First it hit poultry farms, forcing farmers to cull millions of hens. Egg prices jumped, and some grocery stores began to ration the number of cartons per customer.
Next infections spread to dairy cows, stoking fears of a wider outbreak.
Now, avian influenza has been detected in domesticated cats, and humans, with about seventy confirmed cases in in the U.S.
Lena Sun is a staff writer for the Washington Post who covers public health and infectious disease. She’s been tracking the spread of bird flu over the last few years and says the experts she talks to are worried. “If the country doesn’t do more to get a handle on how the virus is spreading,” she says, “it will be harder and harder to figure out ways to contain it.”
Lena Sun joins Diane on this week’s episode of On My Mind.
