US Zoos Are Reporting Animal Deaths From Bird Flu

Several US zoos have reported bird flu infections and animal deaths on-site, including the Wildlife World Zoo in Arizona, The San Francisco Zoo, and Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo. The H5N1 virus has spread from wild birds to farmed poultry to dairy cows, affecting a variety of wild and domestic animals. The potential for another bird flu pandemic is increasing as the virus spreads amongst different species, including endangered animals in zoos.

Animal advocacy groups like Freedom For Animals argue that keeping animals captive in zoos is both cruel and unjustifiable. Zoos, which house a variety of species at high densities, are a likely source of future zoonotic outbreaks. The presence of bird flu at US zoos follows similar outbreaks in zoos in South Vietnam, indicating the potential for disease transmission in captive animal populations.