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Federal officials are cracking down on poultry operations looking for taxpayer relief from bird flu losses and will now require a biosecurity audit before insuring birds against future avian influenza outbreaks. The new requirement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture is an effort to stamp out the nearly 3-year-old outbreak that has claimed 128 million birds nationwide. Infections continue in several places, driving up the cost of eggs and meat. (1/2)

The Biden administration, in a final push to shore up the nation’s pandemic preparedness before President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office, announced on Thursday that it would nearly double the amount of money it was committing to ward off a potential outbreak of bird flu in humans. Federal health officials have been keeping a close eye on H5N1, a strain of avian influenza that is highly contagious and lethal to chickens, and has spread to cattle. The virus has not yet demonstrated that it can spread efficiently among people. (Gay Stolberg, 1/2)

Combined infection with bird flu and human flu could lead to mutations of new viruses that could have dangerous public health consequences, agencies have warned. ... The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advises on their website that Americans, particularly those at high risk of bird flu such as farmworkers, should get the flu vaccine this season, even though it only prevents seasonal flu. (Willmoth, 1/2)

On New Year's Eve the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LADPH) urged pet owners to avoid feeding pets raw food after tests found links between a cat's H5 avian flu illness and raw food sold by Monarch Raw Pet Food at California farmer's markets. The announcement marks the second raw pet food company tied to related illnesses in cats. Last week, Oregon officials reported similar findings involving one type of frozen raw pet food from Northwest Naturals that was marketed nationally. (Schnirring, 1/2)

Norovirus, informally dubbed the “winter vomiting disease,” is making its rounds this winter. Weekly test positivity rates have so far surged by 340% during the 2024–25 season, according to a Fortune analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data recorded as three-week moving averages. Norovirus test positivity reached a season high of 22% the week ended Dec. 21, up from 5% the week ended Aug. 3. Just since the week ended Nov. 16, the rate had jumped from 11%, a 109% increase in five weeks. (Leake, 1/2)

Five years ago, a cluster of people in Wuhan, China, fell sick with a virus never before seen in the world. ... It wound up setting off a pandemic that exposed deep inequities in the global health system and reshaped public opinion about how to control deadly emerging viruses. The virus is still with us, though humanity has built up immunity through vaccinations and infections. It’s less deadly than it was in the pandemic’s early days and it no longer tops the list of leading causes of death. But the virus is evolving, meaning scientists must track it closely. (Neergaard, Ungar and Stobbe, 1/2)