Scientists Fear Bird Flu Surge as Billions of Birds Start to Fly Home

The past year has already been a bad one for H5N1, the virus that causes bird flu. And it’s about to get worse as wild birds complete their spring migrations in the northern hemisphere in the coming weeks, experts warned.

Where birds go, H5N1 goes too. All along bird-migration routes, which criss-cross North America, Europe and Asia, infection risk could increase. Not only for other birds—including domestic flocks of chickens, ducks and turkeys—but also for the growing number of mammal species that have caught bird flu. Foxes. Bears. Sea lions. Minks. Pigs. “Increased migration is definitely a concern,” James Lawler, an infectious disease expert at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, told The Daily Beast.

The risk to people could spike, too. The 2022-2023 bird flu outbreak has already claimed at least one human victim, in China last year. At least five other people have caught the virus and survived.

Read more at The Daily Beast.