The state of Mississippi in the United States has reported an outbreak of the deadly H7N9 strain of the highly pathogenic avian flu (HPAI) virus in commercial poultry. The strain is known to have infected humans and birds.
The infection was confirmed by the US Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory to the Mississippi Board of Animal Health (MBAH), found in poultry located in Noxubee County, Mississippi, bordering Alabama.
The infected birds have been culled, while the facility has been quarantined off to prevent further spread of the disease, according to a statement by MBAH.
The H7N9 subtype has a North American wild bird lineage, according to a statement by the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH). The outbreak began on March 8, when the workers noticed clinical signs in the birds and rising fatalities, WOAH noted.
The virus was first detected in March 2013 in China. This is the second outbreak since March 2017, when the strain killed 74,000 chickens in Lincoln County, Tennessee.
Since 2024, multiple states in the US have reported outbreak of avian influenza virus A (HPAI) H5N1.
Subsequently, another outbreak was reported in commercial and backyard flocks in Alabama, Kentucky and Georgia during routine surveillance, according to a study published in PubMed Central in 2019.
A total of 47,654 birds at commercial poultries were culled until March 13, 2025. “Mississippi has experienced three avian flu outbreaks in commercial poultry since the spring of 2023, and since November 2024, the virus has been detected several times in migratory waterfowl in multiple parts of the state,” a statement from Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy said.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on March 17, 2025 warned that the rapid spread of the highly infectious avian flu virus H5N1 has reached an “unprecedented” scale, wiping out hundreds of millions of birds worldwide and increasingly spilling over into mammals.
FAO has called for an urgent action to step up biosecurity, surveillance and rapid response mechanism to control the outbreak.
“The crisis threatens to have serious impacts on food security and food supply in countries, including loss of valuable nutrition, rural jobs and income, shocks to local economies, and of course increasing costs to consumers,” said Godfrey Magwenzi, deputy director-general at FAO, addressing a press briefing.
With millions relying on poultry for meat and eggs, the challenge is not only to contain the virus but also to protect food production systems, he added.
The United Nationas noted the wide-scale economic impact of the outbreak the world is facing. For instance, it observed the record prices of eggs in the US. In February, the prices soared to $10 or higher per dozen.
As many as 166,417,923 poultry birds have been affected till March 14 across 51 jurisdictions, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and some 985 dairy herds have been reportedly affected until March 12 in 17 states of the US. About 30 million birds have been killed since January alone, FAO said.
At least 300 new wild bird species have been infected since 2021, posing a serious threat to biodiversity, the organisation said in a statement.
“Over the past four years, H5N1 has expanded to new regions, causing massive losses in domestic birds, disrupting food supplies and pushing poultry prices higher,” according to the statement.
Beth Bechdol, deputy director general, FAO underlined the need for a global, coordinated response, calling H5N1 a “transboundary” threat that no country can tackle alone.
FAO and WOAH have launched the Global Strategy for the Prevention and Control of High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza, a 10-year programme, Bechdol noted in the statement. She stressed the importance of private sector involvement, especially in developing vaccines, diagnostics and high-quality animal health services.