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Bird flu, also called avian flu or Asian bird flu, is caused by a virus that normally only infects birds (and in rare cases pigs). The bird flu is a strain of influenza virus known as H5N1, the variant associated with the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Previously the strain passed from pigs to humans.

The first historical cases of avian flu were identified in Europe, specifically Italian chickens, in the 1870s.

The first cases of bird flu in recent years were documented in Hong Kong (according to avianinfluenza.org). Another outbreak occurred there in 2003. As infected wild birds migrate they share the virus with domestic populations in other areas of the world as well as native wild birds in those regions. These birds then can spread the virus among the human inhabitants. The first human cases were documented in the open farm markets of Vietnam, China, and Indonesia in 2005. In 2006 a case was reported in the Middle East. The presence of the virus in ducks in Nigeria show that is has spread even further. Some articles dispute that migratory pathways are to blame, even though that is the mechanism proposed by the World Health Organization, and state that airplane travel allows human carriers to spread the disease. Although this may be true, those people would not be capable of passing the virus to other people and the spread would not continue. The migration theory is supported by the die-off of 6000 migratory birds beginning at the Qinghai Lake nature reserve in central China in late April 2005. There is also accumulating evidence that the virus follows trade routes, which would most likely be in birds being transported for sale.

It has been reported that The World Health Organization has said the origin of human infection with bird flu is via bird droppings. The origins of the strain itself and its presence in birds is probably a similar strain of influenza from which it mutated. The Oxford Dictionary states the origin of the word "influenza" to be Italy in 1743, the location of the first reported epidemic according to CBC (Canada Broadcasting Company). The virus has infected humans and animals for centuries.

Learn more about this author, Alicia M Prater PhD.
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