Avian Flu

Hello!

I wanted to put Covid-19 to rest for one blog and discuss another disease that thankfully isn’t as pressing: Bird Flu. I picked this disease because my family recently bought baby chicks and my boyfriend jokes with me to stop holding them because I will get avian flu. I didn’t know too much about it before writing this blog so I thought it would be interesting and fun to share with you. This virus is an enveloped RNA virus. It occurs naturally among bird species worldwide.

This virus is important to detect because obviously poultry is a large part of many individuals’ diets. There was a recent outbreak in South Carolina among the chicken farming community. It has been the most serious/fatal strain of the disease since 2017. There are two common strains of low pathogenic bird flu: H5 and H7 which can mutate into highly pathogenic strains. This makes it easily transmitted between species. These low pathogenic strains were already in the NC/SC area; however, further testing revealed a high pathogenic strain that mutated into a more severe version of the disease. When this occurs, farmers have to kill all the infected birds which is very tragic. According to another article, no human cases have been detected but the effects it has on farming is severe. 

Unfortunately, because Covid-19 is so severe, other really important news gets brushed under the rug which is really sad. Not all of it is bad, and it is really hard to rejoice the good news when the media is filled with the pandemic. I’m not saying that there should be less coverage. I just want to emphasize that there are always things going on and right now the virus has blinded many people from other news. Some examples are: apparently young gorillas are beginning to learn how to dismantle poacher traps in the wild and Italy’s waterways are clearing and pools of fish and dolphins have been spotted in the canals. These are just things I have read in various places. I hope this encourages you to look for the good in this troubling time. 

Happy Easter!