Bird Flu Center

When asked about the avian influenza and its origins, most people would name Asia as the place where it all began. However, the first records of such viruses indicate a different development.

Initial references to bird flu origin point to 19th century Italy, where in 1878 a serious disease affected chickens, causing high mortality. Decades later, after more progress in the field of pathology, it was determined that the origin of the fowl plague had been an influenza virus, more specifically a type A influenza virus, as it is the only one to affect domestic animals.

Avian flu was not to be associated with human disease again until World War I. The origin of the Spanish flu was traced back to a mutated form of the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus. It is estimated between 50 to 100 million people worldwide died following the pandemic which the unusually powerful strain of the virus provoked in 1918 and 1919. The virus found perfect conditions of infecting millions across the continent fast, as the close quarters and mass movement of soldiers during the war quickened the spread. Although the origin of bird flu could not be pinpointed to the Iberian peninsula, the name stuck as the illness received more press attention in Spain. It was a very aggressive type of bird flu,
affecting healthy individuals and leaving them too feeble to walk withing hours of the infection. Late 20th century research on biological samples taken from the victims of the disease discovered it was caused by a slightly altered form of the bird flu virus, that easily jumped from infected poultry to humans. The origin was unclear, but one theory indicated the United States as the initial hotbed.

Another group of researchers claim the bird flu origin can be found in Scotland. In 1959 a poultry farm in Aberdeen was confronted with a bird flu disease, which was later identified and isolated as the highly pathogenic virus which has claimed lives in Southeast Asia. However, its effects seem to be very mild in comparison to the ones the entire world is faced with right now. Scottish specialists name other flu outbreaks that have affected England in 1963, 1979 and 1991, to show the virus was very different to the current one bearing the same title. Also, unlike the latter, the 1959 Scottish virus proved to be incapable of moving from its origin in fowl to other species.

The latest bird flu outbreak to have sprung concern worldwide had its origins in Hong Kong, where in 1997, where 18 people contracted the illness and 6 eventually died. A large number of poultry was culled in an attempt to eliminate the virus, but a few years later it has reappeared and is spreading rapidly to other continents and rising the human death toll to hundreds.

With different outbreaks in the past and very diverse occurrences worldwide, bird flu origin seems blur and not a matter of the past, but a real concern for the future. Based on a virus which has been around for centuries and a more favorable environment to develop in than ever, it is proving a health issue human kind will have to address for years to come.