On February 5th, 2025, the Alliance welcomed two distinguished speakers who shared their expertise on highly pathogenic Avian Influenza. Prof. Dr. Kuiken shared valuable insights on the threat of fur farming for the emergence of pandemic Influenza. Mr. Saidal Ali Bah from The Gambia presented on the country’s situation and response towards the HPAI outbreak in wild birds in 2023. This project was led by one of the GIZ partner projects of the Alliance on ‘Pandemic Resilience, One Health’.
In recent years, the prevalence of highly pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5 viruses has risen sharply worldwide, causing mass die-offs in wild birds and poultry. The ongoing panzootic (2020–2023) poses significant challenges, threatens human health through viral adaptation and demands urgent action. Therefore, we were delighted to have had two amazing speakers for this event.
Prof. Dr. Thijs Kuiken: Influenza, Zoonotic Risks, and Fur Farms
Prof. Dr. Thijs Kuiken is a professor of comparative pathology at Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam. His research focuses on the pathogenesis of emerging zoonotic virus infections and preventing new viral pandemics while supporting bat conservation and the novel role of wild water birds as victims and carriers of the highly pathogenic Avian Influenza.
In his presentation he discussed the risks for animal and human health posed by highly pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI). He explained that the current H5 outbreak, which began in 1996, has had a huge impact. Over 389 million poultry and tens of millions of wild birds have died, with 908 reported human infections and a case fatality rate of 50%.
Prof. Dr. Kuiken emphasized that fur farms, particularly those raising mink, are high-risk environments for virus reassortment. Mink can be infected with human, Avian, and Swine Influenza viruses, which makes them ideal hosts for creating new variants with pandemic potential. Although fur farming has decreased, millions of animals are still farmed globally, mainly in China, Poland, and Russia. Outbreaks on fur farms have occurred in several countries including China between 2016 and 2019, Spain in 2022 and Finland in July 2023. In the latter two cases, the farm animals had to be killed, but no workers were infected.
To mitigate these risks, Prof. Dr. Kuiken called for enhanced surveillance, better biosecurity, and stricter controls on practices such as feeding raw poultry and pork products to fur-bearing mammals. He also highlighted the need to consider national bans on fur farming to prevent future outbreaks.
Saidal Ali Blah: The Gambia’s Strategic Response to HPAI
Saidal Ali Blah is a veterinarian parasitologist and principal laboratory technologist at The Gambia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Security and he is currently pursuing a PhD with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on zoonotic pathogen surveillance in The Gambia. In his talk he shared insights into his country’s response to the 2023 HPAI outbreak in wild birds.
The outbreak was detected through abnormal bird deaths in the West Coast region, later confirmed as HPAI (H5N1) Real Time PCR.
The Gambia implemented proactive measures, including banning poultry imports from affected countries, conducting surveillance, and training farmers and field staff. The government activated its Integrated National Preparedness and Response Plan (INEP), originally developed in 2015, to guide its efforts.
To address public concerns and misinformation, stakeholders organized committees for surveillance, resource mobilization, and communication, releasing joint statements and engaging local communities. Awareness campaigns in local languages played a key role in preventing the spread of the virus to livestock poultry.
Mr. Bah also highlighted the importance of international collaboration, noting that genetic analysis linked the outbreak to lineages from northern Italy, likely spread by migratory birds. Despite these successes, he emphasized the need for improved laboratory capacities, better surveillance systems, and continued training to prepare for future challenges.
Key Takeaways:
- The disease burden of H5 HPAI is greater than that of all other HPAI outbreaks taken together and has affected multiple countries and animal species as well as humans. Due to its high mutation rate and ability to reassort inside its hosts, together with its continuing expansion, this virus strain has increasing pandemic potential.
- Fur farms, especially mink farms, provide the opportunity for H5 HPAI virus both to mutate and to reassort with other Influenza viruses, and have created more mammal-adapted H5 HPAI viruses.
- The first H5 HPAI outbreak in wild birds in The Gambia was mitigated through early preventive measures and continued efforts.
- In general, H5 HPAI outbreaks can be mitigated and prevented through increased biosecurity, vaccination and surveillance of animals, increased training of staff and the creation of guidelines like the INEP, as well as national bans of fur farms.
Conclusion:
Our special issue event, which was a collaborative effort with the GIZ Global Programme ‘Pandemic Resilience, One Health,’ underscored the urgent need for integrated approaches to address the current challenges of HPAI. The One Health approach ensures a holistic strategy in tackling HPAI to mitigate its risks for humans and animals and foster sustainable solutions for disease prevention. Recent developments of the spread of HPAI show the interlinkage between human and animal health and once again highlight that safeguarding wildlife health is safeguarding human health.
Watch the Recording here: