Next pandemic ‘already underway’ as lethal chicken flu sweeps globe, doc warns

The subsequent pandemic is not on it is means – it is already right here, a medical skilled has claimed.

Just a number of years after the nation lastly left the jaws of the coronavirus pandemic, Dr Diana Bell has claimed we’re already within the midst of one other one. But this time it isn’t a virus that fell out of a Chinese lab, because it’s one which’s been round for many years.

Bird flu has been slowly spreading around the globe for the previous few years, and the H5N1 pressure has the power to go to people in a lethal method. And as circumstances are spiking in every single place, the professor of conservation biology on the University of East Anglia has issued and ominous warning.

READ MORE: Kim Jong-un spent years undercover at European faculty in tracksuit and Nike trainers

Check out the Daily Star for extra wild information and views.



A chicken flu pandemic is already underway
(Image: Getty Images)

She mentioned: “When individuals ask me what I feel the subsequent pandemic will likely be, I usually say that we’re within the midst of 1 – it’s simply afflicting a terrific many species greater than ours.

“I’m referring to the extremely pathogenic pressure of avian influenza H5N1, in any other case referred to as chicken flu, which has killed hundreds of thousands of birds and unknown numbers of mammals, notably in the course of the previous three years – Not even the ocean is secure.



The pathogen can switch from birds to people
(Image: Getty Images)

“This is the strain that emerged in domestic geese in China in 1997 and quickly jumped to humans in south-east Asia with a mortality rate of around 40-50%. Since 2020, 13 species of aquatic mammal have succumbed, including American sea lions, porpoises and dolphins, often dying in their thousands in South America.”



Millions of birds are culled worldwide from it
(Image: Getty Images)

She made the feedback in The Conversation and went on to assert there was a technique we may keep away from “the worst outcome” doable for the virus.

Blaming “mega-farms,” she mentioned: “How can we stem this tsunami of H5N1 and other avian influenzas? Completely overhaul poultry production on a global scale. Make farms self-sufficient in rearing eggs and chicks instead of exporting them internationally.

“The trend towards megafarms containing over a million birds must be stopped in its tracks – to prevent the worst outcomes for this virus, we must revisit its primary source: the incubator of intensive poultry farms.”

For the most recent breaking information and tales from throughout the globe from the Daily Star, join our e-newsletter by clicking right here.

AnimalsChinaHealth issuesIn the News