The fake bird flu (H5N1) epizootic that has led federal officials to cull millions of birds.

The disease is almost impossible to transmit and symptoms are mild. Why cull? Food control? Fear-mongering? Vaccine-mongering? Harbinger of a future lab-designed virus?

Bird flu is transmitted mainly by wild birds, like these snow geese in Ruthsberg, Md., in January 2023. Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

From today’s Yahoo News:

An outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza that started in 2021 has become the largest bird flu outbreak in history, both in the U.S. and worldwide. In the U.S. the virus has led to the destruction of millions of commercially raised chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese, and has killed thousands of wild birds.

Here is how bizarrely this issue was handled. From a report published last April in the Guardian:

More than 22 million birds have been killed in an attempt to contain the outbreak – the majority in Iowa, the US’s biggest producer of eggs. The slaughter of 5.3m hens at Rembrandt is the largest culling at any factory farm in the country.

The article goes on to say the billionaire owner of the plant fired almost all the workers immediately after they had killed and disposed of 5 million chickens, after one chicken tested positive for H5N1 “bird flu.”

But it seems that was only the beginning of the culling, according to a January 2023 article from NBC:

Nearly 58 million birds from commercial and backyard flocks have been wiped out in the U.S. since last February, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service…

“As it is now, this is the largest animal emergency that the USDA has faced in this country,” said Gino Lorenzoni, an assistant professor of poultry science and avian health at Pennsylvania State University.

More than 40 million egg-laying hens have been culled in the U.S. alone, causing the price of eggs nationwide to skyrocket, Lorenzoni said. Months earlier, the “bird flu” outbreak drove the cost of turkey meat to record highs.

From a December 2022 STAT article we find Sir Jeremy wants to stoke the bird flu fear. You never know, H5N1 virus could mutate and start killing us, any day:

“In an interview with STAT on Sunday — unrelated to his new appointment —  [Sir Dr. Jeremy] Farrar expressed renewed concern about H5N1, which after years of relative quiescence has spread around the world, causing major losses in poultry flocks.

The current version of the virus infects people less frequently than did the version that was circulating in the mid-to-late aughts. And when human infections now occur, as did one in Colorado in the spring, the illness is now typically mild. He warned, though, that it shouldn’t be assumed the virus couldn’t regain virulence and become a greater threat to people.”

And CDC confirms both that transmission is rare and that the only case identified in the US was mild and resolved rapidly:

A person has tested positive for avian influenza A(H5) virus (H5 bird flu) in the U.S., as reported by Colorado and confirmed by CDC. This case occurred in a person who had direct exposure to poultry and was involved in the culling (depopulating) of  poultry with presumptive H5N1 bird flu. The patient reported fatigue for a few days as their only symptom and has since recovered.

The same CDC article goes on to say:

CDC has tracked the health of more than 2,500 people with exposures to H5N1 virus-infected birds and this is the only case that has been found to date. Other people involved in the culling operation in Colorado have tested negative for H5 virus infection, but they are being retested out of an abundance of caution.

This is the second human case associated with this specific group of H5 viruses that are currently predominant, and the first case in the United States.

Desperately seeking H5N1 in humans, CDC? And of course the article fails to surprise us:

CDC also is monitoring H5N1 viruses for genetic changes that have been associated with adaptation to mammals, which could indicate the virus is adapting to spread more readily from birds to people. CDC is taking routine preparedness and prevention measures, which includes an existing candidate vaccine virus that could be used to make vaccine for people if one were needed.

So, a broad culling strategy for commercial birds was devised when H5N1 was a different virus and occasionally killed humans, It also was not widespread in wild birds then. This is a version of “Track and Trace,” which might work when the disease isn’t everywhere (i.e., ‘community spread.’). But now with widespread wild bird infections, there is community spread. And, as with Omicron, the disease itself became a lot milder in humans.

And the UK is developing a new lateral flow test for bird flu that is likely to increase the false positives. Oh joy.

Did it become milder in chickens? If they don’t cull, will we learn this is just a cold in chickens? Maybe it doesn’t spread to all the birds, and we should actually seek out the birds that have natural immunity, and find out what they have? Maybe a drug or vaccine would solve the problem? Of if the disease is mild in chickens, maybe all that is needed at this point is to let them recover. Did the one chicken that tested positive have any symptoms?

What does the USDA, which is managing the culls, say about all this? According to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS):

APHIS collects and tests large numbers of samples from wild birds in the North American flyways. It is not uncommon to detect avian influenza in wild birds, as avian influenza viruses circulate freely in those populations without the birds appearing sick.

Why am I surprised? Bird flu has been rolled into the Biosecurity agenda, and the USDA is teaching farmers Biosecurity. Are they keeping this bird flu farce going to justify One Health? I bet that’s it. Curse the Global Biosecurity Agenda each time you buy a dozen eggs.

Defend the Flock - Biosecurity 101