State of the Industry: The year of H5N1, or the year that animal agriculture unites across species?

In the animal agriculture world, 2024 may be known as the year of H5N1. Traditionally known as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), the virus is a contagious disease of birds posing a major threat to the poultry industry. The H5N1 strain of this disease is devastatingly deadly and can wipe out entire flocks of poultry in a matter of days. ¹

H5N1 is not new to the animal kingdom. The first H5N1 outbreak was identified in the U.S. as early as the 1920s.² By the 1980s, the virus had experienced multiple evolutions and was seen in domestic and wild birds and was implicated to impact human health.³ Fast forward to 2022 and H5N1 was detected in various non-agriculture mammals. In March 2024, the first case of H5N1 is detected in infant goats on a farm where the backyard flock had also tested positive. Days later, H5N1 was reported in cows in Kansas and Texas dairies. By April, the first cow-to-human transmission was reported in the U.S.⁴