--- title: Bird Flu Spreading as Scientists Look Everywhere for Clues description: Could it be blowing from farm to farm in the dirt? Could determined starlings and pigeons be carrying it into poultry houses on their feet?... canonical: https://time.com/3895417/bird-flu-spreading-virus-united-states-agriculture/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-25T03:25:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T07:35:57.588Z article:section: Health og:title: Bird Flu Spreading as Scientists Look Everywhere for Clues og:description: Could it be blowing from farm to farm in the dirt? og:url: https://time.com/3895417/bird-flu-spreading-virus-united-states-agriculture/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bird Flu Spreading as Scientists Look Everywhere for Clues twitter:description: Could it be blowing from farm to farm in the dirt? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Bird Flu Spreading as Scientists Look Everywhere for Clues by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News May 25, 2015 3:25 AM UTC by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News May 25, 2015 3:25 AM UTC Could it be blowing from farm to farm in the dirt? Could determined starlings and pigeons be carrying it into poultry houses on their feet? Is it spreading in feed, or being carried on truck tires? Federal agriculture officials are looking everywhere they can think of for H5N2 bird flu, which has spread to poultry flocks[ in 14 states](http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/wisconsin-declares-bird-flu-emergency-n345141) and killed or forced the slaughter of more than 39 million birds. Highly pathogenic avian influenza has never spread like this before in the United States, and it’s flummoxed the U.S. Department of Agriculture, farmers and scientists alike … [_Read the rest of the story at NBCNews.com_](http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/blowing-wind-scientists-looking-everywhere-bird-flu-n363441?cid=par-time-article%5F20150525) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3895417/bird-flu-spreading-virus-united-states-agriculture/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3895417/bird-flu-spreading-virus-united-states-agriculture/"},"headline":"Bird Flu Spreading as Scientists Look Everywhere for Clues","datePublished":"2015-05-25T03:25:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T07:35:57.588Z","description":"Could it be blowing from farm to farm in the dirt? Could determined starlings and pigeons be carrying it into poultry houses on their feet?...","url":"https://time.com/3895417/bird-flu-spreading-virus-united-states-agriculture/","keywords":["Disease"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/disease/","name":"Disease"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3895417/bird-flu-spreading-virus-united-states-agriculture/","name":"Bird Flu Spreading as Scientists Look Everywhere for Clues"}}]}] ```