TikTok Emu Emmanuel Is Ill, Avian Flu Kills 99% Birds On Farm

Healthcare TikTok Star Emu Emmanuel Is Ill From Avian Flu Outbreak On Farm Bruce Y. Lee Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I am a writer, journalist, professor, systems modeler, computational and digital health expert, avocado-eater, and entrepreneur, not always in that order.

Following New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories. Got it! Oct 16, 2022, 04:54pm EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Emmanuel the Emu rose to fame on TikTok early this year after his screen-hogging ways, or perhaps . .

. [+] screen-emu-ing ways, kept interrupting Taylor Blake while she was trying to film a video. (Courtesy of Taylor Blake @knucklebumpfarms on Instagram) @knucklebumpfarms on Instagram If you somehow believe that avian influenza is just for the birds, take a look at what’s happened at Knuckle Bump Farms in Florida.

Farm owner Taylor Blake tweeted on Saturday that a bird flu outbreak has killed 99% of the domesticated birds on her farm. That’s included the heartbreaking loss of ducks, geese, chickens, and three emus: Emily, Eliza and Elliot. Avian influenza has also struck the most famous bird of them all on Knuckle Bump Farms: an emu named Emmanuel Todd Lopez.

While that seemed to leave things on a wing and a prayer for a moment, Blake’s updates suggest that after a lot of hard work from her and Emmanuel, he may be on the road to recovery. . Emmanuel the Emu rose to fame on TikTok early this year after his screen-hogging ways, or perhaps screen-emu-ing ways, kept interrupting Blake while she was trying to film the following video: That emu-sing display helped Emmanuel go viral in a social media sort of way.

He’s made a number of re-appearances in TikTok videos such as the following where Blake had a bit of a cow over Emmanuel’s antics: However, it’s another viral incident, in this case a bad real virus incident, that has people on social media now rooting for Emmanuel in a different way. Wild Egyptian geese may have brought something really fowl, or rather foul, to Knuckle Bump Farms: a nasty strain of avian influenza. And as Blake described on her Twitter thread, this avian influenza eventually took the lives of 99% of those with beaks on her farm: MORE FOR YOU Hiring Refugees: How One Big Factory Did It Sky Glass One Year On – The Future Of TV? Women Putting Women #InCharge That’s heartbreaking but not surprising since highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), in particular the H5N1 type A avian influenza strain, has been spreading so widely and rapidly throughout the U.

S, as I have covered for Forbes previously . As of October 14, testing has found HPAI in 242 commercial flocks and 290 backyard flocks, affecting 47. 45 million birds across 42 different states in the U.

S. , according to the U. S.

Department of Agriculture (USDA) . Note the words “highly pathogenic,” which aren’t positive words. If someone were to call you “highly pathogenic,” you should feel insulted.

“Highly pathogenic” means highly likely to cause severe illness, which can result in death. This would be the opposite of the low pathogenic avian influenza strains that don’t really cause severe symptoms. And unfortunately, the HPAI has done its highly pathogenic thing in the Knuckle Bump Farms, leading to lots of suffering and death.

Blake described how horrible it is to see innocent animals die: Yeah, once HPAI enters a flock, a farm, or any relatively closed quarters with lots o’ birds, it can spread like wildfire. And once a bird is infected, often there’s only so much you can do. Blake indicated that she tried her best to save many of her feathered friends but couldn’t stop the death toll from mounting: Losing over 50 birds in a span three days is tragic.

Again, supportive care can help. But HPAI can kill with remarkable speed. This past Wednesday, Blake had thought the virus had left the barn, so to speak, but found out that Emmanuelle had gotten infected as well.

This left him in need of round the clock care, including being fed and provided with subcutaneous fluids: The infection didn’t just affect Emmanuel’s respiratory tract. It also resulted in neurological symptoms and loss of function in his right foot and leg, according to Blake: Blake and her friend then decided to wing it construct an improvised sling for Emmanuel. They also started him on a physical therapy program.

So hopefully Emmanuelle is now on the road to recovery and will soon return to his screen-hogging, TikTok-ing ways. Blake posted how “This entire experience, albeit very traumatizing, has taught me so much. I will always use my platform to spread awareness.

To hopefully use the knowledge I’ve gained to save someone else from this heartbreak,” as you can see here: She went on to warn that “AI is running rampant in the USA right now, please be aware!” And in this case AI didn’t stand for artificial intelligence but for avian influenza. As the ongoing avian flu epidemic of 2022 has shown, there is a need for better avian influenza surveillance and control measures. All of this is a reminder that avian influenza is not something to pay attention to only when you end up having to pay egg-stra to make some omelets.

From a selfish human standpoint, it’s never a good idea to let avian influenza viruses run rampant. Like coronaviruses, influenza viruses can mutate quite a lot. This means that the genetic sequences of flu viruses can change as often as Kardashians change clothes.

While the vast majority of avian influenza strains can’t infect and can’t cause disease in humans, you never know when a new strain may emerge that has the ability to jump to humans. And you never know when a strain may have additional mutations that allow them to spread from human-to-human. The result could be a novel virus that could result in an outbreak among humans.

And as 2020 has shown, that’s not a great thing to have happen. But we shouldn’t just be just human-centric. HPAI viruses can affect and take the lives of many birds.

That, in turn, can greatly affect the humans that love and care for them. It’s important to remember how much the lives of birds can enhance the lives of humans. After all, a bird in hand can be definitely worth a bird in hand.

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