Why the wind may be partly to blame for the spread of bird flu: Study

• Czech Republic researchers said the wind may be partly to blame for the spread of bird flu. The newly released study said that the virus may be spreading in part because of infected feces particles blowing in the wind.
• Scientists told CNN that many of the birds impacted by the virus are migratory species like geese and ducks, which often rest on farms, where they are likely to defecate.
• The wind can then pick up the infected particles, spreading the virus far and wide, according to researchers.

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Czech Republic researchers said the wind may be partly to blame for the spread of bird flu. The study, released on Feb. 12, said that the virus may be spreading in part because of infected feces particles blowing in the wind, noting cases of people and farm flocks with no known exposure to H5N1 becoming infected with the virus.

What did scientists find?

Scientists told CNN that many of the birds impacted by the virus are migratory species like geese and ducks, which often land on farms, where they defecate. The wind may then pick up the infected particles, spreading the virus far and wide, according to researchers.

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How many cases spread this way?

Researchers said the true number of cases contracted through this method is hard to measure.

Health officials in California also believe that wind may have played a factor in the spread of the virus in some cattle herds in the Central Valley.

What evidence do they have for their theory?

In the case of infections reported at a chicken farm in the Czech Republic, researchers suspected the origins of the outbreak came from a nearby duck farm, which saw the virus spread rapidly through its flocks a week earlier.

Researchers also noted that ducks, exposed to a more open-air environment than chickens, died at a higher pace. This suggests that the ventilation systems at the studied chicken farm may have led to a slower spread of H5N1 through its flock.

When researchers checked the weather patterns during the chickens’ infection period, they found infections in chickens spread when there was a steady breeze blowing in from the duck farm, and when temperatures were between 40 and 50 degrees. Epidemiologists say viruses’ travel well in cold air and can survive long trips.

Scientists said they believe the virus may have hitched a ride on some of the feces-filled dander from the ducks.

Epidemiologists also note that this could partly explain human infections with no known prior exposure to the virus, though the evidence is still unclear.

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What do the findings mean for the bigger picture?

Researchers said the new findings show that people should take a layered approach when protecting themselves and livestock from the virus, including wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), and filtering air in barns to protect animals and farmworkers.