by Michael
Did you know that we are in the midst of the worst bird flu outbreak on record? Millions and millions of birds have been dying, and most people don’t even realize that such a nightmarish pestilence has been absolutely devastating in North America and Europe. But what people do know is that eggs, chicken and turkey are still expensive at the grocery store. In fact, supplies are starting to get so tight that some experts are now talking about the potential for “shortages” during the holiday season. Unfortunately, this epidemic is not going away anytime soon. If it was going to disappear, it would have done so during the warm summer months. Now the weather is starting to get cold again, and that means it will be even easier for bird flu to spread.
What we are witnessing in Europe right now is truly alarming. According to the official website of the European Food Safety Authority, 47.7 million birds have so far been slaughtered by poultry facilities where cases of bird flu have been confirmed…
The current IAHP season has produced the largest epidemic observed to date in Europe, with a total of 2,467 outbreaks in poultry and 47.7 million birds slaughtered in affected establishments. In addition, 187 detections were reported in captive birds and 3,573 HPAI events were recorded in wild birds. The geographic scope of this year’s outbreak is unprecedented, with reported cases ranging from the Svalbard Islands in Norway to southern Portugal and Ukraine, affecting 37 European countries in total.
Just think about it.
At a time when agricultural production is very low across Europe, this pestilence has already wiped out almost 50 million chickens and turkeys.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. The bird flu outbreak in Europe was supposed to die down a lot by the time summer arrived, but this year that hasn’t happened…
In recent years, outbreaks of bird flu have declined with warmer weather and the end of the fall and winter wild bird migration.
But outbreaks have continued in the UK and elsewhere in Europe this summer, prompting fears that highly pathogenic variants of bird flu are endemic in wild birds, creating a year-round risk of infection.
So what does this mean?
Has bird flu evolved into a form that isn’t much affected by warmer temperatures?
The truth is we don’t know.
But what we do know is that bird flu is usually at its worst in the fall and winter…
Bird flu usually affects the autumn and winter months. It is transmitted by droppings of infected migratory wild birds or by direct contact with contaminated feed, clothing and equipment.
“As autumn migration begins and the number of wild birds wintering in Europe increases, they are likely to be at greater risk of HPAI infection than in previous years due to the observed persistence of the virus in Europe,” he explained. Guilhem de Seze, senior EFSA official. , he said in a statement on Monday.
So things in Europe are not likely to improve any time soon.
Instead, they will in all likelihood get worse.
Meanwhile, bird flu also continues to rage across North America. At this time, the total death toll on our side of the Atlantic Ocean has reached approximately 50 million…
In North America alone, an estimated 50 million birds have succumbed, which experts say is probably a high number. And while government officials are primarily concerned about poultry farms, the outbreak has also affected wild birds, from waterfowl to raptors and vultures.
If we add the 47.7 million dead birds in Europe to the 50 million dead birds in North America, that gives us a grand total of 97.7 million dead birds.
And the vast majority of those dead birds are chickens and turkeys.
This is truly catastrophic, and most people are not paying attention.
But whether people are paying attention or not, prices will continue to rise at the grocery store…
The flu surge has sent the price of turkey hens up 30% over last year and 80% over pre-pandemic levels, and it looks unlikely to change before the holidays. “There’s nothing on the horizon that suggests there’s going to be anything new to help ease the pain of the Thanksgiving rooster supply,” said Russ Whitman, senior vice president of the commodity researcher Urner Barry basics. Bloomberg.
And the word “scarcity” is being used more and more to describe what we could be facing this upcoming holiday season…
The turkey shortage could affect what’s on the table this holiday season. Both grocery stores and delis are running out of meat, driving the price of poultry even higher amid inflation.
Why aren’t more people talking about this?
For a moment, try to think about how many things you regularly eat that contain chicken, turkey, or eggs.
Now imagine what would happen if all these products disappeared.
With each passing month, bird flu continues to spread to more places. Right now, Southern California has become one of the latest hotspots…
After spreading globally, a historic wave of bird flu has entered Southern California, where it is worrying farmers and bird lovers and could add to the complications with supply chains and food prices.
Already, poultry farms have had to cull domestic flocks of chickens and turkeys, while thousands of wild birds have also died. Wildlife experts say they are seeing a wave of dying birds moving south, as far as Irvine, as fall migration begins.
This is a slow-motion nightmare unfolding right before our eyes.
But what would make this disaster much worse is if bird flu mutates into a form that can easily spread between humans.
Normally, it is quite difficult for a human to catch H5N1, but when it happens the fatality rate is extremely high…
But worldwide, between January 2003 and March 31, 2022, 863 cases of human infection with the avian influenza A (H5N1) virus have been reported in 18 countries. Of these 455 cases were fatal.
If a mutant form of H5N1 emerges that spreads easily from person to person, the resulting panic would make the COVID pandemic look like a Sunday picnic.
So let’s hope that doesn’t happen anytime soon.
Unfortunately, I believe that we are living in a time when great pestilences will become more and more frequent.
In secret labs around the world, mad scientists are making monkeys with some of the deadliest diseases mankind has ever known.
It’s all too easy for a “bug” to happen, and as we’ve seen, once a dangerous bug is unleashed, it can sweep across the planet in the blink of an eye.
