Bird flu surges among poultry amid a scaled back federal response

As birds fly south for the winter, they're carrying with them some unwelcome cargo: the H5N1 virus, or bird flu. In the past 30 days, the virus has struck 66 poultry flocks, leading to the deaths of more than 3.5 million turkeys, chickens and ducks, a steep increase compared to the summer months. The virus can spread easily when infected wild birds mix with commercial or backyard flocks.

If not taken seriously, the fallout could lead to more than high egg prices. Influenza researchers fear a replay of last year when, for the first time, the U.S. saw close to 70 human cases, including one death. Scientists involved in tracking the virus say they don't have good visibility into what's happening in animals or humans. That's because the federal government has scaled back on surveillance and communication.

"We're not in a great position for monitoring things," says a virologist at Tufts University. She says a network of influenza researchers used to be in constant contact with their counterparts at federal health agencies about H5N1, mapping out research priorities and discussing changes in the virus. But now "much of that infrastructure has been either completely closed down or significantly hampered," under the Trump administration, due to cutbacks in staffing, early retirements and other policies.

Another pressing issue: Data coming from the federally-run lab that does genetic sequencing of virus collected from infected animals has slowed to a trickle, something that was true even before the government shutdown. Loss of staff at the U.S. Department of Agriculture — and the fact that communication with scientists needs to be "pre-approved" — has created obstacles, at a time when the threat of spillover from wildlife is increasing.

As far as scientists can tell, the strain of H5N1 that's widely circulating has not seen the kind of mutations that would enable it to easily infect humans. But the conditions on farms with infected cattle are clearly a risk for workers who are essentially breathing in H5N1 particles that are aerosolized and remain infectious. Minnesota has seen about two dozen outbreaks on farms since mid-September, and an epidemiologist at that state's department of health says they are monitoring about 35 people who were exposed in case they develop symptoms.

Testing farm workers – the group at the highest risk of catching and spreading the virus – has been a problem since the beginning of the outbreak. This kind of long-term research requires buy-in from farmers and their workers who are often undocumented. And that's unlikely to happen now because of fears about the Trump administration's immigration enforcement. When they were interviewing farm workers in California about bird flu this fall, many were too afraid to leave their homes. Their survey of several hundred workers in three states showed about 20% had symptoms at the same time animals on their farms were sick. Most of those people said they were never tested.