While the Biden administration’s, and the medical community’s, responses to H5N1 may have been less than perfect, Biden’s appeal to compare him not to the Almighty, but to the alternative, seems more vivid now than it was during the campaign.
This is an excellent summary. I would add some details, to clarify how little surveillance there is and how utterly futile this chicken strategy is.
Here is current subtyping data from routine human surveillance and my own very rough estimates regarding surveillance of pigs. Three influenza A viruses were subtyped per day in week 25. One in 20.000 H5 infections would be detected in pigs, and that is a somewhat optimistic estimate.
Layer and broiler chickens are hybrids, they are not true breeders. They are not pure breeds used for breeding the hybrids. Even if one of them turned out to be immune, their offspring would not have the desired meat or egg production capacity.
Thank you for this review of the recent history of H5N1. Ventana Wildlife Society is vaccinating condors against H5N1, https://www.ventanaws.org/condorthreats.html,
after several deaths in Arizona. https://www.fws.gov/program/california-condor-recovery/southwest-california-condor-flock-hpai-information-updates-2023. H5N1 devastated Southern Elephant Seals in 2024, https://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/news/catastrophic-mortality-elephant-seals-argentina-identified-outbreak-avian-influenza, raising concerns for the Northern Elephant Seals along the California coast. The Southern seals appear to be recovering, https://www.thecooldown.com/outdoors/elephant-seal-population-recovery-chile-avian-flu/. Could a seal vaccine be developed, an aerosol that could be administered by drone over seals on the beach?
While the Biden administration’s, and the medical community’s, responses to H5N1 may have been less than perfect, Biden’s appeal to compare him not to the Almighty, but to the alternative, seems more vivid now than it was during the campaign.
Thanks for providing this information to the public, Dr. Rasmussen.
I hope you like my history Newsletter is free
Fwd: https://makinghistorycomealive.substack.com/
This is an excellent summary. I would add some details, to clarify how little surveillance there is and how utterly futile this chicken strategy is.
Here is current subtyping data from routine human surveillance and my own very rough estimates regarding surveillance of pigs. Three influenza A viruses were subtyped per day in week 25. One in 20.000 H5 infections would be detected in pigs, and that is a somewhat optimistic estimate.
https://www.cdc.gov/fluview/surveillance/2025-week-25.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/H5N1_AvianFlu/comments/1ddr1s2/comment/l88svgc/
Genetically modified chickens are being researched, there is no need whatsoever for infecting chickens, at all. The chickens would need three different mutations to develop immunity and genetically modified chickens are in development: https://www.statnews.com/2023/10/10/to-protect-chickens-from-bird-flu-researchers-try-to-crispr-in-immunity/
Layer and broiler chickens are hybrids, they are not true breeders. They are not pure breeds used for breeding the hybrids. Even if one of them turned out to be immune, their offspring would not have the desired meat or egg production capacity.