Opinion: Bird flu is spreading. Wastewater monitoring can help us stop it
The National Wastewater Surveillance System’s funding expires at the end of fiscal year 2025, just as bird flu heats up.
Egg prices have risen 50% since March 2024, the result of an ongoing bird flu crisis that has both producers and consumers grappling for solutions. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 166 million chickens have been infected and killed in the past three years, which means there are fewer egg-laying chickens, reduced supply, and higher prices. Mandatory culling, inadequate government reimbursement, and prevention costs have led to $1.4 billion in losses for the poultry industry, hurting both farmers and everyday Americans. But despite these soaring costs, the U.S. is about to sunset a relatively affordable, very effective tool we have for stopping bird flu — and other deadly viruses.
Bird flu’s unprecedented jump to dairy cows has opened a new pathway for human exposure and threatens a second major food sector. There are currently 70 confirmed human cases in the U.S., and in January, the nation saw its first death from bird flu — a person in Louisiana who was exposed to a combination of a backyard flock and wild birds. Meanwhile, infections at commercial poultry and egg laying facilities continue to rise with a single outbreak in Ohio infecting more than 1.8 million poultry.
