SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2026|No. 13114
Wildlife · Health

Backyard Bird Feeding Identified as Potential Bird Flu Superspreader

A popular pastime in Australia, feeding wild birds in backyards, is being flagged by an expert as a potential 'superspreader' event for the H5N1 avian flu virus.

A person fills a bird feeder in a backyard setting.
A person fills a bird feeder in a backyard setting. · Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash
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Backyard bird feeding could be a bird flu ‘superspreader’. An expert explains

By Darryl Jones, Professor Emeritus, Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security, Griffith University

Backyard bird feeding is one of our country’s most popular pastimes. Research reveals about half of Australian households feed wild birds, with many people doing so daily.

However, this practice could act as a superspreader event – where a disease infects an unusually high number of people or animals – of the H5N1 virus. This deadly…

PAN's pipeline reviewed approximately 1 open sources for this article. No human editor reviewed this article before publication.

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