What's in a name?

"Wild bird flu" vs. "Poultry flu" ...

There seems to be (at least a small) battle over the moniker for the current highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) strain circulating in Eurasia. Henry Niman over at Recombinombics prefers the former, while the folks over at Birds Korea prefer the latter.

It probably doesn't matter what we call it (the virus certainly doesn't care), but I find it interesting that there seems to be an overtone of blame associated with each name. For Dr. Niman, wild birds are apparently going to take this global and seed the pandemic that will kill us all, while for Birds Korea, it is poultry that is the culprit.

I admit that the greatest risk to humans (albeit a very small one at this point) of becoming infected with HPAI H5N1 is contact with infected poultry - there are just so many more infected domestic ducks and chickens than free-ranging waterfowl at this point, and humans generally do not come into close contact with wild birds in the same way they do their domestic ducks. Furthermore, until this year, most of the spread of HPAI H5N1 has been through movement of domestic birds.

That been said, I think it's important to avoid blaming one group or another. We should identify the risk factors and take steps to mitigate them - "blaming" this or that implies that there is intent, and consequently this or that must be "bad". As far as we can tell, it's the same virus (granted continually changing) in both wild and domestic birds. This is a classic "spillover/spillback" of a disease between domestic animals and wildlife.

Furthermore, as there are 140 odd possible subtypes of avian influenza, the monikers "wild bird flu" or "poultry flu" are vague at best and misleading at worst.

Personally, I think we should stick to using the precise, if not cumbersome, "highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1)", or even the shorter HPAI H5N1.

Helen Branswell also comments here.

Damien