The University of Michigan announced on Mar. 27 a new engineering-led project to study how the bird flu virus degrades in the air around livestock and how engineering solutions might accelerate this process. The research, funded by a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, aims to help prevent or reduce future outbreaks.
The ongoing outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 that began in 2022 has resulted in the loss of 175 million birds in the United States and an estimated industry cost of $1.4 billion as of late 2024. These outbreaks disrupt food supply chains due to mass culling after detection within flocks and herds.
Herek Clack, associate professor at the University of Michigan, will lead tests on nonthermal plasmas—technologies that use strong electric fields to create free electrical charges which damage viruses suspended in aerosols. "Both the USDA and the agricultural industry want a playbook-science-based guidelines-for how to operate under the threat of bird flu," Clack said. "We're after a better understanding of how the airborne virus behaves in enclosed livestock operations and what technologies can best protect animals and workers." Previously, Clack’s team developed a plasma reactor capable of reducing infectious viruses in air by 99.9%. The current project will expand these tests by examining common pollutants like ammonia found near livestock that may affect plasma effectiveness.
Clack noted that even low concentrations of certain air pollutants can reduce nonthermal plasma’s ability to deactivate viral aerosols, prompting further research into enhancing plasma treatments against such interference. A particular focus is on pH changes: "A key question we're looking at is, 'What will happen with pH levels-how do they impact the infectivity of the viruses?'" he said.
Allen Haddrell from the University of Bristol will contribute technology for measuring viral decay rates more precisely than traditional methods allow. Haddrell explained traditional drum-based approaches miss critical early minutes when most infectivity decline occurs: "What they miss with that approach is roughly the first 20 minutes... Consequently, they can get wildly different results." His method uses electrodynamic levitation for more accurate assessments under varying environmental conditions.
Understanding airborne virus decay dynamics could provide agriculture with better tools for managing future outbreaks while also informing responses to potential human pandemics. As Clack said regarding COVID-19 risks among workers: "During COVID, workers in these enclosed livestock or processing operations were 50 to 70 times more at risk for contracting the virus... It told us those close working conditions were the source of greater risk." Improving knowledge about viral decay rates may lead to more effective protections for both animals and people.
