. Anita Martin shares those concerns.
The Jefferson County resident is an informed citizen, especially when it comes to environmental and public health issues. She’s served on the county’s board of supervisors for two terms. In 2015, an avian flu outbreak hit three poultry operations within four miles of Martin's home. Then, last year, the virus struck Jefferson County again, this time at a different poultry farm and a pheasant facility.
More than 3 million birds had to be killed.
Martin is on a quiet mission to engage county residents in what she considers a pressing potential public health issue. I met Martin at a recent county committee meeting, and although her term ends next month, her concern about avian influenza will not.
“All the large scale facilities in our country have had influenza, every single one. I don’t think we’re as well prepared as we should be,” Martin says.
Martin wants to see a comprehensive community-wide conversation. “We ought to bring everyone to the table and talking. There ought to be a town hall. And residents just need to learn more about avian influenza and how they can help reduce risks,” she says.
Johanna Harvey applauds Martin’s foresight. “The impacts are wide. As a council person I feel like it’s smart to think broadly about what these impacts are,” Harvey says.
Harvey is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Maryland.
“I was hired to work on avian influenza and management decision science specifically. And I was hired shortly after the incursion of this current strain of H5N1 into North America,” she says.
Harvey says she and fellow scientists are exploring every possible contributor to the dilemma, including warming winters’ impacts on migration patterns, loss of habitat and urbanization. Harvey says low pathogenic avian influenzas are constantly circulating in the environment. They can and have evolved into highly pathogenic viruses. “We know about it because it impacted chickens,” Harvey explains.
Now scientists are observing fatal high pathogenic avian influenza wiping out dramatic numbers of migratory and sea birds. And the virus is spilling back and forth between species.
“So now we have this global problem—some transcontinental migrations moving virus transpacifically and transatlantically, and [the] virus has spread almost everywhere, except for Australia, basically at this point," she says.
Climate change only adds to the problem.
“Temperatures remaining higher in the winter than normal, or into the fall, shifting of migratory periods. So there is a definite impact in that we know that there is an increase associated in emergent diseases with climate change,” Harvey says.
And scientists are seeing species beyond birds feeling the impacts, including mammals.
"That is something we suspect is a future problem is the continued accrual of these mammalian adaptations; so ability to infect mammals, you know, and humans are mammals," Harvey says.
She's conferring and collaborating with scientists around the world to better understand the evolving influenza virus and building the case for a One Health interdisciplinary, multiagency management approach.
Adel Talaat is busy doing his part inside his lab at the University of Wisconsin- Madison. He’s been working on a vaccine to protect poultry with his team. Their work began in 2018 .
“We are on the right path. We learned from what we did before and we’re moving forward to have a better and more efficient vaccine,” Talaat says.
Talaat anticipates completing the project within a year and a half. “But then going into the field, this will require cooperation with the USDA and also we need to have some financial support from the industry,” Talaat says.
And while his focus is protecting poultry, Talaat thinks moving forward with a human vaccine would be prudent.
“Definitely. Being prepared is the best strategy and it’s also difficult because you’re asking people to be prepared for something you really don’t know. But that’s the job of scientists; that’s why we spend some brain cells to think about how to prepare for the unknown,” he says.
In the meantime, Johanna Harvey and fellow scientists are striving to improve surveillance, monitoring and conservation efforts. They’re hoping the efforts will help control the disease in migrating and seabirds. The impacts of warming winters and climate change as a perplexing whole will likely add to the challenge before them.
