What Is bird flu? Water birds are the reservoir for all 15 kinds of influenza type A. This means that ducks and geese carry the viruses. They don’t always get sick, so the basic seeds for 15 kinds of flu are always out there. Sometimes these flu strains mutate into more dangerous forms known as highly pathogenic avian influenza or HPAI. HPAI is extremely lethal to chickens. And it can be very dangerous to humans who catch the disease from domestic poultry. As of Jan. 27, there had been 10 confirmed human deaths.
