Avian Influenza: An Overview and Clinical Status

2024 saw the outbreak of a strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza with intermittent transmission to humans. This review will consider the landscape of avian influenza, the role migratory birds and cattle play in transmission, and our understanding of the current outbreak in humans.

While cases of human avian influenza have fortunately continued to be relatively low, the evidence that continued circulation in migratory and domestic poultry flocks combined with spillover into bovine herds support further efforts to understand this outbreak and develop mitigation strategies like vaccines and therapeutics.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza is likely to remain a critical target for epidemiologic surveillance along with further development of new mitigation strategies.