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Avian influenza, also known as avian flu or bird flu, is a disease caused by the influenza A virus, which primarily affects birds but can sometimes affect mammals including humans. [1] Wild aquatic birds are the primary host of the influenza A virus, which is enzootic (continually present) in many bird populations.
Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 (A/H5N1) is a subtype of the influenza A virus, which causes the disease avian influenza (often referred to as "bird flu"). It is enzootic (maintained in the population) in many bird populations, and also panzootic (affecting animals of many species over a wide area). [1]
Influenza A virus (IAV) is the only species of the genus Alphainfluenzavirus of the virus family Orthomyxoviridae. [1] It is a pathogen with strains that infect birds and some mammals, as well as causing seasonal flu in humans. [2]
Infected birds shed the virus in their saliva, mucus, and feces. The virus was first detected in poultry in 2013, since then spreading among wild bird populations and poultry around the world. Humans can be infected through unprotected contact with infected birds or contaminated surfaces. The virus transmits by getting into a person's eyes ...
Avian flu virus can last indefinitely at a temperature dozens of degrees below freezing, as is found in the northernmost areas that migratory birds frequent. [citation needed] Heat kills H5N1 (i.e. inactivates the virus). Influenza A viruses can survive: Over 30 days at 0 °C (32.0 °F) (over one month at freezing temperature)
[8] [10] In 2020, reassortment (genetic "swapping") between these H5-2.3.4.4b viruses and other strains of avian influenza led to the emergence of a H5N1 strain with a H5-2.3.4.4b gene. [8] The virus then spread across Europe, first detected there in the autumn of 2020, before spreading to Africa and Asia . [ 1 ]
Because of that, both avian and mammalian influenza viruses can infect pigs. If co-infection occurs, reassortment is possible. [20] A notable example of this was the reassortment of a swine, avian, and human influenza virus that caused the 2009 flu pandemic. [20] [4] Spillover events from humans to pigs appear to be more common than from pigs ...
The virus saw over 7,000 birds succumbing to the virus. As a result, the company, culled over 140,000 birds to prevent the spread of the virus. [20] Even though a ban on all avian products from Zimbabwe was issued, on 22 June an outbreak [21] [22] was reported at a commercial broiler poultry farm outside Villiers, South Africa after 5,000 ...