“The global circulation of the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus is particularly worrying”

Dince March, the H5N1 avian flu virus has been found in the milk of cows on 832 cattle farms in 16 states across the Atlantic, and since May in agricultural workers on these cattle and avian farms, raising the risks of 'an influenza pandemic. Since then, while transmission of the H5N1 virus following consumption of raw milk has been suspected in an adolescent hospitalized for a serious form in California, and two other individuals have been diagnosed positive for the H5N1 virus without a source of exposure or link with affected farms, concern about potential unrecognized human-to-human circulation is becoming more relevant.

Influenza viruses are indeed viruses with a high pandemic probability, due to their strong capacity for mutations and interspecific genetic reassortments, their respiratory transmission facilitating rapid dispersion, and the low immunity of the population since the 1918 flu, and the difficult assessment of the immunity provided by the H1N1 epidemic in 2009. Although the circulation of different avian flu viruses is long-standing and a source of regular concern, since 2021 the global circulation of the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus is particularly worrying.

Indeed, the virus has circulated on all continents – even to bird colonies in Antarctica – with outbreaks of very significant mortality, persistence of the virus in the environment and homogenization of the subtype (2.3.3.4b ) circulating globally. Disruption of avifauna migrations [ensemble des oiseaux d’une région] wild by climate change, and the reduction of quiet areas linked to the scarcity of wetlands, also favor a greater density and concentration of wild birds, and therefore potential viral exchanges.

Until now, health policies in France were based on the culling of affected livestock, before the implementation of avian vaccination in France, in October 2023. These previous policies were characterized [par les anthropologues Charles Stépanoff et Frédéric Keck, et la sociologue Jocelyne Porcher] of “depopulation policies”resonating with “depopulation” largest of the sixth mass extinction [liée à l’anthropocène].

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