You’ve likely heard of avian flu, or as it’s more commonly known, bird flu.
It’s a respiratory virus that affects wild birds, but has spread through the years to domestic poultry.
But the latest case of bird flu that has health professionals concerned wasn’t diagnosed in a bird. Instead, the first H5N1 avian flu case in a pig came last week in a backyard farm in Oregon.
The farm, a non-commercial operation, does not provide any meat for the commercial food supply, according to the Oregon Department of Health. And the farm reported an outbreak of bird flu in more than 70 chickens earlier in the week. So it’s believed the pigs and poultry shared water from a common source, along with housing and equipment in close proximity.
The birds and the farm’s five pigs were humanely euthanized for additional diagnosis and study. And officials continue to study whether the pig was truly infected or if its nasal passages were contaminated simply by environmental exposure.
Still, though, it’s drawn the attention of United States Department of Agriculture and animal science experts because pigs are a ‘mixing vessel for zoonotic and human influenza viruses,’ according to the USDA.
And Ali Gotcher, Regional Extension Agent for Animal Science and Forages says there are no immediate concerns that animals with avian flu will create additional risks for humans.
“Avian flu is a zoonotic disease (meaning it can be transferred from animals to humans) but when humans get it,it’s usually not much more than a common cold,” Gotcher said. “There was evidence (of avian flu) found in buried cattle last summer in Texas because those cattle had come in close contact with poultry, as was the case at the Oregon farm, and drank out of the water where birds had died.
“There are systems in place to be sure none of this ever gets into our food supply and this is a good instance of those protections in place catching it before it got away and became a problem in the food supply,” she added.
In commercial operations like poultry farms, the risk of an animal contracting avian flu is minimal because the chickens don’t come into contact with other animals in their controlled environment, Gotcher explained.
But if the avian virus starts to regularly infect pigs, scientists worry the virus may mix with other virus strains creating a new virus more likely to affect humans.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the ongoing bird flu outbreak in the U.S. has affected more than 104 million poultry and 403 dairy herds in 14 states.
The CDC also reported 39 cases of H5N1 in humans, including nine in Washington this week — three of which were detected in Oregon when they traveled during their infection.
With more than 100,000 pigs on Alabama farms, according to the Alabama Farmers Foundation, whether the Oregon pig’s diagnosis is an isolated incident or the start of a ‘pork pandemic’ bears watching.
For now, though, go ahead and enjoy another bacon biscuit or BLT.
There should not be any issues in that front (commercial food supply),” Gotc
