#Avian Safety

[ropeaccessaustralia]

Bird Spikes and Avian Safety: Myths, Facts, and the Real Impact

Bird spikes are effective deterrents made from plastic or metal rods spaced closely together. They are installed on roofs, ledges, and window sills to prevent birds from perching or nesting. In our latest blog, bird spikes and avian safety, we discuss the benefits of bird spikes, effective control methods, and their impact on bird welfare. Learn how they can be a humane solution for managing bird activity around your property. Read the full article here!

[delicatelysublimeforester]

Urgent Call To Action. Deadline Monday Apr 13 at 5 pm for the Upcoming SEAC meeting

[thebookishwallflower]

I want to make a post to inform people about the current situation with the bird flu (/avian flu/H5N1) outbreaks.

I don't want to cause panic but do want to spread information.

This is especially important if you live in an area that has a news system you don't trust to give accurate, timely, or honest news about something like a possible new pandemic, use your own judgement.

If that applies it is going to be very important to make sure you stay informed and follow these H5N1 outbreaks yourself and know how to best protect yourself.

I am no expert, but I do know a good bit about disease and influenza in particular, and have been following the H5N1 outbreaks as they've been happening, so under the cut I'm going to do my best to inform everyone I can.

Please stay safe, stay informed, and spread information, not germs.

What's bird flu and why do I care? (What's bird flu and why do I care?)

Avian flu and bird flu mean the same thing, an influenza virus that (primarily) infects birds. H5N1 denotes a specific strain of avian influenza. H5N1 can spillover (when a pathogen spreads from it's normal host organism to a new host organism) from animals to humans.

How could I get H5N1? (How could I get H5N1?)

Human to human transmission has not been observed yet (12/1/24) during this current outbreak. You can get this from contact with wild birds, especially water fowl, domestic birds, cattle, pigs, horses, dogs, and bats. It is also possible to get from raw (unpasteurized) milk and undercooked meat from infected animals.

What's the big deal then? (What's the big deal then?)

The common flu is not very pathogenic. How pathogenic something is determines how sick something makes the host, something that is highly pathogenic can cause severe disease. H5N1 is considered a HPAI, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza.

H5N1 is also a Type A influenza virus, most known Type A influenza viruses can infect birds. There is one Type A human flu in circulation at the moment, however it isn't very prevalent.

"IAV poses a significant risk of zoonotic infection, host switch, and the generation of pandemic viruses. IAVs can infect humans and a variety of animals, such as pigs, horses, marine mammals, cats, dogs, and birds (S1)."

IAV - Influenza A Viruses | Zoonotic infection - when an infectious disease of a non-human host infects a human host | Host switch - when a cross-species transmission of a pathogen can lead to successful, stable, and continuous infections

Every species the flu infects, the more strains that pop up under a sub-type IAV, the possibility for recombination increases. "Recombination occurs when at least two viral genomes [or strains] co-infect the same host cell and exchange genetic segments (S2)."

The flu is pretty good at recombination, when given the chance. It is also really good at mutating, and fast. If there were to be a recombination event and a new strain evolved (this would be called an antigenic shift) that was highly pathogenic, highly infectious (good at spreading, which H5N1 is), that could then infect humans and cause human-to-human transmission we might have a pandemic on our hands. This has not shown signs of happening during this outbreak*, this is what to look out for.

This (a recombination event) is what caused the 1918 pandemic during WW1. This pandemic killed an estimated 50 to 100 million people in 1918, in a world with a population of around 2 billion. 7.1 million died of COVID 19, as of 11/9/24 (S3), from a population of around 8 billion.

We know more, we are prepared, it's not guaranteed to happen, and it's not guaranteed to be as bad. But the possibilities are endless and it's extremely important to be prepared and stay informed.

So what do I do? (So what do I do?)

Again, stay informed, and that might mean checking independent news sources, the CDC website, and more, to keep yourself updated, especially if you know your local news won't do it for you. You should also familiarize yourself with the symptoms of influenza, if you have it, stay home.

Keep yourself safe, we had a pandemic already, you know the drill. Cover your nose and mouth when sneezing/coughing, wash your hands, sanitize your hands, and get your flu shot. And, in addition, avoid contact with wild birds, poultry, pigs, and cattle if you can.

In the event that this gets worse, social distancing is very important, being outdoors, wearing a mask, and all the stuff above, you can shed the virus for around a week before you start feeling bad. Keep yourself safe and don't infect anyone else.

If that doesn't sound like it'll do much, I promise you it does. Those are all classified NPI's (non-pharmaceutical interventions) and even epidemiologists were shocked at their impact and importance during the COVID-19 pandemic. They did work, and they were incredibly effective—as long as they were carried out.

I don't want to cause panic or worry anyone, but that is how information ends of suppressed. I want to make everyone aware of what we might face so that we can fight it and be strong and stay safe.

If anyone has any questions, wants any clarification, any corrections, or wants to know some good places to learn more about this stuff please don't hesitate to contact me (@'s, dm's, or asks), I will answer as best I can.

Here's the CDC's page covering the H5 bird flu current situation.

S1 - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5578040/

S2 - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7106159/

S3 - https://data.who.int/dashboards/covid19/deaths?n=c

*with the exception of this coverage (as a possibility): https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/19/bird-flu-cases-mutation-canada

[ohello0]

Ok so…. H5N1 Bird Flu has spread to house mice in New Mexico…. a week after chicken and egg farms in Iowa plan to slaughter ~4 million contaminated chickens… and after bird flu has spread across dairy farms in 9 different states (so far)

But surely no humans have ever caught it—what was that? There have been 4 human cases in the US, 3 in this year alone (all 3 from dairy cows)? Lemme just check the CDCs summary and recommendations on bird flu real quick.. oh. Um . Clap if you’re scared

[flango87]

Maybe it’s just my feed but the only place I’m seeing anything about h5n1 is twitter. PAY ATTENTION TO IT!!! Prepare NOW! not when everyone starts to hear about it, not when everyone starts to care, not when the CDC finally admits it’s an issue (if they ever do). Prepare right now. While you have the chance. I am talking to everyone in my life about masks and precautions. I was hesitant about it before bc fear of confrontation but I’m cracking down now. I am going to stock up on essentials. My list right now is non-perishable foods, masks, bottled water, first aid kits, basic medications, and other essentials I can think of. I am going to be incredibly diligent about hygiene and selective about where I go in public. This is not me trying to fear monger. I would rather be paranoid and alive than dismissive and dead. This has high potential to be so so so serious. Please treat it as such.

[lesbianmasterchief]

mutuals add me on discord

this site is going to shit. username attention_shopperzz

[wausaupilotreview]

Egg prices could jump another 41% this year, USDA says, as Trump's bird flu plan unveiled

The USDA now predicts that egg prices will increase at least 41% this year on top of the already record prices. Just last month, the increase was predicted to be 20%.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Agriculture Department predicts the current record prices for eggs could soar more than 40% in 2025, as the Trump administration offered the first new details Wednesday about its plan to battle bird flu and ease the cost of eggs. With an emphasis on tightening up biosecurity on farms, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the USDA will invest another $1 billion on top…

[npr-stan]

A plane carrying 10 people is missing in Alaska https://www.npr.org/2025/02/07/nx-s1-5290065/alaska-missing-plane

[ultimate-healing-blog]

FDA Urges Pet Food Safety Amid Bird Flu Outbreak

In response to the ongoing bird flu outbreak, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a crucial recommendation urging pet food manufacturers to reassess their safety protocols. This advisory comes as the number of avian influenza cases continues to rise, raising concerns about potential impacts on pet food production and pet health. The Current State of the Bird Flu Outbreak The…

[lavandamichelle]

Protecting Yourself from Bird Flu: Symptoms and Safety Measures

With all the recent buzz about bird flu in the news, I couldn’t help but feel a little concerned. As a mom, ensuring my family stays safe and healthy is always my top priority. So, naturally, I wanted to dig deeper into what’s going on and how to keep us protected. After doing some research (and a lot of Googling), I turned to the experts at the CDC for the most reliable information. I’m Lavanda…

[sarahthecoat]

this is serious, a friend of mine, her dog was very sick for weeks, and then she got sick too, so if this is what they had, you don't want it!

Right now the top suspects are either HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza) or covid. If at all possible, avoid taking your dog to dog parks and day care, especially if your dog is older or already has difficulty breathing.

[angeart]

……Mumbo and Grian Boatem Circus AU Please please please I needddd…..

yesss! time to talk about boatem circus mumbo and grian!

(1,8k words long ramble ahead)

mumbo’s grown used to the circus by the time grian comes along, but he’s still never set foot on stage during performances. he might’ve teleported a couple of times by himself, a nervous wreck each time, recognising how off it feels to him—something that should be natural and normal, like breathing, now feeling vile and threatening. and yet the urge is still there whenever his anxiety rises, and below it, a quiet, much gentler instinct that tells him that teleporting ought to belong to him.

when grian comes to the circus, he’s a traumatised, scared little heap of feathers. 

mumbo doesn’t know where he came from, or what his past was like, or what he’s afraid of. all he knows is that as a boatem circus member, he’s meant to do his best to help, and grian deserves to be protected until he re-learns the feeling of safety, just like mumbo had before.

once grian isn’t so afraid of any new person approaching him, mumbo comes to nervously ask him if… he’d like some new clothes maybe? he’s been making stage clothes for the others, and fixing up their daily clothes. he got  better at estimating the right sizes, and he has experience making avian stuff too, thanks to jimmy!

so even though he’s not entirely confident he could do this right, without coming all up in grian’s space and taking proper measurements, he offers anyway, willing to try to wing it. to give him something new, something solely his, removed from whatever he's been through. 

unlike all the others who asked for fancy things, grian… just wants something soft and baggy. something to cushion him and protect his skin and hide him a little bit.

it’s a challenge, but mumbo tries hard and… he ends up making him a soft woolen sweater, only slightly oversized.

it’s red, like grian’s wings. he isn’t sure if that’s okay, but grian didn’t ask for any specific colour, and— mumbo noticed that when grian first came in, underneath the borrowed jacket from scar that swallowed up his small, hunched frame, he had tight fitting black clothes. he thought maybe something brighter would be better, then.

grian wears the sweater constantly.

and once grian starts getting out more and interacting with the crew, mumbo notices that he seems to gravitate towards him. that he seeks out his (and scar’s) presence above all else, a bit like a lost puppy, still scared, but choosing the two of them to attach himself to.

mumbo doesn’t know why he was chosen. he doesn’t feel entirely competent. but he does like the little avian, and wants to see who he could be, once he learns that this place can truly be safe for him.

he does ask, at some point, nervously curious. why grian seeks him out in particular?

grian tells him it’s because he seems harmless. (because mumbo’s endearingly nervous behaviour feels much safer than the cheer and overbearing friendliness of others. and because he’s pretty sure mumbo couldn’t hurt a fly.) and then, quieter, he says that mumbo doesn’t seem like someone who’d put people in cages.

because that’s a quality that’s decisive for grian, at a time when he’s quiet and timid and still shaken.

mumbo looks back at him with concern and softness and also kind of horrified, and he agrees quietly that no, he wouldn’t. (he was caged, once. and he was trapped before that, for a long time. he’d never wish that on someone else.) 

he doesn’t know what other triggers grian has, or what upsets him. they don’t talk about what they’ve been through. he sees his panic rise up several times, scar always swooping in to take grian away when he blindly flinches from everyone else, but mumbo doesn’t understand what causes it. all he knows to do is to protect grian from feeling trapped.

they hang out together a lot, mumbo also liking the feeling of freedom instead of staying cooped up in his room. they roam the camp, but also explore further area, whether around their home base or on their travels when the circus is on the move. 

once, they find a nice serene lake. which is a big pool of water, and that makes mumbo nervous. he makes sure grian knows water hurts him (grian knows this already, because of rainy days), and grian makes sure when he playfully splashes the water, it’s far, far from the reach of mumbo. 

it still makes him squeal, and it still makes grian laugh, but mumbo is finding that he is being kept safe here. that someone is looking out for him. that grian is being playful, not malicious. and that maybe, just maybe, he’s helping mumbo face his fear in a controlled, small way.

(the first time grian splashes water, on the other end of the lake, mumbo jolts and teleports. on nothing but startled instinct. and he promptly becomes nauseous.) (but it gets better over time, and he does want to challenge himself here. he does want grian to challenge him, to help him overcome a part of him he’s been running away from.) (and oh, grian looks so calm gliding over water, much more than anywhere else.) 

there’s a time when grian goes to look for mumbo in a storm. it came unexpectedly, and mumbo was out on a walk or gathering herbs or something—grian isn’t sure—and now it’s raining horribly. 

and rain hurts mumbo.

grian doesn’t let the wretched weather deter him. he goes through muddy terrain, clothes drenched, trying to follow a path that mumbo likes to take, until he finds him huddling in a cave. trapped by the storm, unable to leave or go back to camp. purple particles wild around him but with nowhere safe for him to teleport to.

grian sits down, forcing down the urge to shake his feathers, because he doesn’t want the stray drops to land on mumbo. he sits at a distance, not reaching out, his skin and clothes wet. but he is there.

he is there, and it counts.

he waits the storm out with mumbo, then guides him back home across mud and puddles and wet-slicked bark of trees. 

(and if mumbo mentions lighting a fire back in the cave to help grian dry off? and if grian goes dead silent at that, and then mumbo instantly rambles on about how they don’t even have the things needed to start the fire, and surely all the wood outside is wet anyway, and oh gosh, how silly of him… he never caught on to that plunge into silence and then tentative relief that grian felt in that moment.)

time passes, and mumbo recognises that grian feels purposeless. that he still feels a little lost. that he looks at the circus shows with a sort of confused longing, scared to take that step to bring himself closer to them and to everyone else.

he has no idea that grian was in a circus before. he has no idea how horrible it was.

but grian sees what scar has made here, and everyone is always so eager to perform and so happy afterwards, and… and maybe he could—

he wants to be a part of it, but he’s terrified.

(he also feels like it’s maybe something he should do—is supposed to do—no matter how many times scar tells him otherwise, reassuring him that it’s all up to him. there’s a nagging feeling in the back of grian’s mind that he’s expected, sooner or later, to do his part and participate in the shows.) 

mumbo wants to help him. he wants to help him give this thing a try, even though he himself has been avoiding it this whole time, and… and maybe they could do it together?

it’s mumbo who coaxes grian on stage. [art here]

he does so by starting to participate in the shows himself. just a little bit, the tiniest bit. he goes out there, and he does tricks that involve him teleporting. he starts small. (he’s healing through this.) and, eventually, he tells grian it’s okay. he tells him he’ll be there with him. he’s doing all this just so he can be there with grian, to put him at ease.

every time mumbo’s bit is over, he keeps watching from the back, eyes on grian. (protective mumbo!! <3) because grian isn’t okay and. he really needs it. he needs mumbo there, watching, ready to step in the moment grian might need him. because sometimes it all still feels too overwhelming. because sometimes the anxiety and fears and memories hit like a freight train out of nowhere and he needs a fast way out.

there are times when mumbo sweeps in and takes grian and teleports with him back to the safety of the backstage. they make it seem intentional. others work and improvise around it. it’s a little bit clumsy, but it works.

and it means everything.

on stage, they can’t show their full emotions, so mumbo is really looking out for the smallest hints. and the moment they are backstage and grian slumps into him, sobbing? he knows he did the right thing.

of course there are times when mumbo isn’t sure. and times when he does this when grian doesn’t need him to. but more often than not he’s right, and it makes all the difference.

the others never mind. they’re glad he’s there for grian, doing this! they always balance between giving grian space afterwards and checking up on him. but mumbo’s always that first line. that link to immediate safety.

gradually, mumbo becomes less nauseous and disoriented when teleporting, and grian becomes more assured on stage, doing flight acrobatics without hoops and without fire and with a support of a wonderful crew, playing off of each other in a way that even starts to be fun. it’s wonderful to see! he’s growing to be pesky and clingy, and… and he still has panic attacks that seemingly come from nowhere. and he’s still antsy around some people for some reason. and he's still nervous before each show. and he’s still not okay.

but he’s getting there.

him and mumbo both are getting there.

… and then the fire happens <3

please think about how readily mumbo teleports to help and save the people he grew to desperately care about. because it’s one thing for mumbo to teleport in the safety of the circus tent, when he knows all the variables and isn’t in any danger. but now he’s doing it when there’s active danger, panic set deep into his veins in a way that feels horribly close to his worst memories.

he’s teleporting to places that are painful and scary, and the lines are becoming blurred and he’s losing track a little bit. and yet he keeps going.

he has to keep going.

he teleports until exhaustion. which, isn’t that familiar? (and sure, his exhaustion point has been pushed somewhere else; he would’ve been able to keep going a lot longer in the past, before everything, but his stamina seems to be permanently damaged, always running on half-depleted.) 

and maybe it isn’t so obvious, when he’s in the overdrive to keep going, but it’s all going to catch up with him eventually. he’s not going to have a fun aftermath.

[scientificinquirer-blog]

DAILY DOSE: Dairy Worker Virus Study Raises Human Infection Concerns; Human Kissing's Origin May Come From Ape Grooming Rituals.

H5N1 AVIAN FLU STUDY REVEALS SERIOUS HUMAN RISK Researchers studying the H5N1 avian flu virus, which can potentially spread from cows to humans, reported findings indicating that an isolate from a sick dairy worker could replicate in human airway cells and was pathogenic in mice and ferrets. The study, published in *Nature*, revealed that the isolate contained a PB2-E627K mutation typical of…

[tiktokparrot]

Protect your feathered friend from silent killers in your home! Learn how to safeguard your bird from toxic fumes and create a safe haven. Read now and breathe easy!

[flango87]

Please pay attention to h5n1 now. This is serious. CDC has proven they are not trustworthy. Prepare NOW to take care of yourself and your community.

[1tsjusty0u]

gah once i finish this i might make an art blog