A highly contagious strain of bird flu sweeps through New York City

A community science project, called the New York City Virus Hunters (NYCVH) program, has revealed that a number of the US state's birds have been infected with a highly contagious strain of bird flu in recent years.

Project volunteers collected 1,927 samples of bird feces from various urban parks and green spaces spread across the city, between 2022 and 2023, in addition to some samples from animal rehabilitation centers.

Samples from 6 birds were found to be infected with the virus (in total), including a red-tailed hawk, 3 Canadian geese, a peregrine falcon, and a chicken.

While the bird flu outbreak in New York City poses a low risk to humans and pets, it is not a risk-free situation.

“It's smart to remain vigilant and stay away from wildlife,” says Christine Marizzi, a microbiologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “This also includes preventing pets from coming into close contact with wildlife.”

While the results indicate that the latest strains of highly pathogenic avian influenza have been present in New York for at least two years, no human cases have been reported.

However, a farm worker in Texas recently fell ill with bird flu after coming into contact with a sick cow. This unique case may be the first case of bird flu being transmitted from mammals to humans.

In this regard, WHO officials take the potential threat of infection spreading to mammals very seriously, especially since the H5N1 bird influenza virus could be very deadly if it infects humans.

In the United States alone, bird flu outbreaks have spread from migratory birds to wild foxes, raccoons, seals, panthers, and bears. Domestic cats and dogs, as well as cattle and goats, also became infected.

Some at the World Health Organization are describing the current bird flu outbreak as a “zoonotic global pandemic . ”

Earlier this year, dozens of cats died on a dairy farm due to drinking cow's milk contaminated with bird flu .

The study was published in the Journal of Virology.