Mary Schwager, “Watchdog Mary,” is a television and print journalist. She has won 17 Emmy awards for investigative and consumer reporting and several honors from the Dog Writers Association of America. You can find her at watchdogmary.com.
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.