Heather Houlahan lives on a small farm near Pittsburgh, where she has recently learned that one of the things one should not do while raising her SAR partner’s litter of beloved puppies is research and write about parvovirus.
The “bird flu”, or avian influenza, has been around for a long time; it’s circulated in wild birds since the late 1990s. But like all viruses, it mutates over time—and influenza viruses are known to mutate very quickly. What’s more, some emerging strains are deadlier than others.