Masses of dead hens lie piled inside the bucket of a loader as they are carried to a dumpster at an egg farm. The hens have been killed and are being removed from the farm due to an outbreak of the H5N1 avian influenza virus at the facility. Prague, Czechia, 2021.
Lukas Vincour / Zvirata Nejime / We Animals
[Content warning: Contains confronting images and/or video footage]
Avian influenza, more commonly referred to as bird flu, is now a global story as the highly pathogenic virus spreads rapidly, devastating both wild and domesticated bird populations.
These visuals provide a glimpse into an underreported part of the story about bird flu, highlighting the unavoidable connection between intensive animal farming and disease transmission.
Dead ducks are dumped from a garbage bin into a biowaste disposal truck at a farm under biosecurity due to the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus. Canada, 2022.
Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals
Dead hens are emptied into a dumpster from a refuse container outside the barns at an egg farm near Prague in Czechia. Workers wearing protective suits are killing and removing the hens from this farm, where an outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus has been detected. Czechia, 2021.
Lukas Vincour / Zvířata Nejíme / We Animals
Masses of dead hens lie piled inside the bucket of a loader outside the barns of an egg farm near Prague in Czechia. The hens have been killed and workers wearing protective suits are in the process of removing them from the farm due to an outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus. Czechia, 2021.
Lukas Vincour / Zvířata Nejíme / We Animals
Two hens who survived the ventilation shut-down huddle together in a small battery cage at a factory farm in Iowa. They are lethargic and missing most of their feathers. USA, 2022.
Direct Action Everywhere / We Animals
With no room to move and no perches to rest upon, broiler chickens stand in deep manure for weeks. Italy, 2011.
Stefano Belacchi / HIDDEN / We Animals
A red-winged blackbird in front of an empty duck farm. The ducks have been killed by carbon dioxide gas (CO2) due to the fears of spread of the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus which was found in the ducks in the barn. Wild birds are also dying from the spread of the virus. Canada, 2022.
Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals
Workers round up 25,000 chickens for transport and slaughter. Spain, 2009.
Jo-Anne McArthur / Animal Equality / We Animals
The discarded carcasses of dead Pekin ducks lie in a dumpster a few hundred meters from a Brome Lake Ducks facility in Racine, Quebec. Most of the ducks have been cut open, and it appears as though the upper coelomic cavity was being targeted, possibly to collect samples from the heart, lungs, or trachea. Canada, 2022.
Victoria de Martigny / We Animals
Workers on an industrial chicken farm during an avian influenza outbreak in Czechia dump live, struggling chickens from bins into a chute connected to a large gassing container. Masses of live chickens are piled inside these containers before workers kill them with carbon dioxide gas. Though Czech veterinary opinion reputedly considers gassing the birds inside such containers the most humane form of mass culling, the birds on the bottom of the container are crushed under the weight of the many other birds piled on top of them. Some may suffocate before the gas is administered. Czechia, 2023.
Lukas Vincour / Zvirata Nejime / We Animals
Collecting eggs from caged hens at an industrial farm. Taiwan, 2019.
Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals
Tractors dump loads of dead turkeys into a truck during a disposal operation at a farm with an avian influenza (H5N1) outbreak. Feathers blow away in the wind, posing a possible biosecurity risk to wild bird populations or other poultry farms nearby. United Kingdom, 2022.
Ed Shephard / Generation Vegan / We Animals
A tractor carries a load of dead turkeys infected with H5N1 out from the shed where they were killed during a disposal operation at a farm with an avian influenza outbreak. United Kingdom, 2022.
Ed Shephard / Generation Vegan / We Animals
Industry gassed infected poultry flocks en-mass, and the birds’ bodies were dumped into trucks or dumpsters and taken to rendering facilities. The process was ineffectively managed due to an insufficient gas supply, a lack of workers and inadequate rendering facilities. Roads to farms with culled animals were blocked for 24 hours while farmers waited for authorities to remove dead animals. Eventually, the bodies of all these birds were either buried locally or burned in an unknown location. Industry killed over six million birds for this cull. Poland, 2023.
Andrew Skowron / We Animals
A small, curious backyard flock of laying hens. The farmer stated that if H5N1 were to reach his flock, he would follow regulations and kill them, and then simply be without hens for a while, replacing them when it was safe to do so. Canada, 2022.
Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals
In addition to domesticated birds contracting the virus from migratory bird populations, we’re now seeing reports of other wild animal species becoming infected; and even rare but increasingly concerning cases of human death. Industrial farms have been sources of massive killing as industry has attempted to control spread in its flocks, killing millions of animals by suffocating them.
In 2022, We Animals photojournalists documented the impact of bird flu on farmed chickens and ducks in Canada as cases of the virus were on the increase. We also have video footage of ventilation shutdown in the US and bird flu outbreaks in Czechia. We’ll be adding more visuals to our collection over the coming weeks and months as we gain further international reportage of this issue.
Explore more bird flu images and video clips via our stock collection.