What to Know About the Bird Flu Threat

March 28, 2025

A poultry farmer in a protective suit and gloves carefully holds a rooster, ensuring its health and safety

Bird flu continues to spread in the animal kingdom, causing outbreaks in chickens and dairy cows. More people are getting infected too, but the threat to humans remains low.

Millions of chickens have been killed to contain outbreaks, causing egg prices to soar. But how worried should you be? Keith Armitage, MD, Medical Director of the University Hospitals Roe Green Center for Travel Medicine & Global Health, shares more.

What Is Bird Flu?

Influenza viruses that circulate in people also exist in bird populations. “The viruses are similar and can exchange genetic information, producing hybrid viruses,” says Dr. Armitage. “There are some flu viruses in bird populations that can cause serious illness in humans. But so far, they have not been highly contagious or spread from human to human.”

That could change if the H5N1 virus mutates to allow it to spread person to person. Such a scenario could trigger a pandemic. “The bigger concern is the more this virus gets into humans, it might mutate to become more transmissible,” he says. At this point there is no evidence this is happening and public health authorities are closely monitoring.

How Does a Virus Become More Contagious to People?

Most of the people diagnosed with bird flu have been due to contact with infected poultry or cows. No human-to-human transmission of bird flu has been confirmed in the United States. Farm workers and others who have prolonged exposure are most at risk. The virus has also been detected in cats, including wild cat species and other mammals.

“All viruses have the ability to cause infection and evade the immune system and to spread,” says Dr. Armitage. “There is always the possibility that a novel flu virus we lack immunity to could cause serious illness and be highly transmissible from human to human. The worldwide influenza pandemic of 1918 is an example.”

Could Bird Flu Be the Next COVID-19?

“We know more about the flu virus than we did about the COVID-19 virus,” Dr. Armitage says. “We already have existing vaccines for influenza and could probably quickly tweak these for the new strains.”

“There’s no vaccine for bird flu for humans. But there’s a lot of technology and production infrastructure that already exists for influenza vaccines, which is an important difference from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

How to Protect Yourself from Bird Flu

The bird flu virus is spread through the respiratory tract from droplets or airborne particles. Dr. Armitage advises the following prevention strategies:

Avoid contact with sick or dead birds, poultry or other animals.
If you need to have direct contact with wild birds or other animals, wear personal protective equipment such as masks and gloves.
Avoid touching surfaces or materials that may be contaminated with saliva, mucous or animal feces from wild or domestic birds or other animals.
Don’t touch or consume raw milk or raw milk products, especially from animals with confirmed or suspected bird flu.
Cook eggs, meat and poultry thoroughly.
Keep pets away from sick or dead birds and don’t give them raw milk or raw pet food.
Wash your hands after handling outdoor bird feeders or other objects birds come in contact with.