A health officer collects ducks to be killed at a farm north of Bangkok during Thailand's bird flu outbreak in the early 2000s. A massive culling of fowl was part of the country's strategy to quash the virus. Stringer/AFP/via Getty Images hide caption 62 million.
That’s the number seared in Prasert Auewarakul’s memory. It is the number of birds – mostly chickens – that were dead by the end of Thailand’s avian flu outbreak that started in late 2003. Some died of the disease, others were culled to prevent the virus from spreading.
“It was very bad. Most of the farmers lost everything,” says Dr. Auewarakul , a virologist at Mahidol University in Thailand.
Now, two decades later, the U.S. is grappling with its own avian flu outbreak.
And this time the virus has taken a new twist. In late March, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture announced the H5N1 virus, which is periodically found in farmed poultry, had been identified in dairy cows in two states – the first time scientists have detected a spillover to cattle. Now, 92 herds spread across a dozen states have been infected, according to the World Health Organization. And the virus has spread to humans as well.
Three farm workers have contracted the virus this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . So far, the virus has not shown the ability to spread easily between humans. This outbreak has led some scientists and public health experts to look at past avian flu outbreaks.
“There are s.
