We’ve entered a forever war with bird flu

With major global wildlife reservoirs, managing H5N1 is an ultramarathon with no end in sight.

Avian influenza is “evolving in ways we haven’t seen before,” says Martha Nelson, a computational biologist and staff scientist researching pathogen evolution at the National Institutes of Health — one of many scientists who have been monitoring the global H5N1 outbreak. Bird flu “is adapting to mammals, and it continues to show new tricks,” Nelson tells The Verge. The virus is spreading widely in domestic and wild animals, while exact transmission routes remain unclear. Confirmed human cases are rising, particularly among farmworkers.

More than two years into the US outbreak, we’re stuck with H5N1 for the long haul. The risk that it mutates to spread readily from person to person and that we could find ourselves in the middle of another pandemic is entrenched. As the Trump administration hacks away at scientific institutions and rapid federal changes impede the flow of information, the threat looms especially large. To mitigate those chances, animal agriculture, wildlife management, trade policy, and even cat owners may have to adapt to manage the virus on multiple fronts — indefinitely. 

It’s like “watching a train wreck in slow motion.”

The Centers for …

Read the full story at The Verge.