Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching

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The highly infectious avian flu strain H5N1 is currently almost exclusively a bird virus. Hundreds of millions of birds have died, but only a few hundred people have become infected. Of those infected though, more than half have died. What keeps the world’s public health authorities awake at night is the possibility that this virus might mutate into a human form, easily transmissible from one person to the next, and thereby trigger the next influenza pandemic. It’s happened before.

In 1918, a bird flu virus spawned one of the worst plagues in human history, a flu pandemic killing millions and infecting half the world’s population. The virus is thought to have gained its virulence in soldiers trapped by the millions in the crowded, stressful, unhygienic conditions of World War I. From the point of view of this virus, these same trench warfare conditions exist today in industrial chicken and egg operations around the world, offering billions of feathered “test tubes” for viruses to incubate and mutate within — billions more spins at pandemic roulette.

Most experts believe that another flu pandemic is inevitable, but we don’t know when it will strike or how bad it will be. Given the unprecedented spread of the H5N1 virus, there is worldwide apprehension in the scientific community that another pandemic is imminent. Hopefully this current level of concern will spur us to action, to better prepare our communities and, perhaps, to recognize the many hidden costs of cheap food.

Reversing course away from raising birds by the billions under intensive confinement, and towards more sustainable, organic methods of production can decrease the risk of the emergence of future highly pathogenic flu viruses, but H5N1 has already hatched. There seems little hope in eradicating this virus now that it has become endemic in the ecosystems across two continents. This means that we should all be prepared to take practical, concrete steps to mediate the impact if a pandemic threatens our families and communities. See "Surviving the Next Pandemic" below to learn more about how to protect yourself.

Influenza Evolution: From Ponds to People

The avian influenza virus has existed for millions of years as an innocuous, intestinal, waterborne infection of aquatic birds, harmless to both birds and people. So what has caused a duck’s harmless intestinal bug to become a threat to humans?

In people, a virus must make us sick in order to spread; it has evolved to make us cough to shoot the virus from one person to the next. In the avian influenza virus’ natural reservoir though, the duck doesn’t get sick, because the virus doesn’t need to make the duck sick to spread. In fact, it’s in the virus’ best interest for the bird not to get sick, so it can spread even further. After all, dead ducks don’t fly. Instead, the virus silently multiplies in the duck’s intestinal lining, is excreted into the pond water, and then is swallowed up by another duck — so the cycle continues as it has for millions of years and no one gets hurt.

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