Reports are now coming in from across the globe of mammals being infected with H5N1 bird flu.
Outbreaks of the deadly virus, which has already killed millions of birds worldwide, have been confirmed in several different mammals, including bears, seals, skunks, raccoons, foxes and otters.
This report is from the USDA shows some of the different affected mammals:
These reports come just weeks after Spain suffered its first outbreak of H5N1 in mink farms in Galicia.
“This report describes an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) detected in intensively farmed minks in Europe, which occurred in the Galicia region in northwest Spain in October 2022. We present an in-depth description of the epidemiological, clinical and genetic investigations of this outbreak affecting a single farm and discuss public health implications.”
As we reported just yesterday, The UK government is now looking to recruit a vaccine coordinator to organise what is expected to be “the UK’s largest vaccination programme” – a vaccine rollout for a pandemic caused by bird flu:
Let’s not equivocate here: With an increasing number of H5N1 spillover events into humans being reported, this could be the start of the second zoonotic global pandemic in just four years.
Today might be a really good day to revisit your decision not to mask in public..
H5N1 avian influenza virus infects a cat in France.
The virus detected in the cat had genetic characteristics of adaptation to mammals. The mutation was not present in the ducks on the farm where contamination occurred, however. https://t.co/AGN6CitbI0
