#avian flu

a lot of you who follow me are birders or inatters or adjacent. hence, a lot of you guys have birdfeeders.

from a rehab worker of almost 3 years: Disinfect your goddamn feeders. not only for HPAI but other diseases, such as avian pox, and for the safety of the birds

and of course, heres how!

A domestic cat in southeastern Saskatchewan has died after contracting "highly pathogenic avian influenza," according to a news release from the provincial Ministry of Agriculture. The cat that contracted the illness seemed normal on the morning of April 20, but very quickly deteriorated — showing sudden neurological and respiratory signs. It died the same day.  Post-mortem testing from Prairie Diagnostic Services and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed the presence of the H5N1 strain of the highly pathogenic avian flu, the news release says.

Read more.

Also preserved in our archive

Keep your cats inside

2. Look at all the similarities between H5N1 and covid

Massive undercount of cases

Massive zoonotic spread

Frequent mutation to jump to new species

Spreads on the air and through feces

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1. Solar-powered lights on fishing nets cut sea turtle entanglement by 63%

“[R]esearchers at Arizona State University collaborated with a team of coastal gillnet fishers to develop solar-powered lights that function as buoys, like any others threaded onto the float line of a fishing net. The LED lights flash on and off to conserve energy and can stay active for over five days with no sunlight. [...S]ea turtle bycatch rates were 63% lower in the solar-powered illuminated nets compared to unlit control nets. And the lighted buoys did not interfere with fishing success.”

2. The liquid air alternative to fossil fuels

“[...T]he first liquid air energy storage facility is finally set to power up in 2026. It's hoping to compete with grid-scale lithium batteries and hydro to store clean power, and reduce the need to fall back on fossil fuels. [...]  The Carrington plant will be able to store 300 megawatt-hours of electricity, enough to plug a short gap in power for as many as 480,000 homes. [...] Liquid air has the advantage that it can store energy for longer than batteries, with minimal losses.”

3. Floating nests and decoys: how fairy terns are being charmed back to Port Phillip Bay

“As a beach-nesting bird, fairy terns often lay their eggs on wide sandy beaches next to clear blue water[... putting] the birds and their offspring at risk from people, cars, foxes and other predators, as well as weather events like storm surges. [...] The floating island, installed at the Avalon coastal reserve on the western side of Port Phillip Bay, features sand and shell grit floorings, and twigs and branches for cozy nooks.”

4. Wind and solar smash grid market share records, even after heavy curtailment, coal at new low

“According to GPE’s Geoff Eldridge, the share of variable renewables – large scale wind and solar and rooftop PV – reached a new peak of 77.1 per cent, beating the previous record of 75.9 per cent in late September. [...] The curtailed wind and solar alone accounted for around one third of underlying demand, meaning that the “potential” share of renewable was more than 113 per cent at the time – also a record."

5. Vaccine Trials Underway in US to Protect Marine Mammals from Avian Flu

“The Marine Mammal Center, the world’s largest marine mammal hospital [... is] taking decisive steps to slow down the [H5N1] virus. [...] Before vaccinating the endangered Hawaiian monk seals, researchers at the Marine Mammal Center needed to understand the vaccine’s safety and efficacy on a similar but non-endangered marine species. [... I]nitial findings [include] that the avian flu vaccine appears to be safely used with the six elephant seals. The next step is to assess levels of antibodies in the animals’ blood.”

According to the WHO, there's a case fatality rate (CFR) of 54%. A case fatality rate is simply the percentage of deaths out of the number of *confirmed* cases. Since January 1 2003 until November 2024 there were only 261 total cases recorded by the WHO in the entire world, and out of those cases, 142 were fatal. Notice the very small sample size and the fact that these are only confirmed cases. In most people, bird flu is indistinguishable from any other cold or flu or even asymptomatic, so they *wouldn't be tested*. There hasn't been a widespread testing initiative for bird flu yet, so we don't actually know the data of how many people *actually* have it. We only know the cases of people with infections that were severe and unique enough that doctors thought to test them specifically for bird flu. A case fatality rate is *not* a prognosis.

Bird flu *is* serious. And you definitely should be careful, especially if you make contact with wild or domestic outdoor birds (this means that if you have a chicken coop or dovecote or something similar, even if it's only a few outdoor birds, you need to be careful), but we really don't need to be fear-mongering and making people think that they have an over 50% chance of dying if they get it. Misinformation from all sides is bad.

Actual reports about the virus: