Bird Flu is Back Just in Time for Media’s Govt Shutdown Theater Drama
H5N1 is also spreading through Europe, where the governments are not shutdown…merely dysfunctional.
It’s been a while since we covered bird flu [aka Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HIPA) or H5N1].
The most recent posts on the subject included a review of the evidence showing the microbe was another gain-of-function Frankenvirus and that the Trump administration terminated a huge vaccine contract to pharma giant Moderna.
The last case of human H5N1 infections within this country was reported this past February.
After a quiet summer with few U.S. detections of avian influenza and no human infections, HPAI has reemerged. Scientists had anticipated its comeback, noting that after three years of infecting poultry and spreading to dairy cattle, the virus was unlikely to vanish.
In poultry, bird flu is on the rise: according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 50 flocks of commercial and backyard poultry in the country had confirmed avian influenza infections in October. Farmers cull all birds on infected premises to reduce the virus’s spread, and this month, more than three million animals have been killed to date.
Carol Cardona, a poultry veterinarian at the University of Minnesota, says she’s worried by the fact that the state’s board of animal health has already reported 20 flocks with confirmed infections since the beginning of September. “We’re definitely having a bad year here in Minnesota,” Cardona says.
The outbreak in dairy cattle, which was identified in March 2024, is also still ongoing. The virus is more difficult to track in cattle because, unlike poultry, the animals tend not to die after they are infected. The infection reduces cows’ milk production, however.
Why Minnesota bird flu cases are spiking https://t.co/yK80m1Dzlr
— mark warling (@markwarling3) October 24, 2025
Of course, The New York Times links the news to the current act of “government shutdown theater”. The publication also conferred with “experts” to link the outbreak to immigration raids.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which tracks human cases, and the Department of Agriculture, which monitors animal outbreaks, have both suspended routine communication with states, leaving many officials without up-to-date guidance on how to detect and contain the disease, or a clear national picture of the surge.
“Because of the government shutdown, I know less than I would normally know,” said Dr. Amy Swinford, director of the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory, which is part of a national network of labs that conducts bird flu surveillance.
The agriculture department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Emily Hilliard, a spokeswoman for the health department, said the C.D.C. was maintaining its emergency operations center and its ability to detect and respond to urgent public health threats.
But immigration raids are scaring away workers at dairy and poultry farms who might otherwise seek help for their symptoms. And the nation is on the cusp of the fall flu season, which may further complicate efforts to distinguish cases of bird flu, some experts said.
It is also spreading through Europe, where the governments are not shut down… merely dysfunctional.
The disease, mainly spread by migrating wild birds, caused 56 outbreaks in 10 EU countries and Britain from August to mid-October, mostly in Poland — the top EU poultry producer — Spain and Germany, France’s animal health surveillance body ESA said.
This is the first time it has spread to 10 countries this early in the season for at least a decade, although the total number of outbreaks remains lower than in 2022 when the bloc recorded its worst ever bird flu crisis.
Last year there were 31 outbreaks in nine countries during the same period.
“All these cases in Europe show that the virus is far from gone,” said Yann Nedelec, director of French poultry industry group Anvol.
Over 1,000 dead cranes were found in Linum, Germany, amid a suspected H5N1 bird flu outbreak affecting multiple bird species pic.twitter.com/uKcLw2eotS
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 23, 2025
I will conclude this bird flu news roundup with a report that Australian scientists have found hundreds of dead seal pups on Heard Island in the sub-Antarctic, with signs suggesting they died from HPAI infection.
“At this stage it is not a confirmed detection,” Australia’s agriculture department said in a statement, adding that it would send samples from the dead seals to Australia for testing.
Since the virus has already been found on the nearby French Kerguelen and Crozet islands, symptoms consistent with H5 bird flu in wildlife on Heard Island was not unexpected, the ministry added.
Off the migration routes of big birds such as geese that spread infection, Australia is the only continent free of the highly contagious virus. But further spread through Antarctica could eventually raise the risk of infection from the south.
Heard Island would be the farthest the flu has reached in the Antarctic since arriving from South America in 2023.
CANBERRA/SYDNEY, Oct 24 (Reuters) – Australian scientists have found hundreds of dead seal pups on Heard Island in the sub-Antarctic with signs that suggest they were killed by a destructive bird flu that has swept most of the planet, authorities said on Friday.
— Volcaholic 🌋 (@volcaholic1) October 24, 2025
I predict that we will be treated to more pandemic-mania once more human bird flu cases are reported…especially if they occur during the shutdown.
Image by perplexity.ai.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Excuse me, but shouldn’t so-called “health officials” at the state and local levels already know how to detect the disease and the steps needed to contain any outbreak?
Shouldn’t the Feds serve mainly as an information clearinghouse and not as an overreaching nanny telling states what to do and how to do it? And can’t the states share pertinent information without jumping through Federal hoops to do it?
Nothing has changed. Bird Flu has occasional outbreaks in farm animals, and there is still no evidence for respiratory spread in humans or other mammals.
‘Frankenvirus.’
That reminds me… has Fauci the psychopath, evil scarf lady Birx, and demonic Francis Collins been exe/cuted yet for their crimes against humanity?
No, DOJ is tied up dealing with cases of mortgage fraud. Personally, I’m still waiting for news of Hillary’s indictment for compromising classified intel.
At last report, Hell is still hot.
Anyone else think these lab grown viruses that escape into the wild are not “escaping” but, rather, they are test runs of biological warfare using less than lethal until the perps get a good handle on it?
Coukd be part the DAVOS/WEF plan to get us eating bugs and beans and liking it by raising the price of eggs and chicken beyond the reach of the average citizen.
Cynical? Who, me?
Trying to starve cattlemen out and use the EPA and BLM to drive 10% out of business didn’t work. Trying to get us all up in arms about methane from cow farts didn’t work. Have to try something.
msm in control of our schools
think of what they are telling the children on how evil dad wont let them stay home and mask up
while lefty teachers collect pay
We’re all going to die!!!!