New research has found that a small number of birds flying through New York City City were infected with a highly contagious strain of bird flu, amid fears the virus could spark the next pandemic.
Volunteers in community science project, the New York City Virus Hunters (NYCVH) Program, collected 1,927 bird feces samples between 2022 and 2023 from various urban parks and green spaces across the city, and animal rehabilitation centers.
Science Alert reports that samples from six birds tested positive for avian influenza, including a red-tailed hawk, three Canada geese, a peregrine falcon, and a chicken.
Scientists say while the presence of bird flu in the Big Apple poses a low risk to humans and pets, it’s important to take the neccessary precautions.
Christine Marizzi, a microbiologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and co-author of the NYCVH study said “It’s smart to stay alert and stay away from wildlife,” adding that this “also includes preventing your pets from getting in close contact with wildlife.”
New York City lies beneath the path of large numbers of migrating wild birds, and Marizzi and the team explained: “This brings them into contact with a highly dense population of humans and pets, providing an extensive urban animal–human interface in which the general public may have little awareness of circulating infectious diseases.”
The study, which was published in the Journal of Virology, suggests that though the latest strains of the highly pathogenic avian influenza have already been in the city for at least two years, the fact that there have been no human cases reported so far means transmission is probably rare.
But scientists are on high alert after a farm worker fell in Texas from bird flu after they were thought to have contracted it from a sick cow.
Experts believe it may have been the first instance avian influenza being passed on from mammal-to-human.
