Bird Flu Highlights Modernization Opportunities in Public Health Data

Health officials and scientists see increasing needs for data-sharing programs and leveraging geographic information systems (GIS) technology to track rising bird flu cases, improve outbreak predictions and bolster emergency response efforts.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported the first instance of severe illness linked to the virus in the United States in December. The most recent strains of bird flu, H5N1 and H7N1, have been the first of its kind to be deadly to humans.

Newly appointed Agriculture Department (USDA) Secretary Brooke Rollins announced a $1 billion comprehensive strategy Feb. 26 to curb the avian influenza. The strategy allocates $500 million for biosecurity measures, $400 million in financial relief for affected farmers and $100 million for researching vaccines, reducing regulatory burdens and exploring temporary import options.

As animals and humans are tested, large amounts of data from all levels of government are shared and stored in public databases. Federal and health care officials are using that data to advance data-sharing agreements, improve data visualizations and ensure efficient responses to outbreaks nationwide.

CDC has made progress with modernized data-sharing efforts through its updated 2025 public health data strategy. As part of that, the One CDC Data Platform (1CDP) serves as a central data platform that can support both routine public health surveillance and emergency response needs quickly and efficiently.

“1CDP will streamline and lead to efficiencies for [public health organizations] that send us data, but also the way that we can use it for day-to-day work,” CDC Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance and Technology Director Dr. Jennifer Layden told GovCIO Media & Research. “Programs across the agency would be using this for their work, but there’s also the response aspect. … The dashboards are made [whereas data sets] get bigger, such as measles or H5, we work with other partners to have an integrated data visualization dashboards for purposes of response.”

Data’s Lifecycle From Farm to Lab Table

Public health officials have surveilled and collected data on bird flu for the past decade in attempts to prevent future outbreaks that could impact agriculture production, wild bird populations and human health. Health leaders across all levels of government — along with academic, tech partners and others — are working to ensure data is properly documented and shared to make faster, more informed decisions as new health threats arise.

David Korcal, associate director at Michigan State University’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, has served as the incident management team liaison where he communicates with state and federal officials tracking bird flu and other zoonotic diseases.

Data sharing and collaboration between state’s Department of Health and Human Services and Agriculture as well as veterinary labs are critical to quick emergency response, Korcal told GovCIO Media & Research in an interview.

“When our technologists put that information into our lab management system and release that result, they’re seeing the results almost in real time going into the emergency management response,” said Korcal. “It allows them to react very quickly … which is huge when we’re talking about things like surveillance.”

Once samples have passed the testing process, the negative results are entered into the lab’s information management system. Non-negative results are then sent to the National Vet Service Laboratories, part of USDA, to be further examined by incident management teams.

The data-sharing initiative, Korcal explained, prepared his team to effectively respond to outbreaks before COVID-19 due to the preparedness response to previous bird flu outbreaks and other zoonotic diseases.

“We’ve responded to some smaller outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza, for instance, before COVID so we were prepared, and we could gear up to do COVID testing very quickly,” said Korcal.

GIS Technology Enhances Disease Surveillance

Health and technology leaders are leveraging GIS technologies, which had significant growth and adoption following the onset of COVID-19, to track and respond to bird flu and develop data visualizations to inform decision-making.

The tech played a crucial role in tracking COVID-19 infections and informing public health responses. GIS integrates spatial data with analytical tools, enabling visualization and analysis of disease spread patterns.

Este Geraghty, chief medical officer for the GIS software, location intelligence and mapping company Esri, explained how GIS and data modernization helped combat the pandemic.

Geraghty told GovCIO Media & Research that during the pandemic, states created dashboards to fit the needs of their residents and health care officials. Although the dashboards all pulled from the same data sets at the state level, the data lacked standardization, highlighting the need for collaboration between all levels of government.

“We did a project with CDC to standardize components of the dashboard so they can federate that data into their own system,” said Geraghty during her interview. “It was a handy way to standardize and scale for the CDC-level and create a level of governance around that project.”

Geraghty highlighted the University of Minnesota’s bird flu tracker, DashFLUBoard, which — until 2023 — tracked cases of bird flu globally since its first known appearance in 2004.

The open-source dashboard app allows users to explore the dynamics of bird flu by monitoring wild bird movements and connecting outbreaks. The dashboard enables users to perform near real-time risk assessments, strengthen surveillance of the disease, anticipate spread and implement control measures.

Geraghty and her colleagues have used a similar approach to research the variables that could impact Zika virus outbreaks in Florida.

GIS technology could also help public health professionals to better predict and prepare for mosquito populations around future housing developments that may be ripe for mosquitos and help future clinicians who haven’t seen the Zika virus prepare for treatments.

“We can start to look at climate because we know as the temperature warms … we’re going to see that the mosquito habitats expand,” said Geraghty. “We can put that into the algorithm, what is predicted to be the temperature, and now go back and see where the mosquitoes could be … you put all of these things together … and then you can start to take action.”

Future Priorities in Data Sharing

As CDC awaits confirmation for its new director, it has become more difficult — in the short term — for federal government and its public health partners to to keep track of the total number of bird flu cases in people, according to Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security Senior Scholar Amesh Adalja.

“CDC plays [this integrated role] by synthesizing all this information from various states, from what they’re hearing internationally, from the agriculture sector, and then coming up with concise recommendations or predictions for what might happen,” said Adalja.

Navigating data flow between all levels of government is akin to an orchestra, Adalja said, and additional pathways to share information between government and its public health partners could improve future response to outbreaks.

While there is currently an ecosystem in place for pandemic preparedness data sharing — through programs like the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response’s (ASPR) Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasure Enterprise (PHEMCE) program, which drives interagency partnerships between federal agencies, industry partners and research professionals — there is still work to be done.

“A lot of us have advocated for a more streamlined, more integrated, more robust type of program,” said Adalja. “There’s lots of pieces that have to be integrated … it’s pretty dispersed throughout government.”