California declares a public health emergency over bird flu as cases rise and concerns about zoonotic diseases grow. Experts discuss ways to stay safe.
California has declared a public health emergency over bird flu , which hospitalized a British Columbia teenager for weeks. This comes as a fourth case of chronic wasting disease among deer and tens of thousands of sea lions dying of H5N1 have been reported. Worries around zoonotic diseases — when infections spread between animals to humans or vice versa — have been prevalent recently.
The good news is that there are practical, everyday things we can all do to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe — and we can even enjoy being outside. The Tyee spoke with Dr. Mayank Singal, public health physician for enteric, zoonotic and vector-borne diseases with the BC Centre for Disease Control, to ask him the best ways to navigate H5N1, chronic wasting disease, Lyme disease and rabies. H5N1 Bird flu — the H5N1 influenza strain — is a virus that wild birds like ducks and geese occasionally get sick with. The Lower Mainland sits in the middle of the Pacific Flyway, a major migratory route that stretches from Alaska to Patagonia used by at least a billion birds every spring, and then again in the fall. During migratory season, local cases of bird flu spike, usually when birds on poultry farms are infected after coming into contact with wild birds or their droppings. As of Dec. 14, 2024, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency reports it has culled more than 8.3 million birds infected with bird flu in B.C., which is millions more than in other provinces (the next highest rate is in Alberta, with two million birds culled). The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says there is no risk of the virus transmitting to people who eat cooked poultry or eggs. However, there is a risk of H5N1 jumping species, like when it jumped to sea mammals and killed 24,000 sea lions around the South American coastline in 2023. H5N1 can be extremely dangerous when it jumps to humans
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