A extremely infectious pressure of avian influenza has been raging throughout the U.S. for months now, claiming the lives of hundreds of untamed birds and tens of tens of millions of home poultry, based on the newest estimates from the CDC.

And now, the fowl flu has reportedly come to considered one of TikTok’s most well-known farm’s: Knuckle Bump Farms in Florida, house to Emmanuel the Emu. The fowl, who turned a viral sensation for his video-bombing tendencies, has now gone viral within the dangerous method. Emmanuel contracted avian flu, based on multiple tweets from Taylor Blake, the influencer whose household owns the farm.

“We lost 50+ birds in 3 days. I am still trying to wrap my head around it,” she wrote on Twitter. “We thought we were out of the woods, when Emmanuel unexpectedly went down,” Blake added.

As tragic and devastating as fowl flu outbreaks are, and as beloved as Emmanuel the Emu could also be, virologists on Twitter had been horrified to see the kind of up-close care Emmanuel appears to be receiving. Many of Blake’s tweets present her cuddling head to head with the unwell emu.

Experts are warning: DO NOT DO THIS. “Being face to face with a bird w [sic] avian flu is a bad idea,” posted Boghuma Kabisen Titanij, a physician and world well being and infectious illness researcher at Emory University. “This is how zoonotic transmissions occur, this is why entire farms cull sick birds. We live with the threat of pandemic flu,” Titanij additional defined in her tweet thread on the subject.

Although not quite common, fowl flu can and has jumped from poultry to folks a number of occasions earlier than. A pressure carefully associated to the one at the moment circulating nationwide has contaminated a whole lot hundreds of people previously 20 years and killed about 50% of those that contracted it, based on the World Health Organization.

In the present U.S. outbreak, only one human is understood to have contracted the virus. The individual caught the virus at a industrial poultry facility in Colorado and recovered from the illness, based on WHO. Yet the virus has confirmed that it can mutate to be extra transmissible between birds and folks.

Close contact with contaminated birds definitely will increase the chance of cross-species unfold. “Infected birds shed bird flu virus through their saliva, mucous, and feces,” warns the CDC. “Human infections with bird flu viruses can happen when virus gets into a person’s eyes, nose or mouth, or is inhaled. This can happen when virus is in the air (in droplets or possibly dust) and a person breathes it in, or possibly when a person touches something that has virus on it then touches their mouth, eyes or nose,” the company additional says on its web site.

In different phrases: Absolutely, positively don’t go nostril to beak with a sick fowl. Other virologists voiced their concern on-line. “I screamed when I saw this,” tweeted Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Georgetown University and the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization.

“If your emu (or any bird) has avian influenza, do not kiss it. Do not cuddle with it. Do not touch it. Bird flu is extremely dangerous to humans and other animals. And it sounds harsh but to prevent [its] spread, birds that get avian flu should be euthanized,” mentioned Rasmussen.

And Tom Peacock, a flu researcher at Imperial College London, posted a lengthy thread outlining the dangers of dealing with sick birds.

Back on the farm, Blake has posted multiple tweets claiming she and her household are following “FDA guidelines” surrounding fowl flu, together with quarantining. However as an alternative of cuddling contaminated birds, the CDC recommends that anybody responding on to an avian influenza outbreak keep away from direct contact the place attainable and put on protecting gear like gloves, a medical face masks, and eye safety when contact can’t be prevented.

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