Bird Flu Deaths in Brazil Have Officials Sounding Alarms the Virus Could Jump to Humans

The continuing outbreak of bird flu has led to the deaths of more than 900 seals and sea lions in southern Brazil.

The state of Rio Grande do Sul said that 942 animals died from the disease, and that the carcasses have to be incinerated as soon as possible to try to prevent further spread, Reuters reports. 

A global outbreak that began in 2022 has put health officials on high alert. In mid-October, researchers from the University of Washington detected the presence of H5N1, the strain of the flu currently circulating, in harbor seals that live in Puget Sound, and warned people to keep their distance from wildlife in the area.

The presence of the virus in seals is concerning because it shows that it can be transmitted from birds to mammals, possibly including humans. As of late November, there have been six bird flu cases in humans in Cambodia, with three people dying from the disease. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), only one case of bird flu in humans in the United States has been recorded since April of 2020. At the same time, more than 60 million poultry birds in the United States have been culled due to the outbreak, and H5N1 has been spotted in 8,278 wild birds in the country. 

France has also been hit by the outbreak; more than 8,000 ducks had to be killed after a nearby farm cat was confirmed to be carrying the disease. France’s solution has been to begin a vaccination campaign for the country’s domestic duck population, with a goal of vaccinating about 60 million ducks over the upcoming year.

“This vaccination plan...is a world first: its goal is to protect all farmed birds and should put an end to the preventive slaughter of animals, which no one wants to live with anymore," CIFOG, a group of trade professionals in the fattened poultry industry, said in a statement regarding the program.

However, this plan hasn’t been welcomed everywhere, and the United States and Canada have imposed restrictions on French poultry imports, saying that a vaccinated duck might not show symptoms while still bringing the flu across their borders.