United States: The United States has encountered its first resurgence of the lethal H7N9 avian influenza within a poultry establishment since 2017, compounding the nation’s ongoing struggle with another virulent bird flu strain that has infiltrated human populations and catalyzed unprecedented surges in egg prices.
The rampant proliferation of avian influenza, colloquially termed bird flu, has decimated poultry populations on a global scale, disrupting supply chains and exacerbating food cost inflation. Of increasing alarm is its transmission to mammalian species, notably dairy cattle in the US, stoking governmental apprehensions regarding the potential emergence of a novel pandemic, according to Reuters.
The predominant strain responsible for the most extensive devastation within poultry sectors and the fatality of one individual in the US remains the H5N1 variant.
H7N9, however, has demonstrated an alarmingly high fatality rate among human cases globally. According to the World Health Organization, since its initial detection in China in 2013, the virus has claimed the lives of 616 individuals out of 1,568 reported infections—amounting to a staggering 39 percent mortality rate.
Despite the virulence of these strains, WHO maintains that neither H5N1 nor H7N9 exhibit a propensity for effortless human-to-human transmission.
The latest H7N9 outbreak on US soil was identified within a commercial broiler breeder chicken facility housing 47,654 birds in Noxubee, Mississippi. Confirmation of this incident surfaced on March 13, as disclosed by the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health, citing reports from US authorities, as per Reuters.
Efforts to obtain statements from Mississippi’s agricultural and health departments regarding the outbreak have thus far been met with silence.
The United States’ response to avian influenza faced considerable disruption during the early phase of the Trump administration when federal agencies abruptly rescinded congressional briefings and state-level discussions concerning animal health protocols, as detailed in Reuters’ investigative reporting, as per Reuters.
Since then, coordination efforts have been partially reinstated, with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) pledging an allocation of USD 1 billion to combat the virus’s relentless spread.