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Why Is The Current Bird Flu So Deadly?

What’s making the latest strain of bird flu so deadly? Avian influenza used to mostly affect poultry, and while it continues to decimate poultry populations around the world, the latest strain, H5N1, is spreading widely among wild birds. It also seems to be spreading to mammals more frequently.

“Something is quite different about this virus this go around,” Rebecca Poulson, a wildlife disease researcher at the University of Georgia, told Nature.

Researchers aren’t sure why the current outbreak hasn’t disappeared, but they believe mutations may have increased its ability to replicate or to infect a broader range of species.

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Sheep Farming Life | Difficulties & Fun Discoveries!

Video: Sheep Farming Life | Difficulties & Fun Discoveries!

Sheep farming life includes difficulties and, in today's episode at Ewetopia Farms, it also includes some fun discoveries and interactions with our young lambs and adult rams. Lambing season is almost done on our sheep farm in Ontario, Canada, but today, we had two more ewes deliver lambs. The Suffolk ewe was rejecting her lamb due to mis-mothering with the Dorset ewe who had lambs at the same time. The Dorset ewe gave birth to twins, with one being extremely small. See how we approach these two problems in the hopes of getting one mother to bond and the other not to mistakenly harm her lamb. We also make a discovery when looking at our two favorite Suffolk lambs, which was a surprising coincidence! Then we catch up with some of our more popular Suffolk and Dorset rams.