Bird Flu Explained: Symptoms, Spread, Prevention, and Vaccine Updates

Bird flu, or avian influen­za, is a rare viral infec­tion that most­ly affects birds but can, in some cas­es, infect humans. Recent­ly, the H5N1 strain has made head­lines, with 67 report­ed cas­es in humans across the U.S. as of Jan­u­ary 22, 2025. While the risk to pub­lic health remains low, stay­ing informed about bird flu symp­toms and pre­ven­tion can help you stay pre­pared and pro­tect your health. Here’s what you need to know.

What is Bird Flu?

Bird flu, a type of avian influen­za, is a viral infec­tion caused by the H5N1 strain of the influen­za virus. This virus is pri­mar­i­ly found in and host­ed by wild water birds across the globe, such as ducks, geese, and swans.

Bird flu spreads through con­tact with the mucus, sali­va, or drop­pings of infect­ed birds. The good news? Human-to-human trans­mis­sion is extreme­ly rare, mak­ing it less like­ly to spread from per­son to person.

How Does Bird Flu Spread to Humans?

While bird flu rarely spreads to humans, it can occur through direct, unpro­tect­ed con­tact with infect­ed birds, ani­mals, or their envi­ron­ments. Trans­mis­sion can also hap­pen when a per­son han­dles sur­faces or equip­ment that have been con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed with infect­ed mucus, sali­va, or feces. Poul­try work­ers, farm­ers, dairy work­ers, and peo­ple with bird flocks or oth­er wild ani­mals are at a high­er risk of con­tract­ing bird flu.

It’s impor­tant to know that so far, no cas­es of per­son-to-per­son trans­mis­sion of bird flu have been report­ed in the Unit­ed States.

Also read: Tips for Deep Clean­ing After You’ve Been Sick

Bird Flu Symp­toms in Human

Bird flu symp­toms can range from mild to severe, depend­ing on the indi­vid­ual and the sever­i­ty of the infection.

Mild bird flu symp­toms may include:

• Body aches
• Cough
• Eye red­ness or irritation
• Fatigue and tiredness
• Fever
• Headaches
• Sore throat

In more severe cas­es, symp­toms can progress to:

• Altered con­scious­ness
• High fever
• Seizures
• Short­ness of breath

Bird flu can lead to seri­ous health com­pli­ca­tions if left untreat­ed. These may include res­pi­ra­to­ry fail­ure, kid­ney fail­ure, pneu­mo­nia, sep­sis, inflam­ma­tion of the brain, or even mul­ti-organ fail­ure. With­out time­ly med­ical care, these con­di­tions can become life-threatening.

If you are feel­ing sick and need sup­port man­ag­ing your symp­toms, con­tact your pri­ma­ry care provider or vis­it a Duly Health and Care Imme­di­ate Care Cen­ter to learn about test­ing and treat­ment options for any virus.

Is There a Vac­cine for Bird Flu?

There is a vac­cine for cer­tain strains of bird flu today, but it is not wide­ly avail­able for the gen­er­al pub­lic. With the emer­gence of new H5N1 strains, sci­en­tists are work­ing to update the vac­cine to ensure its effec­tive­ness against the cur­rent strains.

Mod­er­na is cur­rent­ly devel­op­ing an mRNA vac­cine for H5N1 bird flu virus. While the vac­cine is still in ear­ly devel­op­ment, the mRNA tech­nol­o­gy allows for faster adap­ta­tion if new strains of the virus emerge. This approach could lead to quick­er dis­tri­b­u­tion and faster response times dur­ing out­breaks, pro­vid­ing a more effi­cient way to pro­tect pub­lic health. 

Bird Flu and Food Safety

Food safe­ty is always essen­tial, espe­cial­ly with the H5N1 bird flu strain impact­ing birds and cat­tle. While there is cur­rent­ly no evi­dence that bird flu can spread to humans through prop­er­ly han­dled and cooked eggs or pas­teur­ized milk, fol­low­ing safe prac­tices is key to pro­tect­ing your health.

• Egg Safe­ty: Store eggs in the refrig­er­a­tor at 40°F or below and cook them thor­ough­ly to an inter­nal tem­per­a­ture of 165°F to elim­i­nate any poten­tial risks.
• Milk Safe­ty: Pas­teur­ized milk is safe to drink, as the pas­teur­iza­tion process destroys harm­ful virus­es and bac­te­ria. Raw milk is a dif­fer­ent sto­ry — it can car­ry not only the bird flu virus but also oth­er dan­ger­ous bac­te­ria, such as Sal­mo­nel­la and E. coli. For your safe­ty, it’s strong­ly advised to avoid con­sum­ing raw milk.

By tak­ing these pre­cau­tions, you can enjoy your food with peace of mind while min­i­miz­ing risks to your health.

Bird Flu in Cats, Dogs, and Oth­er Mammals

Though rare, cats and dogs can con­tract bird flu. To pro­tect your pets, avoid feed­ing them raw meat or milk, as these may car­ry the virus. In sev­er­al states, cats have died from the con­sump­tion of raw milk con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed with bird flu. It’s also rec­om­mend­ed to keep pets indoors when pos­si­ble and pre­vent them from chas­ing wild birds outdoors.

Dairy cat­tle are also at risk of infec­tion, mak­ing it espe­cial­ly impor­tant to choose prop­er­ly han­dled and pas­teur­ized dairy prod­ucts. Pas­teur­iza­tion elim­i­nates harm­ful bac­te­ria and virus­es, ensur­ing that milk and oth­er dairy items are safe to enjoy.

Pre­ven­tion Tips for Bird Flu

While the risk of bird flu to humans is cur­rent­ly low, it’s still impor­tant to take sim­ple pre­cau­tions to pro­tect your­self and your fam­i­ly. Here are some help­ful pre­ven­tion tips:

• Avoid con­tact with sick or dead animals
• Steer clear of bird drop­pings or sur­faces con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed with bird mucus, sali­va, or feces.
• Refrain from con­sum­ing raw eggs or raw milk 

Tak­ing these sim­ple steps can help min­i­mize your risk of expo­sure to bird flu.

Stay­ing informed is also essen­tial. Keep an eye on updates from trust­ed health author­i­ties like the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion (CDC) and the Illi­nois Depart­ment of Pub­lic Health (IDPH) to ensure you’re pre­pared to take time­ly and appro­pri­ate action. A proac­tive approach can help pro­tect both you and your com­mu­ni­ty from the bird flu.