Early Bird Flu Surge Hits Europe, North America Hard

Europe and North America are confronting an unusually early and intense surge of bird flu, with outbreaks spreading across wild bird populations and commercial poultry farms weeks ahead of typical seasonal patterns. The rise has renewed concerns about supply disruptions and large-scale culling.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza has already led to the destruction of hundreds of millions of farmed birds in recent years, contributing to higher food prices. Human infections remain rare.

Infections typically climb in autumn as migratory birds head south, but this season’s cases have appeared earlier and in significantly greater numbers. In the United States, 107 outbreaks were reported by Nov. 18 — nearly four times last year’s total. Minnesota, the top U.S. turkey producer, confirmed its first case two months earlier than in 2022.

“It’s certainly more than we’ve seen over the last few winter-fall migratory bird seasons,” said Tim Boring, director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. “I think it’s part of this ongoing pattern… we’re still well within this current outbreak that’s lasted several years now.”

Roughly eight million birds have been culled in the U.S. since September, slightly above last year’s level, according to federal data.

Canada, despite having a smaller poultry sector, has also culled nearly eight million birds. Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald called the situation “very worrisome.”

“Wild birds seem to be carrying more of this disease. So it’s scary in some ways,” he told Reuters.

The World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) said the early uptick is concerning but not cause for public alarm.

“There should not be a public health alarm,” said Gregorio Torres, head of WOAH’s scientific department. “An increase in the number of cases could have different explanations. What we need to observe is the actual virus itself.”

In Europe, activity is also more severe than last year. Germany has recorded its highest number of outbreaks in three years. From early September to mid-November, 1,443 cases were detected in wild birds across 26 European countries — four times as many as in the same period in 2024 and the most since 2016, according to the European Food Safety Authority.

“What’s new this season? It’s not the same birds that are being affected,” said Gilles Salvat, deputy director general of ANSES. “This time, we’ve seen contamination occur earlier among wild birds, and now we’re starting to detect cases that are spreading to farmed birds.”

Salvat said common cranes, early migrators, played a key role in spreading the virus from northeast to southwest Europe, with heavy fatalities in Germany and France. France placed its poultry sector on high alert in October, weeks earlier than usual.

In Asia, overall patterns have been more typical, though Cambodia has faced severe outbreaks. Japan reported its first case on Oct. 22, five days later than last year, and has culled about 1.65 million birds to date.