We’re regularly rounding up the latest news on avian influenza. Here’s what happened recently.
Human Cases Genetically Sequenced
There have been 70 confirmed H5N1 bird flu infections in humans and one death since April 2024, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of February 28, the agency has categorized the risk to the general population as low but the risk to those in contact with potentially infected animals or contaminated surfaces or fluids as moderate to high. The vast majority of human infections have been in people exposed to infected dairy cows or poultry, including backyard birds.
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The CDC has genetically sequenced the bird flu viruses that recently infected people in Nevada and Wyoming. (As of February 26, sequencing data from an infected person in Ohio had not yet been made available.) In the Nevada case, the sequenced virus was found to belong to the H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4.b and genotype D1.1—almost identical to the viral strain that was isolated from dairy cattle in Nevada, with which the infected person had been in contact. That genotype may have jumped from birds to cattle in early December 2024. The new human sequence contained a mutation that was shown to make the virus replicate more efficiently in mammals.
The sequence for the Wyoming case was also determined to represent clade 2.3.4.4.b and genotype D1.1. It contained a different mutation that has been linked to more efficient viral replication in people and other mammals. That mutation was previously seen in a person infected in Texas last year. Neither the Wyoming nor the Nevada sequences contained any changes that might alter the effectiveness of antiviral treatments or vaccines, the CDC said.
The agency has issued infection prevention recommendations for the general public, farm workers and employers and people who own backyard flocks.
Trump Admin Releases Plan to Lower Egg Prices
Last week the Trump administration described plans to lower egg prices, which have reached historic highs in recent weeks as H5N1 has decimated poultry farms around the country. Brooke Rollins, President Donald Trump’s secretary of agriculture, published an opinion article in the Wall Street Journal that laid out five steps the administration plans to take to bring down the cost of eggs.
These include providing $500 million in funding for biosecurity measures on poultry farms, $400 million in financial compensation to farmers with infected flocks and $100 million to explore the use of vaccines for egg-laying chickens (a somewhat controversial move that some other countries have already taken). The plan also includes removing what Rollins called “unnecessary burdens” on egg producers, such as a California law that establishes minimum space requirements for hens. Additionally, it would make it easier for families to raise backyard chickens—notably, several of the human H5N1 cases, including the only reported human death, were in people with exposure to backyard birds. Lastly, the Trump administration is considering temporarily importing eggs from abroad. Turkey has already begun exporting eggs to the U.S.
Whether these measures will reduce the price of eggs remains to be seen. The Guardian reported that major producers may be hiking egg prices for profit.
HHS Reevaluating Bird Flu Vaccine Contract
The Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services is reevaluating a contract with pharmaceutical company Moderna to test a vaccine for bird flu, Bloomberg News reported. In its final days in office, then president Joe Biden’s administration had issued the $590-million contract to Moderna to help fast-track testing of the safety and efficacy of messenger RNA –based (mRNA-based) bird flu vaccines, which could be essential if the current outbreak in cows, birds and humans becomes a pandemic. MRNA vaccines were critically important for helping end the COVID pandemic.
The Moderna Inc. headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Adam Glanzman/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“While it is crucial that the U.S. Department and Health and Human Services support pandemic preparedness, four years of the Biden administration’s failed oversight have made it necessary to review agreements for vaccine production,” said an HHS spokesperson in a statement to Bloomberg News.
Moderna had been preparing for the final trial of its vaccine, but that trial is now in jeopardy.