2022 has been a very cruel year for birds. Global populations of such animals have been killed this year by avian flu. A specific deadly strain is to blame, to be more precise.
Only in Canada, an estimated number of 5 million birds have been confirmed to deal with the avian flu. British Columbia and Alberta, two of the major Canadian provinces, have seen the highest levels of infection with the avian flu in birds. Over 260 farms and production facilities in Canada are affected by the bird flu, which represents an absolute record in 2022 compared to how the situation was over the last ten years.
All these terrifying stats are brought by a new report from CBS News:
Some doctors are now concerned that the bird flu could make the shift to humans. It’s totally recommended to avoid any type of contact with poultry. Even though cases of avian flu have rarely been seen in humans so far, nobody should put all their eggs into one basket and don’t take into account anything else.
Back in October, we shared another horrific news about the spread of the avian flu: the huge spread at that time was also imposing enough to determine some drastic measures. It has been decided to slaughter 48 million birds across Europe in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus.
Here’s what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated a while ago:
More than 700 human infections with Asian HPAI H5N1 viruses have been reported to WHO from primarily 15 countries in Asia, Africa, the Pacific, Europe and the Near East since November 2003. Indonesia, Vietnam and Egypt have reported the highest number of human HPAI Asian H5N1 cases to date.
Avian influenza naturally spreads among wild aquatic birds across the world. It doesn’t only infect domestic poultry; other animal species can be affected as well.
