San Francisco Zoo visitors have noticed that many bird exhibits have been closed to the public. The reason? Avian influenza.
The most recent strain of bird flu, H5N1 — which was first reported in Southern China in 1966 and has since evolved into subsequent variants throughout the years — is a death sentence for domesticated birds. Nearly 100% of chickens, ducks, and other poultry species that contract the disease die; the mortality rate among migratory birds is much lower, but contracting the disease still puts their bodies under extreme stress. In humans, the 2024 H5N1 variant kills nearly half of the infected … meaning it’s about fifty times more deadly than COVID-19.
Thankfully, h5N1 and its variants are not thought to be easily or regularly transmissible to people or in person-to-person interactions. But an interspecies vector “jump,” as it’s called, would have disastrous consequences.
Keeping the health and safety of zoo-goers, staff, and animals in mind, the San Francisco Zoo has announced it is closing all walk-in and walk-through brid exhibits for the time being.
“You may have noticed on a recent visit that indoor exhibit areas, such as the African Aviary and South American Tropical Rainforest & Aviary were closed,” reads an Instagram post acknowledging the recent exhibit enclosures, before explaining the cause of said closures. “This is a temporary situation as we are taking extra precautionary measures due to the risk of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), a viral infection that poses a threat to birds, mammals, and in rare cases, humans.”
(HPAI is a broader, more encompassing class of viruses that include many different types of bird flu, including the initial strain H5N1 and its subsequent variants.)
“Out of an abundance of caution, we have closed walk-through aviaries to protect the birds and are following biosecurity protocols to minimize the risk of transmission,” the post continues.
The zoo is monitoring for “ill wild birds,” both inside exhibits and wild birds (think crows, pigeons, doves, etc.) that exist natively outside enclosures to protect all the facility’s animals, staff, and guests, and understand the recent closures have on the public — “we apologize for the inconvenience.”
It’s unclear when these exhibits will reopen to the public; the egg selections at local Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods could serve litmus testes as to when that may be.
Feature image: Courtesy of Reddit user [slash]Gbrav747
