Influenza has shaped human history for millennia, with avian influenza recently posing challenges due to its potential for cross-species transmission and the risk of triggering pandemics that could hurt both human populations and livestock industries. Avian influenza, the focus of this work, is known to primarily affect birds, both domestic and wild, causing outbreaks worldwide. Furthermore, reports of cross-species transmission of avian flu viruses from livestock to humans are becoming increasingly common, which, while not an immediate issue, could become problematic were one of these viruses to become dangerous to humans. This work introduces AviFluHunt, a tool specifically developed to help with the analysis of bulk data on avian influenza samples, to enable more effective genomic surveillance and timely responses to the virus’s evolution. A set of queries of interest was created to help answer questions of significance for virologists. We focus on tracking genetic markers, understanding viral mutations, and examining essential metadata, including host species, geographical regions, and temporal trends. AviFluHunt processes large datasets of genomic sequences with metadata through a bioinformatic pipeline and presents results in a custom web application, designed to make them accessible and interpretable for researchers.

AviFluHunt stands as a lightweight Web application that provides accurate data insights and identifies trends/interesting behaviors associated with avian flu viruses, offering researchers and virologists a new asset for their studies, thereby enhancing their understanding of the virus.