19 February 2025

3 minute read

By: Global Ag Media

Europe

Poultry flocks infected with bird flu are culled to prevent the spread of the virus whereas culling wild birds is generally not feasible, contrary to posts online that suggest only domesticated birds are being killed in order to manipulate US food supplies, reported Reuters. 

An outbreak of avian influenza affecting poultry and livestock has led to the culling of hundreds of millions of birds, reduced milk output in dairy cows, sent egg prices soaring nationwide and resulted in the death of one person in Louisiana.

Posts online reshared an image of a cartoon chicken with the text, “REMEMBER THEY ARE NOT KILLING THE DUCKS, SEAGULLS, EAGLES OR QUAIL. Strangely, bird flu only affects chickens, cows and humans...”. Comments on the posts suggest that bird flu is a pretext for attacking food supplies.

“They're getting after only the livestock and birds we regularly consume because it is a siege on our food! Don't chump for it,” one post said. Others called the culling a “fraud” or “fearporn.”

Highly pathogenic strains of avian flu can cause illness and death in both domesticated poultry and migratory wild birds, which are natural reservoirs for the virus and can spread it through direct contact or by contaminating surfaces.

While euthanizing wild birds is rare for practical reasons, it has been done. For domesticated flocks, “Depopulating affected animals is...one of the most effective ways to stop disease spread and protect US animal health as a whole,” according to the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).

The virus spreads rapidly in poultry and with high mortality. “Once you get a virus in a barn it's like a wildfire...You’re being humane and putting them down. If you did nothing for several days, the barn would be dead anyway," Michael Osterholm director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told Reuters.

Poultry and livestock

Poultry are culled when bird flu is detected in even one bird in a flock but that is not standard practice for livestock such as dairy cattle, which can recover from the disease.

The latest APHIS data show over 157 million birds in commercial and backyard flocks have been affected mainly by the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, but also the less common H5N9, since the start of the US avian flu outbreak in February 2022.

Commercial duck farms in New York and California euthanized more than 200,000 ducks in December and January after birds tested positive for the viruses, according to ABC7 and Reuters.

Culling poultry is “not about supply and demand” for food, Osterholm said, but because birds are “going to get infected and die if we don’t.” As cows can recover from bird flu infections, there is no reason to cull them, he added.

Dairy cattle in 16 states have been infected with H5N1 during the current outbreak, but only about 2% of affected cows have died or been euthanized, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.

The only confirmed case of H5N1 in pigs during the current outbreak was in October at a backyard farm in Oregon. One pig tested positive and five were slaughtered for further analysis.

Infeasible in wildlife

APHIS monitors detections of flu viruses in wild birds such as ducks, gulls, quails and eagles, and in wild mammals, including bears, feral cats and dogs, skunks, raccoons and marine mammals.

It’s unrealistic to cull wild birds infected with flu because there are too many and there’s no way to capture them, Osterholm said. “So unfortunately, wild birds will die after being infected and seriously ill.”

In January, the Pennsylvania Game Commission announced that bird flu was suspected to have caused the death of 200 snow geese in Northampton and Lehigh counties and said on X that its teams were working to “euthanize sick birds.” A local news report on January 16 said commission crews shot 550 birds in the two counties.

Verdict

Misleading. Poultry infected with bird flu are euthanized to contain the virus, but the practice is not feasible for wild birds.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team.