In 2022, a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu started to infect wildlife, poultry, and, later, dairy farms. Since then, more than 200 million poultry birds on U.S. farms have been killed because of outbreaks.
Most of the cases on farms can be traced to wild migratory birds like geese.
Maurice Pitesky is the founder of AgriNerds, Inc. It’s a startup that tracks waterfowl with satellite imagery and weather radar, to warn farmers of their outbreak risk.
Now, Pitesky says that AgriNerds is partnering with Alveo Technologies, a company that makes a bird flu rapid test for poultry.
"Now we can make daily risk predictions for the entire poultry industry across the entire United States," Pitesky says.
Alveo’s rapid test is still under review with the USDA, but it’s already in use in more than 30 other countries.
Currently, in the U.S., farmers have to send bird flu tests away to a lab. Erik Tyrrell-Knott, president of Alveo, says that process is slow.
"Every minute counts, and we can give them a result in 45 minutes instead of three days," Tyrrell-Knott says.
By combining AgriNerds waterfowl tracking data with Alveo’s test results, the companies say they’ll build a deeper understanding of how avian flu spreads.
