should you worry about bird flu?

we’re dealing with one of the biggest outbreaks of avian influenza, or bird flu, in years. since december, when flocks of chicken, geese, turkeys, emu and other birds started getting sick and dying in newfoundland , there have also been various outbreaks in ontario , quebec, b.c. , nova scotia , alberta and saskatchewan . nearly 260,000 birds have either died of the h5n1 virus or been culled, according to the canadian food inspection agency. in the u.s., that number is a hefty 24 million . the last time there was a bird flu outbreak in canada was in 2016, and it affected only ducks in one part of ontario before fading away.

more than two years into the covid pandemic, with fatigue starting to set in even as cases continue to rise into a sixth wave , many of us don’t have the bandwidth to stress about another potentially dangerous contagious illness. but should we be worried?

low likelihood of catching the virus, but a high mortality rate

the good news, according to matthew miller , a professor at mcmaster university in hamilton, ont., is that unless you’re a poultry farmer, you should be “only mildly concerned at this stage.”

no current transmission between humans

avian flu is a gastrointestinal infection that spreads primarily in poultry (chicken, turkeys), waterfowl (ducks, geese, swans, gulls, terns) and shorebirds (storks, sandpipers) — waterfowl seems to be faring the worst, npr has reported . the virus can then be transmitted to the birds of prey who eat their bodies.

the only human known to have contracted this specific virus is an elderly person living in the u.k., npr reported on april 9. this person lived in close quarters with 125 ducks, some of whom got sick and died. the owner, though, didn’t have any symptoms. some americans who were in contact with infected birds did experience flu-like symptoms, but they all tested negative for the virus.

how to stay safe from bird flu

luckily, there are very robust measures in place to prevent this kind of virus from spreading, miller says. when birds with the virus are detected, the whole flock is typically culled to prevent transmission of any kind (the current outbreak is forcing authorities to figure out the grim details of how to go about killing millions of birds at once). in canada and the u.s. , zoos and conservation areas are closing birds off from the public to prevent any possible transmission.