Migrating wild birds are spreading the virus to domesticated flocks, increasing the risk of eventually seeing a human outbreak. Scientists are troubled by the muted federal response.

It is not yet clear how much of an impact these rising cases of bird flu could have on costs. As experts have said, if cases continue to surge, there could be ripple effects through the market, reaching the prices consumers pay for certain products in grocery stores.

A new vaccine to protect dairy and poultry workers from bird flu does not require a needle and works against multiple strains of the H5N1 virus, researchers at the University of Maryland Center

Since late 2021, a panzootic, or "a pandemic in animals," of highly pathogenic bird flu variant H5N1 has devastated wild birds, agriculture, and mammals. Unlike previous outbreaks, aggressive culling of domestic birds has not contained it,

Agriculture Minister Martin Heydon said it was a concern that the bird flu outbreaks had been confirmed early in the high-risk period for avian influenza, which runs from October until April

Spain's Agriculture Ministry ordered on Thursday to immediately lock down all poultry due to the risk of bird flu, it said in a statement. The decision expands on measures announced last week, when Spain ordered poultry in designated high-risk areas to be kept indoors to curb the spread of bird flu.

Bird flu has been detected in three more Ottawa County commercial poultry flocks, bringing the total county cases in 2025 to 10.