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Category: Outbreaks & Epidemiology ×
H5N1 should now be treated as a permanent systemic risk, not a succession of outbreaks
Highly pathogenic avian influenza has moved beyond the model of episodic poultry outbreaks and should now be managed as a persistent, multi-host systemic risk.
African swine fever progresses faster in wild boar than in domestic pigs
Wild boar and domestic pigs respond differently to highly virulent African swine fever virus (ASFV), according to a 2026 doctoral thesis from the Swedish University of Agricultural…
Chronic Wasting Disease Worldwide: 2026 Update on CWD Cases and Geographic Spread
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) continues to expand in 2026, but the global burden remains overwhelmingly concentrated in North America. As of 5 October, CWD has been documented i...
Epizootic hemorrhagic disease expands in the US as 2026 outbreaks hit wild deer
A new Nebraska study shows that epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV) was already circulating widely in wild cervids before the current 2026 outbreak season. Testing of hun...
West Nile virus in Europe: Dutch deaths rise, while France and Spain report continued animal and human expansion
West Nile virus activity remained substantial across Europe during this week, with some of the clearest new signals coming from the Netherlands, France, Italy and Spain. The Net...
Bluetongue in Europe: BTV-3 intensifies in the British Isles while France reports a much quieter season
Bluetongue virus serotype 3 (BTV-3) remained the main animal-health signal in north-western Europe during the final week of September 2026. Great Britain continued to report a v...
Bluetongue in the UK: more than 2,300 premises affected by the end of September
Bluetongue virus serotype 3 (BTV-3) has expanded sharply across Great Britain during September 2026, with 2,309 affected premises confirmed in the 2026–2027 season by 30 Septemb...
H5N1 in Africa: two decades of data reveal persistent poultry hotspots and uneven zoonotic risk
A continent-wide analysis of avian influenza in Africa shows that H5N1 has dominated reported animal outbreaks since 2004 and remains concentrated in a limited number of major p...
H5N1 in Canadian wildlife: waterfowl, raptors and reassortant viruses dominate four years of surveillance
A national analysis of highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) in Canadian wildlife has identified 2,657 detections between January 2022 and March 2026, with wild birds accoun...
Avian influenza in the United States: H5N1 activity rises again as autumn migration begins
Highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) is becoming more visible again in U.S. poultry as the autumn migration season develops. During the past ten days, Iowa confirmed a new...
Machine learning maps avian influenza risk hotspots across India
A new machine-learning study has mapped areas of India where highly pathogenic avian influenza is most likely to be reported, identifying eastern, northeastern, coastal and sele...
Hunting dogs may represent an overlooked H5N1 exposure interface in the United States
Hunting dogs that retrieve wild birds could occupy an important but poorly studied position in the ecology of highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1). A U.S. survey of 112 hun...
H5N1 detected in a cat and rats during a backyard poultry outbreak in Illinois
A highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) outbreak that killed almost an entire backyard poultry flock in Illinois was accompanied by fatal infections in a domestic cat and ra...
African swine fever is becoming a long-term management problem in endemic regions
African swine fever control strategies may need to evolve as the virus shifts from explosive outbreaks towards persistent circulation in some regions. A new perspective in Front...
Avian influenza in summer 2026: low activity in European birds, but continued spread in mammals worldwide
Highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) remained at relatively low levels in European birds during summer 2026, but the global picture was more dynamic. The latest joint ECDC-...
Shamonda virus spreads across Europe as concern shifts towards fetal infection and congenital disease
In less than two months, Shamonda-Europe virus has spread widely across western and central Europe. Initially detected mainly in cattle with fever, diarrhoea and reduced milk pr...
West Nile virus 2026: horses and birds reveal the scale of transmission across Europe and North America
Animal surveillance is providing some of the clearest signals of the intensity of the 2026 West Nile virus season. By 26 September, France had already recorded at least 253 equi...
Foot-and-mouth disease antibodies detected in more than one in four cattle across Africa and Asia
A systematic review and meta-analysis of 67 studies reports an overall seroprevalence of antibodies against foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) of 26.86% in cattle from Africa a...
First Detection of the H1N1 Virus Reported in European Bison
A study reports the first serological and molecular detection of the influenza A(H1N1) virus in European bison. The study retrospectively analyzed 335 serum samples collected fr...
Influenza in China: Alarming Emergence of a New H6N2 Reassorted Avian Virus
A study reports the identification and characterization of a new reassortant H6N2 virus isolated from poultry in eastern China. In December 2025, 362 samples were collected from...
H5N1 Virus in Cats: An Outbreak of Unprecedented Scale in Poland
The Polish outbreak in June–July 2023 changed the role of cats in the epidemiology of the H5N1 virus. These are no longer sporadic cases of feline infection with the A (H5N1) vi...
African swine fever: Dogs, a New Ally in the Search for Wild Boar Carcasses
The fight against African swine fever (ASF) doesn’t always take place at borders or in laboratories, but sometimes deep in the forest, where dead wild boars lie. This is because...
Avian Influenza and Influenza Viruses of Animal Origin: A Review of 2024
The 2026 epidemiological report from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) on zoonotic diseases (2024 data) presents a seemingly paradoxical finding: inf...
H5N1 Avian Influenza: The Risk Associated with Raw Milk Has Been Confirmed
The virus remains infectious for weeks in the milk of infected cows, but standard pasteurization appears to be sufficient. With the H5N1 avian influenza virus now circulating in...
Avian Influenza: Lakes and Rivers at the Crossroads of Viral Circulation
Avian influenza is primarily monitored in poultry flocks and among wild birds. A thesis defended at Dalhousie University in Canada proposes tracking the circulation of influenza...
Avian Influenza: The Beef Meat Sector Is Not (Yet) Affected
Since 2024, avian influenza has no longer been limited to birds. In the United States, the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus underwent cross-species transmission by infecting dairy c...
Influenza A in Birds: The Reservoir That Never Dies Out
Birds are not merely victims of major avian influenza epizootics. They are the natural reservoir for these influenza viruses and, above all, the primary driver of their evolutio...
Avian Influenza: Dogs and Cats at the Center of a New Zoonotic Front
A report highlights the role of pets in the evolution of influenza A viruses and the risk of a pandemic. For a long time, dogs and cats were spared from the circulation of influ...
H5N1 Avian Influenza in Cattle: A Gradual Adaptation of the Virus to Its Host
A study shows that the H5N1 virus’s ability to replicate in bovine cells depends heavily on its “internal genomics”—the genes that drive replication and evasion of the innate im...
Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza: Europe on Edge Until the End of Winter
Between mid-September and the end of November, Europe saw a resurgence in cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI H5) among both wild birds and poultry. In a joint anal...
Avian Influenza and Swine Flu: Europe Adopts a “Pre-Pandemic” Action Plan
The ECDC has published an operational framework with fourteen scenarios to provide real-time guidance for member states’ responses to the risk of an influenza A (H5N1) pandemic...
H5N1 Avian Influenza and Cats: A Status Report in 2025
A litter of 8 kittens died in the Netherlands . One kitten from a goat farm tested positive for the H5N1 virus; the others died after being adopted into different homes. The inv...
Avian Influenza: An Overview of the H5N1 Virus in North America
After three years of avian influenza outbreaks and the culling of hundreds of millions of poultry, one question keeps coming up: What is the main cause of these epizootics? Rese...
COVID-19: An owner who tests positive significantly increases the likelihood of their dog becoming seropositive
Since 2020, it has been recognized that dogs can become infected through contact with an owner who tests positive for SARS-CoV-2. A study published in *Virus Research* supports...
The Wildlife-Human-Livestock Interface: A Key Tool in the Fight Against Emerging Diseases
For the past two decades, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases have become a major public health issue. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 60% of k...
Avian Influenza: The Environment and Biosecurity Affect Virus Transmission in Poultry Farms
Since 2021, the United States has been facing an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1 HPAI) on an unprecedented scale. More than 500 cases of direct transmission...
Avian Influenza: An AI-Powered Early Warning System for Laying Hen Farms
As highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) continues to cause economic losses and health crises, an article in *Poultry Science* proposes using artificial intelligence (AI) to...
H5N1 Avian Influenza: The Deaths of Two Cats Reignite the Public Health Debate Over Raw Food
The Los Angeles Department of Public Health issued an alert following the serious illness and death of two cats that had been fed commercial raw cat food. One of the cats was co...
COVID-19: The Alpha variant persists in white-tailed deer long after it has disappeared from humans
A study reveals that the Alpha variant of SARS-CoV-2, which has not been detected in humans for over a year, is still actively circulating among white-tailed deer in Ohio, in th...
Climate variability: an underestimated driver of the risk of vector-borne disease outbreaks
A study published in PNAS demonstrates that internal climate variability—the natural and chaotic fluctuations in climate that are independent of human emissions and various risk...
Influenza A (H6): An Underestimated Avian Influenza Virus That Is Now Causing Concern Among Experts
While global attention is focused on H5N1 avian influenza and its recent outbreaks in cattle herds and among humans, another strain is now drawing the attention of the scientifi...
Foot-and-mouth disease: a highly contagious disease that goes undetected clinically
A study reveals the critical importance of silent transmission of foot-and-mouth disease in cattle. Foot-and-mouth disease is one of the most feared threats to cattle herds and...
African swine fever (ASF): Spread to 51 Countries, Summer Outbreak, and Global Health Emergency
ASF continues to spread worldwide. Between January 2024 and May 2025, 14,918 outbreaks were reported in 51 countries and territories, with 386,089 cases identified and 605,225 a...
Bluetongue: The virus Could Also Pose a Threat to Dogs
Long considered a disease affecting only ruminants, bluetongue (BT) may well be expanding its scope. This is suggested by a scientific journal article published in *Veterinary S...
Avian Influenza: Landscape Changes in East Asia Are Facilitating the Emergence of New Viruses
A study shows that the transformation of wetlands and agricultural areas accelerates the diversification of avian influenza viruses. Rapid landscape changes along the East Asia–...
A rare case of plague transmitted by a cat has alerted U.S. health authorities
A 73-year-old man contracted the plague after caring for his sick cat. This case is notable for its atypical nature: the infection occurred in the middle of winter, a time typic...
H5N1 Avian Influenza: Broadened Viral Tropism, Contaminated Milk, and an Increased Zoonotic Risk
The H5N1 virus, long associated with birds, has reached a new stage in its evolution. By infecting dairy cattle and replicating in the mammary gland, it is altering its viral tr...
United Kingdom: West Nile virus detected for the first time in native mosquitoes
A retrospective study conducted in the United Kingdom reveals the first detection of the West Nile virus (WNV) in local mosquitoes in 2023. Although the health risk remains low,...