Today, Explained - Sickened chickens

Episode Date: February 2, 2023

Poultry farmers are in flock-down. The bird flu known as H5N1 is being called “the largest foreign animal disease outbreak in US history.” Vox’s Benji Jones and Johns Hopkins University researcher Tom Philpott say the virus underscores the poultry industry’s shortcomings. This episode was produced by Avishay Artsy, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Paul Robert Mounsey, and hosted by Noel King. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained   Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A strain of avian flu began spreading in these United States in late 2021. The CDC was watching the situation unfold, and by March of 2022, it reported the flu had been found in 14 states. A month later, 34 states. By November, 46 states. It's easy to bemoan higher egg prices, a real consequence of this flu, but also sort of think this virus is for the birds. However, it's not.

Not anymore. Watch where you step, right? Cover your shoes. It's biosecurity. It's very simple. It's good common sense to say, where was I? Was I close to poultry? Was I close to poultry?

How did we get here? Yeah, OK. So I don't think you should panic. OK, Vox reporter Benji Jones, but we have some questions for you. They're coming up on Today Explained. BetMGM, authorized gaming partner of the NBA, has your back all season long. From tip-off to the final buzzer, you're always taken care of with a sportsbook born in Vegas.

That's a feeling you can only get with Bet MGM. And no matter your team, your favorite player, or your style, there's something every NBA fan will love about Bet MGM. Download the app today and discover why Bet MGM is your basketball home for the season. Raise your game to the next level this year with BetMGM, a sportsbook worth a slam dunk, an authorized gaming partner of the NBA.

BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario.

It's Today Explained. I'm Noelle King. Benji Jones is an environmental reporter at Vox, and he's been covering this ongoing outbreak of avian flu. Avian flu, aka bird flu or avian influenza, is a disease caused by a virus like COVID or the cold. And these viruses belong to a group of viruses known as influenza A. And right now, the strain that people are talking about is a kind of bird flu caused by a virus known as H5N1, and it's been spreading a lot lately. Bird flu in general, and there are a lot of different strains, has been around for a long time, at least since the late 1800s. This particular strain was first detected in the late 90s, around 1996, 97, in China. And since then, it's been spreading mostly through birds,

through poultry, in many parts of the world, Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America and the U.S., where we're seeing a major outbreak right now. And what does that outbreak entail? H5N1 is a pretty scary virus for birds. It's really contagious. It spreads very quickly, and it can kill large percentages of a flock, upwards of 90%, even 100% within as few as 48 hours. And what's happened in the U.S. over the last year or so is that we've just seen a huge amount of birds. I mean, millions of birds come down with H5N1, and farmers have tried to contain the spread by killing birds that are uninfected as well, but also birds that are infected. And it's not just poultry, so domestic birds, chickens,

turkeys, things that we eat, but also wild birds. And the numbers are pretty staggering right now. Nearly 60 million birds have been affected by this. I've seen people talk about this as the largest outbreak of avian flu ever in the U.S. 60 million birds affected. That is a large number of birds. What happens when a bird gets avian flu? Like a cough in a sore throat? Yeah, birds can get coughs as well as us. They sneeze. I actually was looking up YouTube videos of birds with coughs to see what it sounds like. And it's very cute because they can sometimes

like chirp when they cough. But the virus targets cells in their respiratory systems and also in their digestive tract. So often you'll see things like coughs and other respiratory system, but also diarrhea and things like that. And then in some cases that can kill them pretty quickly, as I mentioned. How long would you say this has been going on? It started to spread within North America in late 2021 and early 22. And since then, we've seen this outbreak kind of accelerate. Right now, it seems, I was just looking at numbers this morning, it seems like January has seen less affected birds than December. But I also just want to mention that spring is migration for wild birds and wild birds can also spread this disease. So we could see a flare up happen in the coming months

as well. How is it spreading? So scientists think it's mainly spreading through saliva, mucus, potentially in air that birds are breathing out when they're coughing, when they're sneezing, but also in their feces and in bird poop. Birds poop a lot. And in these farms, there's a ton of it. And so birds are stepping in it. They might get it in their food. So there's just a lot of ways that it can spread. But like with COVID in humans, we think that it can also just spread through the air from bird to bird as well. What makes it contagious?

Yeah, OK. So this is where we get into some of the virus science. And viruses, as insidious as they seem, they are very incredible organisms for how they work. So this particular strain of avian flu, H5N1, targets receptors on cells that line the respiratory tracts of birds and also in their digestive tracts. Those receptors are basically their entry point into cells. Once they enter those cells, the virus can start replicating and that's when it becomes

a problem. So birds have a lot of these entry points in their respiratory systems, which allows the virus to replicate, accumulate, and when there's a ton of virus in your airways, that makes it easy to spread from one bird to another. And there also could be other traits that give this virus just a very good ability to spread, again, among birds specifically. What are the stakes for farmers? I think the worst case scenario is that they lose a large proportion of their flock, which means that they might not make money, not be able to make ends meet, and it becomes a crisis for them on the farm. And it can also become a crisis for people who eat. Eggs are famously a very cheap source of protein and we're seeing egg prices rise. And so

the stakes are pretty high. When you see an outbreak of bird flu, you see a constraint on the supply of poultry, of eggs, and that can make some of our important proteins inaccessible to a lot of Americans and to people elsewhere as well. So the stakes are very high. So what are farmers doing to keep chickens from being exposed? They're killing a lot of birds. And the way that they do this is also very controversial and sad. A lot of farmers are killing millions of birds using an approach called ventilation shutdown,

which basically means that they're closing the vents in the chicken coop, which allows it to heat up. And they're essentially like frying these birds alive. So it's very dark and sad, and a lot of animal rights activists have pushed back on this method pretty strong. And then there are a range of other prevention methods. I mean, you want to avoid contact with wild birds, you want to keep your coops very clean, things like that. So we actually have a fair number of tools to try to prevent this from spreading, but even so, we're seeing these, as I mentioned, these wild numbers here. What other animals are getting avian flu?

Even though it's called avian influenza, this virus can actually infect a pretty wide range of mammals. I've seen reports of H5N1 in mink, in cats, in dogs. And recently there was a report from Montana of avian flu in grizzly bears. I'm reading now from a release from Montana's wildlife department. They said, we observed bears that were in poor condition and exhibited disorientation and partial blindness, among other neurological issues. So the state said that they euthanize these bears due to sickness and poor condition, and I was quoting there. And this virus can spread to dogs. I'm asking on behalf of the dog people,

what happens when the dogs get it? I did see that in 2004, the remains of a domestic dog did test positive for H5N1 days after it was eating a dead duck that was presumably infected with the virus as well. And I think it's important to mention here that animals that are getting infected by this are not necessarily passing it among each other, but getting it from eating an infected bird or getting it from an infected bird. So birds can spread it among each other, but we haven't seen as much animal-to-animal spread in other types of non-bird wildlife. I don't want to panic, but how notable is it that this avian flu can infect mammals?

Yeah, okay. So I don't think you should panic. We know that mammals can get infected by H5N1. We also know that humans can. And since the 90s, since it was first detected, the strain was first detected, several hundred humans have been infected by this virus, and many of them have died. It can cause severe disease in humans. That is scary, but it's perhaps less scary than I just made it sound, because H5N1 and other types of avian flu are not well equipped to invade human bodies and to cause severe disease or to spread very easily among humans. So it is important to understand that avian flu is called avian flu for a reason.

It is very good at targeting birds. It is not as good at targeting humans. And this comes back to this idea that different animals have a different makeup of receptors on their cells that are entry points for different kinds of viruses. Birds have a lot of these receptors that H5N1 can use to invade cells. Humans have some of those avian-type receptors too, but they don't seem to be as much of a problem for us than they are for birds. So our physiology essentially means that we are a little bit better defended against H5N1 than birds are.

And the people who have gotten sick and died are likely those who were exposed to enormous amounts of the virus. So it really takes a lot of the virus to infect a person. But that's really different than thinking about whether that virus can jump from one human to another through our breath or whatever. We're not seeing H5N1 becoming contagious within humans at this point. And so presumably the humans that are getting avian flu, these are not people who like passed a pigeon in Central Park. These are people who are working directly with poultry or other birds. Exactly. So most cases where humans have contracted avian flu, including a recent one in

the U.S. from this current outbreak, were exposed to sick birds and to presumably a large number of them. So it takes a lot for this virus to actually infect humans, and it would take a lot more for it to reach anything close to pandemic potential. I mean, H5N1 is not an immediate risk for humans. I think I can say that fairly confidently. So that's good news. What's also good news is that we have lots of tools to combat it should humans get infected, should it become a bigger problem. And one of those is vaccines. According to the CDC, the US already has a stockpile, actually, of H5N1 vaccines. And so while having vaccines doesn't necessarily mean that we're

going to be able to vaccinate people effectively, as we've learned from the COVID pandemic, it means that we have tools at our disposal. And so that's great news that we kind of are prepared in a sense. Okay, good. That's really good news. Can one vaccinate birds? How does that work? Do you like pick up a little wing and jab them? Yeah, actually, yes. There are flu vaccines for birds that are already approved and some countries are already vaccinating their birds.

Some of them are doing this with a kind of like shot-like injection. You can also do it by vaccinating the egg itself before the bird hatches. And they're really effective as well. So we definitely have vaccines. But what's interesting is that the U.S. does not use vaccines right now on its commercial flocks of birds for a number of reasons. One reason is that countries that vaccinate their poultry tend to be associated with countries that have a high risk of spreading

avian influenza. And so it kind of closes them off to the global market. So we export a lot of poultry. And if we start vaccinating our birds, that might make it more difficult for us to export birds because buyers might think that means that we could spread avian influenza. And then there's also just the issue of cost. It's expensive to vaccinate a massive amount of birds, and farmers might not have the resources to do that. It'd be probably better, if you care about animals, to find a solution that doesn't mean killing a bunch of them. It might mean better surveillance,

trying to mainstream this idea of vaccines, make it more popular. I mean, we're seeing just these enormous numbers. It's sad for the birds. It's sad for us. So, yeah, we're seeing just these enormous numbers. It's sad for the birds. It's sad for us. So, yeah, we've got to do something here. We've got to do something here. Something must be done mostly about the chickens. That's coming up next. Support for Today Explained comes from Aura.

Aura believes that sharing pictures is a great way to keep up with family, and Aura says it's never been easier thanks to their digital picture frames. They were named the number one digital photo frame by Wirecutter. Aura frames make it easy to share unlimited photos and videos directly from your phone to the frame. When you give an Aura frame as a gift, you can personalize it. You can preload it with a thoughtful message, maybe your favorite photos. Our colleague Andrew tried an Aura frame for himself. So setup was super simple. In my case, we were celebrating my grandmother's birthday and she's very fortunate. She's got 10 grandkids. And so we wanted to surprise her with the AuraFrame and because she's a little bit older, it was just easier for us to source all the images together and have them uploaded to the frame itself. And because we're all connected over text message,

it was just so easy to send a link to everybody. You can save on the perfect gift by visiting AuraFrames.com to get $35 off Aura's best-selling Carvermat frames with promo code EXPLAINED at checkout. That's A-U-R-A frames.COM promo code EXPLAINED. This deal is exclusive to listeners and available just in time for the holidays. Terms and conditions do apply. The all-new FanDuel Sportsbook and Casino is bringing you more action than ever. Want more ways to follow your faves? Check out our new player prop tracking with real-time notifications. Or how about more ways to customize your casino page with our new favorite and recently played games tabs.

And to top it all off, quick and secure withdrawals. Get more everything with FanDuel Sportsbook and Casino. Gambling problem? Call 1-866-531-2600. Visit connectsontario.ca. It's Today Explained. We are back talking about the spread of avian flu. The Incredible Edible Egg. the looming collapse of American farming and how we can prevent it. Tom, we were talking to Vox's own Benji Jones earlier in the show, and he was telling us that something has to be done. It seems like the something that has to be done is about chickens. What connections do you see between the way this flu is spreading and the way we're raising chickens?

So the vast majority of U.S. egg production, the sort of eggs you buy in the grocery store, they tend to come from these huge facilities where a single barn can house as many as 200,000, 250,000 birds. There could be like 15 or 20 of these barns of that size kind of smushed together in one big facility. And so what you get is literally millions of birds in close proximity. I mean, you've got in a cage system, which is still the most common kind, you've got birds in these cages sticking their heads out of these little holes in their cages to get feed. You've got a situation where you've got lots of opportunity for viruses to mutate, and you've got lots of opportunities for viruses to

spread really fast in these facilities. And so it's an extremely vulnerable system, and it leaves us vulnerable to stuff like the current spike in egg prices. How are the birds treated otherwise? Are they healthy? To put it bluntly, they're treated like little machines for producing eggs. And so the whole game is to get them to produce, you know, something on order of 250 to 300 eggs per year. There's about a 5% mortality rate, I think, on these big factory farms. So they tend to keep them alive and producing, but that's really the best you can say about it. They're not treated with any consideration of their natural birdness. They

don't get to do bird stuff. You know, Tom, I would imagine, but tell me if I'm wrong, I would imagine that we've been raising chickens like this for a fairly long time. What has changed in the way we raise them that's making them more susceptible to avian flu? If you go back about a century, you still had a situation of widely distributed egg production, lots and lots of backyard operations, small operations distributed across the country. There was a good amount of genetic diversity. So, you know, different regions might specialize in specific varieties of hens. And as we sort of scaled up, as we move them indoors and move to larger and larger facilities, something else happened where they start breeding birds for one thing, and that

is efficiency. And so you get this pretty robust genetic diversity narrowed down and there's this one variety called the white leghorn, which is the dominant variety used in US egg production. And the problem with that is there's a natural, what people who study this kind of thing call firewall when you have a lot of genetic diversity. So a certain strain of flu will come in and infect some birds in certain areas of the country, but other birds will have a natural immunity to it.

When you take away that diversity, what you get is a situation where you've got flu varieties that have this habitat of millions of birds of the same species. And so you get a very rapid spread and a very rapid ability to mutate. Now, I think that really is the biggest problem. Let's say avian flu is lurking outside one of these facilities, right? How does it get in? And then how does it spread? That is a big mystery. There was a big outbreak, as you guys probably know, in 2014, 2015. And the buzzword was, we've got to ramp up biosecurity. We've got to be really careful about what comes into the facility. And so you've got protocols like workers who work in these facilities have to shower before they go in. They put on company clothes that have been washed since they were last used. And they really try to control what comes in.

I remember in 2014, 2015, there was this idea that it was coming in through feed. So you got a bunch of corn and soybeans and whatever else it is they put into feed. That's going to be attractive to wild birds. Maybe some of them are infected. They come in, they deposit their waste in it. It gets into the feed and then it gets into the facility that way.

You know, the other thing is to keep birds alive in a situation where you've got 250,000 birds in one facility, you need a lot of ventilation. So you have a fan on one end, sucking air in, and a fan on another blowing air out. So you're taking in all this air, possibly there's wild birds close by, and their waste is getting caught up in the wind. And so it seems likely that it's coming in through the air in these ventilation systems. When they detect it, it is a major freakout. It is time to kill essentially every bird in that flock. The reason that the industry is freaking out is because avian flu spreads quickly

and it doesn't stay contained in one barn. Presumably it jumps and jumps and jumps. That's right. And it can get out of control really fast. And also it's not great for the industry's reputation. And you know what the real freakout would be is if this sort of avian flu, this really highly pathogenic avian flu, got into the meat bird system. And that is also a very, very, even more concentrated

system of producing birds for chicken, mostly on the East Coast and in the Southeast region of the country. And if people are freaking out because a dozen eggs is now five bucks instead of two bucks, just imagine if, you know, we had a major outbreak in meat birds and suddenly a Popeye's chicken sandwich was 10 or 15 bucks. In this current outbreak, we've had a couple of incidences in that sector of the industry, but no one really knows why it hasn't hit yet. I can tell you, I remember talking to executives from the chicken industry in 2015, and they are also boosting their biosecurity, but that hasn't worked for the egg industry and so they are just worried that they're next. Tom, where do we go from here?

So Benji Jones tells us, you know, don't panic over avian flu and that's good but then I hear you saying some things that really worry me. Yeah, it's one of those annoying situations like climate change where we know these terrible impacts are coming

and we're already starting to see them play out, but it's still hard to get people's attention. And I think that the Vox reporter is correct that this, you know, this current situation, you know, it too will pass. This flu strain will burn out. The industry will declare itself all better. Things will go on as usual, but it's just setting us up for the next one. And so, you know, what I think is we're at an inflection point where we really need to decide what kind of food system that we have to have. And I think that the way to change it and the way to make it less vulnerable to these shocks is going to have to come through policy. I mean, I think consumer choice is important and consumers should think really hard about what they buy and things like,

you know, supporting pastured egg production makes a lot of sense. But I think at the end of the day, it's going to have to be a policy issue. And, you know, something that's going to be happening this year is that Congress is going to be redoing the Farm Bill, which is this once every five years sort of massive legislation that sort of sets up federal incentives for how people farm, mostly in terms of crop agriculture like corn and soybeans. And I think figuring out how to get policies in that move away from this long-term policy of cheap production of feed for animal production is going to be really, really important.

Unfortunately, I don't foresee major changes in this farm bill in any kind of positive way that is to say anyway. This is a very consolidated industry. Small handfuls of companies dominate each part of the market. And these companies, they're not stupid. And they take a portion of the profits that they capture and invest them in things like lobbying and donating to candidates and things like that. They have a lot of friends on Capitol Hill. And I think getting

over that challenge, you know, at the end of the day, going to have to be people power that does it. But, you know, I've been following this industry for about 20 years and I've been through four or five farm bill cycles. And, you know, we haven't figured out the formula yet. That was Tom Philpott from the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins. We also heard from Vox environmental reporter Benji Jones. Today's episode was produced by Abhishek Artsy and edited by Amin El-Sadi. It was fact-checked by Laura Bullard, and it was engineered by Paul Robert Mouncey. I'm Noelle King. It's Today Explained. Thank you.