This is “Avian Flu Watch: Global H5N1 Tracker.”Today’s data show H5N1 remains entrenched in birds across multiple continents, with growing concern about mammals and rare human cases. According to the CDC, H5 bird flu is now widespread in wild birds worldwide, driving repeated outbreaks in poultry and spillover into U.S. dairy cattle and sporadic human infections. The dominant strain is clade 2.3.4.4b, described by CIDRAP as responsible for unprecedented deaths in wild birds and poultry across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.Let’s start with the geographic hotspots.The UN Food and Agriculture Organization reports more than 1,700 highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreaks in animals since October, spanning over 40 countries. Europe is a major hotspot: Germany alone has reported more than 1,100 H5 and H5N1 events this season, with France, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom also logging dozens to hundreds of outbreaks, mainly in poultry and migratory waterfowl. In North America, U.S. surveillance from USDA and CDC shows detections in wild birds in nearly every state, recurring poultry outbreaks, and infections in mammals ranging from foxes and skunks to polar bears. Canada reports multiple poultry and wild bird events, especially in Atlantic and prairie provinces. In South America, research summarized in Frontiers and other journals traces rapid spread along both Pacific and Atlantic coasts, with major mortality in seabirds and marine mammals in Chile, Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil.Picture the trend lines as three stacked graphs. The first, poultry outbreaks, shows a steep climb from 2021 through 2023, a brief dip, then a renewed rise in 2025, especially in Europe and the Americas. The second, wild bird detections, is a broad, high plateau, reflecting persistent global circulation. The third, mammal cases, is lower but clearly trending upward, with well over 200 mammalian species now affected, according to Infection Control Today. A fourth, much smaller line for human infections remains close to zero, but each dot represents a serious, high-fatality event, with the World Health Organization counting about 1,000 human H5N1 cases since 2003.Cross‑border transmission is driven primarily by wild bird migration. A major Nature study on the North American epizootic shows that migratory waterfowl were central to moving H5N1 from Eurasia into North America and then across the continent, linking Arctic breeding grounds with coastal and inland flyways. A geospatial analysis in AGU journals maps corridors where bird migration, wetlands, and dense poultry production overlap, identifying high‑risk “bridges” between continents and regions. In South America, phylogeographic work in Uruguay shows two converging routes: one lineage moving via wild birds and poultry from Argentina and Brazil, and another associated with marine mammals arriving from Chile.Containment successes include rapid culling and zoning in several European countries and in the United Kingdom, where the government imposes three‑kilometer protection zones and ten‑kilometer surveillance zones around new outbreaks in commercial flocks. In North America, aggressive depopulation of infected poultry operations and tighter farm biosecurity have limited some secondary spread. Failures are equally clear: repeated re‑introductions from wild birds, explosive outbreaks in densely populated poultry regions, and large‑scale spillover to marine mammals show that national efforts often lag behind the virus’s transboundary movement.On variants, laboratories tracked by WHO and CIDRAP are closely monitoring clade 2.3.4.4b for mutations that enhance mammalian adaptation, especially in the PB2 gene. A reassortant H5N1 detected in Argentina in 2025, which acquired several internal genes from local low‑pathogenic strains, underscores the virus’s capacity to evolve in real time.Current travel advisories do not restrict general international travel, but public health agencies recommend staying away from live bird markets, avoiding contact with sick or dead birds and marine mammals, not entering poultry barns or backyard coops without permission and proper protection, and following national guidance on consumption of properly cooked poultry, eggs, and dairy. People with occupational exposure to birds or cattle should use personal protective equipment and report respiratory or flu‑like illness promptly.Thanks for tuning in to “Avian Flu Watch: Global H5N1 Tracker.” Come back next week for more data‑driven updates. This has been a Quiet Please production, and for more from me, check out QuietPlease dot A I.For more http://www.quietplease.aiGet the best deals https://amzn.to/3ODvOtaThis content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI
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2025/12/243 分