Dive Brief:
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U.S. health officials on Thursday confirmed three additional human cases of bird flu linked to a Colorado poultry farm outbreak, bringing the statewide total to 10.
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The three cases came from a Weld County egg farm unrelated to another, nearby site that reported six cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A Colorado dairy worker tested positive earlier this month.
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The U.S. has reported 14 human cases since the outbreak began in 2022, with Colorado reporting the highest number of any state. The virus has also been rapidly spreading among humans across the Asia-Pacific region, prompting the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization to call for urgent efforts to slow the outbreak.
Dive Insight:
A growing number of cases in the U.S. and around the world is ramping up pressure on governments to implement coordinated action to combat avian influenza and slow transmission between animals and people.
Globally, the H5N1 bird flu virus has spread more widely than ever before, reaching as far as South America and Antarctica, according to the U.N’s Food and Agriculture Organization. It has also been infecting new animals, including marine mammals, domestic pets and ruminants like dairy cattle.
Moreover, public health officials have expressed major concern about the emergence of a new variant presenting challenges for scientists and community health officials. Novel A/H5N1 strains are more easily transmissible, according to FAO, increasing the threat of a potential pandemic.
“The recent surge in avian influenza outbreaks is deeply concerning,” Kachen Wongsathapornchai, regional manager of FAO Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases, said in a statement. “Immediate, coordinated preventive measures are essential.”
Cambodia recently reported 13 human cases, with other more populous Pacific Rim countries such as China and Vietnam seeing additional cases since 2023. In the last two years, people have also tested positive for the virus in Australia, Chile, Ecuador, Spain and the United Kingdom, according to the CDC.
In the U.S., 13 people have tested positive for bird flu since April, according to the CDC as of July 26. America’s only previous human case was found in a Colorado poultry worker in 2022, the start of the current outbreak.
At this time, there is no evidence of person-to-person spread, prompting U.S. health officials to state the general public’s risk of bird flu infection is low. However, officials say there is a higher risk among those who work directly with infected animals.
As variations of the virus continue to spread, FAO is urging member countries to create a unified response, implementing comprehensive surveillance systems, building capacity for analyzing virus data and devising effective containment strategies. Additionally, the organization said strengthening biosecurity measures and awareness in the poultry industry to reduce risk of transmission is imperative.
In an effort to increase public transparency about the developing situation in Colorado, the state’s Department of Public Health and Environment launched a website tracker with plans to update twice per week.
In Colorado, health officials have tested 118 people for the virus since May, with the CDC noting that more than 600 workers on three farms have been screened. Of that total, 10 farm workers have been confirmed positive, according to the state’s online tracker as of July 29, making Colorado home to the largest human outbreak of bird flu in the U.S.
