Bird flu’s current spread is ‘unprecedented,’ UN agency warns

The ongoing spread of highly pathogenic bird flu worldwide is reaching an unprecedented scale, a United Nations agency warned Monday.

The ongoing spread of the highly pathogenic bird flu worldwide is reaching an “unprecedented” scale, a United Nations agency warned Monday.

Speaking at a conference in Rome, key members of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) met to discuss the global outbreak of avian influenza.

They warned that the virus’s ability to spread to other mammals means countries need to act fast to strengthen biosecurity and improve surveillance.

“The world currently faces an unprecedented global pathogenic avian influenza…. The virus has changed and once again we need efforts to control it,” said the FAO’s director of cabinet, Godfrey Magwenzi.

He warned that the crisis threatens to have “serious impacts on food security and food supply in countries, including loss of valuable nutrition, rural jobs and income, shocks to local economies and of course increasing costs to consumers.”

Once limited to a few continents, avian flu has spread across all five continents since 2021, affecting more than 528 species, the FAO warned.

The virus is now present in 124 countries, causing the deaths of 47 million wild birds, while more than 600 million domestic birds have been culled or disposed of in efforts to control the outbreak, the agency added.

Although bird flu usually does not infect humans, rare cases do happen. From 2003 to 2024, the World Health Organization has reported 954 human bird flu cases, including 464 deaths.