If any state has reasons to worry about bird flu, it’s Georgia.
H5N1, the new variation of the disease that has been sweeping different animal populations across the globe, has been found in a handful of backyard flocks over the past year in Georgia. But the nation’s largest poultry-producing state had reported no cases in commercial operations until this month when cases were found in two farms in Elbert County.
This set in motion an immediate quarantine around the farms, including the closure of surrounding roads and the destruction of tens of thousands of chickens at the two sites. Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper announced a lockdown on poultry sales, swaps and exhibitions until state agriculture officials think they have a grip on the situation. It’s urgent they do. The poultry industry has been estimated to have an annual economic impact of $28 billion.
H5N1 has also spread quickly in wild bird populations, dairy herds, and even among domestic pets — affecting cats, it’s been reported, more than dogs.
“By any metric, you look at animal epizootics, basically animal-based-pandemics, this is the largest one we’ve ever had,” Maurice Pitesky, an associate professor at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, told Business Insider.
Only one person, an older man in Louisiana who had respiratory problems, has died from H5N1 in the United States, but scientists worry this strain could mutate into a form that could spread more easily among humans.
Georgia is also home to the Centers For Disease Control, which is where we might ordinarily look for more information about the threats H5N1 poses.
President Donald Trump has put what has been described off the record as a temporary all public communications within the agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services. The CDC has continued some of its daily reports on health data, and its general information web page on bird flu is still online.
It’s unclear whether the communications freeze will last until the end of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation hearing, which could be lengthy. Trump has also closed the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness, which was set up in the previous administration to coordinate the response of government agencies to future pandemics. Compared to the way the network of agencies responsible for the nation’s health was set up before COVID, we’re at this point flying blind.
If Kennedy does get confirmed, bird flu stands to be the first real test of how he would transform national health policy. If this version of bird flu mutates, will Trump announce another Operation Warp Speed to develop a vaccine for it? Or will he be much more resistant to required public health measures than he was in his first administration? As far as the poultry industry in Georgia is concerned, how will Trump’s views on immigration affect how he deals with an industry dependent on immigrant labor?
Certain things have to happen at quite literally a molecular level for bird flu to become the kind of public health emergency that COVID was. Its much more immediate impact is going to be seen in the grocery aisle.
The first of the Elbert County farms where H5N1 was detected had 45,000 broiler breeders — basically, the mamas and papas of the drumsticks and wings, but not the eggs, that wind up on your table. The luckiest fowls, you might say, in this complicated business. Multiply the disastrous loss at that farm by the growing number of commercial operations where H5N1 is popping up, and the goal of slashing grocery prices in a matter of months sounds ever more unrealistic.
Asked about how much bird flu would affect the price of eggs Monday at a state House budget subcommittee meeting, Harper said that with more than 100 million birds affected worldwide wide, the impact on food prices was obvious.
The commissioner told the lawmakers that his department had set up emergency centers to deal with the outbreak and reassured them that the product produced here was still safe.
“I’m eating chicken every day,” he said.
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