The World Health Organization (WHO) said today that more and more outbreaks of bird flu that affect mammals and that this raises strong concerns about the possibility of the virus adapting to more easily infect humans.
“In addition, some mammals can serve as vessels in which (different) influenza viruses can mix, leading to the emergence of new viruses that may be more harmful to animals and people,” in a joint statement with the UN Food and Agriculture Agency (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health.
These entities called on all countries to work together and across all sectors to protect human and animal populations.
The first lineage of the H5N1 avian influenza virus was identified in 1996 and has since caused several infectious outbreaks among birds.
In 2020, a variant of the virus caused a significant number of deaths among poultry and wild birds in Africa, Asia and Europe, and then spread to North America, Central America, and South America.
A total of 67 countries on five continents reported cases in 2022, with 131 million dead domestic birds, either due to illness or because they had to be slaughtered, which has affected numerous communities that depend on this economic activity.
This year, fourteen other countries reported outbreaks, mostly in the Americas.
Source: EFE
Source: Gestion
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