Avian flu – a new threat for Alaska

There are a lot of threats at the moment, such as the Zika Virus and the Avian flu. A lethal form of avian flu was discovered in a wild duck in Alaska. The authorities fear the virus might return after it has not been spotted for more than a year.

• A new case of avian flu was discovered in the wild duck, in Alaska.
• The avian flu affected more than 50 million birds last year and it can become more dangerous in the future.

This virus is very dangerous and it affected more than 50 million birds last year. Its scientific name is H5N2 virus. It is likely to spread among wild duck because they migrate across the country. This makes things more difficult for the authorities. Even if they manage to kill all the infected birds, they can’t be sure the virus will come again.

When the virus is detected on a farm, all those birds have to be killed to prevent the further spread of the disease.  Researchers think that a European strain of the virus began to mix with  North American ones and create a dangerous variant that can kill the birds. The disease has been in the fund from Washinton to Arkansas. Alaska is now in danger because there is no biosecurity and people do not pay attention to their cleaning around the farm.

Humans are not in danger because the human health risk of the avian flu is low. No human infections have been identified. However, they can affect the birds and this is a huge problem. There were other versions of this virus in Indiana or Missouri, but they were less lethal than the one found in Alaska.

A few years ago, the International  Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza was forced to improve disease reporting because the avian flu was getting more dangerous. Researchers all over the world looked for a cure and what other effects this diseases can have. There has been a lot of efforts to keep this flu away from the farms. The avian flu could become dangerous for people too because there are many versions of this virus that could be discovered. We must pay attention and talk to the authorities if we see something is not right with our birds. If a bird is infected with this virus, it will be killed.

Image source: Wikipedia