Government on excessive alert as lethal fowl flu jumps species AGAIN – after first human dying in US
Experts have issued a stark warning after the world’s first case of bird flu in sheep was detected on the UK farm, triggering a Government alert.
The case was identified in Yorkshire during routine surveillance on a premises where avian influenza had been confirmed in captive birds.
The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs confirmed that the infected sheep has been ‘humanely culled’ to enable extensive testing.
Bird flu can cause severe illness, including pneumonia, and even death—with experts on high alert amid fears it could trigger a human pandemic.
The new report will further raised concerns after the UK’s first human case of the infection, also known as H5N1, was recorded in January.
Commenting on the incident, Professor Ed Hutchinson, a virologist at the University of Glasgow Centre said a ‘particularly aggressive strain’ of the virus was to blame.
‘H5N1 avian influenza virus has spread through bird populations across the world,’ he added.
‘On the way, it has caused repeated “spillover” infections of mammals: mammals that wouldn’t normally get avian influenza have caught the disease from birds.’
In late January, a patient in the Midlands was diagnosed with H5N1 after ‘close and prolonged contact with a large number of infected birds’
The strain, called H5N1, has been found in a sheep in England. It- has previously been detected in livestock n other countries such as the US. Pictured here: dead cows at a Californian dairy farm
In March last year, the US Centers for Disease Control recorded the first cases of H5N1 in dairy cows, and the virus has continues to spread among cattle—something Prof Hutchinson called ‘surprising’.
He added: ‘Another animal we hadn’t previously thought of as a host is sheep, which makes this announcement of H5N1 influenza in a single sheep in Yorkshire startling.’
The sheep in question was reportedly on a farm where bird flu was also present in captive birds.
Said Prof Hutchinson: ‘In terms of direct risk to humans, we know from the dairy outbreak in the USA that H5N1 in milk is a possible source of human infection.
‘H5N1 can cause severe illness in humans and it is important to minimise the risk of farmed animals infecting them, although so far in the USA human cases of H5N1 contracted from cows in dairies have typically been quite mild.
‘There is also a risk of H5N1 “breeding” with human strains of influenza to produce a new human influenza virus.
‘There is no evidence that this has happened anywhere with an H5N1 virus, but it is important that we work hard to keep that risk as low as possible.’
UK’s chief veterinary officer, Christine Middlemiss, added: ‘While the risk to livestock remains low, I urge all animal owners to ensure scrupulous cleanliness is in place and to report any signs of infection to the Animal and Plant Health Agency immediately.’
UK scientists tasked with developing ‘scenarios of early human transmission’ of bird flu have warned that 5 per cent of infected people could die if the virus took off in humans (shown under scenario three). Under another scenario, the scientists assumed 1 per cent of those infected would be hospitalised and 0.25 per cent would die — similar to how deadly Covid was in autumn 2021 (scenario one). The other saw a death rate of 2.5 per cent (scenario two)
Alan Gosling (pictured), a retired engineer in Devon who kept ducks at home, caught bird flu in early 2022 after his pets became infected
In January, the first bird-flu related human death was reported in Louisiana in the US.
The victim, who was 65 with underlying health conditions, contracted bird flu after being exposed to a personal flock of birds and wild birds.
The virus has gone on to infect workers at dairy farms in the US and some cases have also been found in pigs.
In November, it was reported the Centers for Disease Control tested 115 workers at farms suffering outbreaks and found eight of them were positive for the virus —an infection rate of seven per cent.
Many of them had no symptoms, which officials fear indicates H5N1 is spreading far more widely than previously thought.
Late last year hundreds of American cattle farms across dozens of states were confirmed as experienced bird flu outbreaks among their livestock.
No cases in British cattle have been found, but officials are monitoring herds due to the risk.
More broadly, H5N1 has been shown to be capable of jumping to numerous mammal species like mink, foxes, raccoons, bears and seals.
Pets are also vulnerable, at least 99 domestic cats have been infected since late 2022, according to the US Department of Agriculture, some through raw pet food.
Health experts are concerned over the virus’s success at jumping between multiple species, as each iteration gives it the opportunity to mutate to become better at infecting humans.
Experts have previously told MailOnline this could, in theory risk another pandemic, though they added there is no evidence of this at present.
Professor Paul Hunter, a renowned infectious diseases expert from the University of East Anglia said: ‘The concern is that should the virus evolve further to be better able to spread in humans then we would be at risk of another pandemic.
‘There is no evidence of that at present, but such a future shift cannot be excluded.’
Humans are unlikely to catch bird flu from eating poultry and game birds because it is heat-sensitive, and properly cooking the poultry will kill the virus.
Instead, human infections mostly occur when the virus gets into a person’s eyes, nose, mouth or is inhaled.
Usual symptoms in humans are high fever, a cough, sore throat, muscle aches and a general feeling of malaise.
And just like with ordinary flu, it can quickly develop into serious respiratory illness and pneumonia.
Britain has seen cases of bird flu in humans before.
One, Alan Gosling — a retired engineer in Devon who kept ducks at home — caught the virus in early 2022 after his pets became infected.
He later tested negative while he was in quarantine for nearly three weeks.
