“Scientists Are Starting to Track Bird Flu in Farm Wastewater”

By Alice Park
“One promising method is sampling wastewater. The technique continues to prove useful for monitoring COVID-19; since most people now self-test and formal data collection has diminished, wastewater is the most reliable way of tracking upticks and changes in infections since it doesn’t require people to report results.
Scientists are now figuring out how to apply the same principle to test wastewater on farms for H5N1, the avian influenza virus.”
to read the full article go to
https://time.com/7212477/wastewater-testing-farms-bird-flu/

‘‘US reports 1st outbreak of ‘highly pathogenic’ H5N9 virus in poultry. Should we worry?’’
By Emily Cooke
‘A strain of bird flu never seen before in the United States has been detected among poultry at a California farm.
The virus, called highly pathogenic H5N9, is a type of avian influenza, otherwise known as “bird flu.” This is not the same type of bird flu that’s already been spreading on dairy cow and poultry farms in the U.S., causing at least several dozen infections in humans. That virus is called H5N1.
So what is H5N9? How does it differ from H5N1, and should we be equally concerned about it?’
to read the full article go to
https://www.livescience.com/health/flu/us-reports-1st-outbreak-of-highly-pathogenic-h5n9-virus-in-poultry-should-we-worry