The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging hospitals to accelerate advanced testing of people they suspect may have bird flu.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today released an advisory recommending clinicians expedite subtyping of type A influenza samples from hospitalized patients, particularly individuals in an intensive care unit.

H5N9 is a rare subtype of the influenza A virus that can cause highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), also known as bird flu. It's a reassortment strain that originated from the H5N1, H7N9, and H9N2 subtypes.

Due to ongoing sporadic H5N1 avian flu infections and brisk levels of seasonal flu activity, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today urged healthcare providers to subtype all influenza A specimens in hospitalized patients, especially those in the intensive care unit (ICU), as soon as possible.

The spread of H5N1 into new species alarms researchers who say it could reassort in a new species, like pigs, leading to more severe human infection.

The H5N1 Avian influenza is decimating bird populations around the world. More than 136 million birds have been affected in the US since the disease arrived in 2022. More than 5 million egg-laying chickens died in the first 16 days of 2025.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are monitoring the bird flu situation in the United States. Here's what to know and how to stay safe.

H5N1 bird flu hits Georgia’s poultry industry marking the first commercial outbreak in the state Learn CDC prevention tips to protect public health and livelihoods

The H5N9 strain of avian influenza is much more rare than the H5N1 which has been responsible for most of the reported human cases and the first human death.

The findings come at a time when outbreaks of bird flu -- a different subtype of the ... of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 influenza virus currently circulating

A California duck farm made headlines this week after the World Organization of Animal Health published a report by U.S. authorities that a strain of bird flu that scientists call H5N9 had been found among sick birds in the flock.