‘Tempo Has Increased’ in Bird Flu Spread in US

By Ryan Hanrahan

The New York Times’ Apoorva Mandavilli reported Monday that “when bird flu first struck dairy cattle a year ago, it seemed possible that it might affect a few isolated herds and disappear as quickly as it had appeared. Instead, the virus has infected more than 900 herds and dozens of people, killing one, and the outbreak shows no signs of abating.”

“A human pandemic is not inevitable, even now, more than a dozen experts said in interviews. But a series of developments over the past few weeks indicates that the possibility is no longer remote,” Mandavilli reported. “Toothless guidelines, inadequate testing and long delays in releasing data — echoes of the missteps during the Covid-19 pandemic — have squandered opportunities for containing the outbreak, the experts said.”

“Since January 2022, when the virus was detected in wild aquatic birds in the United States, it has affected more than 136 million commercial, backyard and wild birds, helping to send egg prices soaring,” Mandavilli reported. “It has also struck dozens of mammalian species, including cats both wild and domesticated, raccoons, bears and sea lions. For at least a year, H5N1 has been infecting dairy cattle, which were not known to be susceptible to this type of influenza. In some cows, it has had lasting effects, reducing milk production and increasing the odds of spontaneous abortions.”

“And in 2024, the virus infected 67 Americans, compared with just one in the years before, in 2022. The sources of these infections are not all known; one person may have transmitted the virus to someone in their household,” Mandavilli reported. “Infections in dairy herds, which first emerged in Texas, appeared to be declining last summer. But in late August, California announced its first case. The state’s figures soon rose sharply, prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a public health emergency in December.”

“‘That was sort of a flag to me, like, ‘OK, this hasn’t gone away,’” said Dr. Manisha Juthani, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health,” according to Mandavilli’s reporting. “‘Over the last couple of months, it has felt like the tempo has increased,’ she said.”

Bird Flu Outbreaks Increasing Egg Prices

USA Today’s Jonathan Limehouse and Mary Walrath-Holdridge reported Monday that “according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) price outlook, egg prices are predicted to increase about 20% in 2025, compared to about 2.2% for overall food prices. The USDA attributed the rise in egg costs to the highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu, outbreak,which has caused a strain in supply.”

“The price hike is not sudden, as eggs cost 36.8% more in December 2024 than in December 2023, but were still below peak prices from January 2023, according to the USDA. The outlook says retail egg prices climbed 8.4% in December 2024 and continued to experience volatile month-to-month changes,” Limehouse and Walrath-Holdridge reported.