DAVIS, Calif. — The recent outbreak of H5N1 influenza, commonly called bird flu or avian influenza, originated in the wild bird population and jumped to farms, resulting in the loss of more than 100 million poultry and billions of dollars in the United States. The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research is providing a $148,111 Rapid Outcomes from Agricultural Research or ROAR grant to AgriNerds, Inc. to identify outbreak prevention strategies. AgriNerds is providing matching funds for a total investment of $300,222.

Current federal and state efforts primarily focus on post-outbreak responses. While on-farm operational and physical biosecurity is vital to protecting the U.S. poultry supply, a better understanding of the disease in wild bird populations is needed. Sequencing data show that 85% of the commercial outbreaks in the U.S. were direct introductions from wild birds, as opposed to farm-to-farm spread. Wild waterfowl are considered reservoirs, or hosts, for H5N1, yet little surveillance is done to monitor these populations for the disease.

“The widespread losses caused by avian influenza in 2022 and 2023 are driving egg prices up for consumers and impacting farmers’ bottom lines,” said Angela Records, FFAR chief scientific officer. “Through this research, ROAR’s unique rapid response capabilities will put preventative tools into the hands of farmers, helping them protect their operations from this disease.” 

Researchers led by Maurice Pitesky, associate specialist in cooperative extension at the University of California-Davis and chief executive officer at AgriNerds, developed the WaterFowl Alert Network (WFAN), the world’s first remote sensing tool designed to make daily predictions of where waterfowl roost. Because waterfowl (i.e. ducks and geese) are the primary reservoir of H5N1, understanding where waterfowl are relative to the countries 44,000-plus commercial poultry facilities offers a new predictive tool designed to help farmers and other stakeholders identify which farms are at the greatest risk of H5N1 exposure.

“The technology for the WFAN, which includes the nation’s 160 weather radar and Landsat satellite, demonstrate how we can leverage our infrastructure to build software tools to help ensure our food security,” Pitesky said. “This FFAR grant leverages over a decade of USDA funded academic research by UC Davis, USGS and the University of Delaware.”

WFAN data will be available to farmers and relevant state departments of agriculture, as well as to USDA and other researchers. For more information about this research, visit the Protecting Poultry & Dairy Farms from Bird Flu Outbreaks Linked to Wild Waterfowl grant page at https://tinyurl.com/47r55aen on FFAR’s website.

FFAR’s ROAR program rapidly funds research and outreach in response to emerging or unanticipated threats to the U.S. food supply or agricultural systems.