Bird flu in N.C. poultry and recent U.S. death spark fears of human transmission

A commercial poultry farm in North Carolina said it has detected bird flu.

The case was identified in Hyde County at a farm that raises birds that lay eggs for commercial egg production. 

Multiple labs, including one in Raleigh, confirmed the appearance of bird flu at the farm. It is the state’s first case since Feb. 2024.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the virus is not considered a food safety threat, and infected birds are not in the food supply. 

While the virus’ risk to humans remains low, many residents say they are concerned about mutations the virus has made in recent months.

On Monday, health officials in Louisiana said a patient who contracted a severe case of bird flu died from complications, making it the first human death tied to the virus.

According to the state’s health department, the patient was in his 60s and had underlying health conditions, but they were growing concerned at the rate the virus had mutated.

Richard Webby, a scientist with the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Centre for Studies on Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds, said scientists’ goal is to recognize the warning signs while not causing a panic about another pandemic.

“This virus in its current form is of low risk to humans, but the situation as a whole is a little more worrying,” said Webby. “We’re giving this virus a lot of opportunities to change and that’s really where the real worry comes in. Low risk but the potential consequences are quite scary.”

Webby has tracked bird flu across the globe from his Tennessee-based lab at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for 25 years.

“H5 has done a lot of things over the past 25 years. I think perhaps most of all, it spread globally,” Webby shared.

The researcher shared the virus started off in Southeast Asia, spreading to Europe, Africa and eventually North and South America. Webby said the virus underwent some changes along the way but has largely remained a threat to birds.

“Right now, this virus is still very much a bird virus. It wants to replicate in birds and some of these other hosts and not in humans,” noted Webby. “In wild birds, a lot of this is actually a gastrointestinal infection.”

The researcher shared fecal matter from wild birds could help unlock some mysteries of the virus. Webby said in addition to his lab, labs worldwide are actively swabbing and testing birds and other animals to try and determine “exactly the steps this virus may take.”

He added, “If we can understand that, then hopefully we can be a little bit ahead of the curb if something starts to change.”

A rise in infections in other animals more recently has led to new discoveries by researchers.

“For example, the virus infects cows. Earlier last year, we didn’t even know that, so there’s lots of things we’ve learned but still so many things we don’t understand about this virus as well,” Webby said.

The detection of a mutation in a human and subsequent death of a patient in Louisiana is concerning to the expert.

“We know there are specific mutations in that virus that can switch it from one day being a bird or chicken virus to being a human virus or more adapted to humans,” he said.

He continued, “When the U.S. CDC looked into the sequence of the virus in that person, it looked like there was some evidence the virus was starting to make some of those changes. That is the main concern of the virus from that individual.”

Webby shared the silver lining to take from the rare human cases is none have resulted in human-to-human transmission.

While residents are concerned about another pandemic, Webby said the United States is far more prepared for a bird flu outbreak because of lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that both viruses share a few similarities.

“They both started with an animal source, and they switched host from being an animal or bird into something that transferred over to humans,” he said.

He also noted social distancing measures and masking protocols originally put into place to slow COVID-19 were found to be even more effective against influenza.

Should human-to-human contact become a reality, Webby says researchers know how to make vaccines for bird flu. 

The U.S. government is heavily investing in developing bird flu vaccines, millions of which are under development by CSL Seqirus.

Webby further emphasized the average person who doesn’t have a lot of contact with animals or birds is at a very low risk of catching avian influenza.

He stated we’d likely see doses of the bird flu vaccines used after the virus has made the leap from one human to another. Rollout would likely be similar to that of COVID-19 vaccines the scientist theorized, with healthcare workers, emergency responders and highest-risk populations receiving the first doses.

The CDC advises you to stay away from wild animals and birds, thoroughly wash produce and avoid drinking raw milk.

Raw milk sales are illegal in North Carolina and the pasteurization process the state’s supply undergoes kills harmful microbes, including bird flu.