Bird flu outbreak spreads to farm in new UK region as chickens set to be culled & study finds chilling virus feature

Scottish Sun

a day ago

All birds will be 'humanely culled' following the discovery
VIRUS SPREADS Bird flu outbreak spreads to farm in new UK region as chickens set to be culled & study finds chilling virus feature
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BIRD flu has been detected in a Yorkshire farm, it's been announced.
A case of the H5N1 bird flu in was found in poultry in West Yorkshire.
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A protection zone has been set up around the site
Credit: Getty
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The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: "All poultry on the premises will be humanely culled."
A 3km protection zone and 10km surveillance zone has been declared around the site near Ravensthorpe, Kirklees.
It comes after a new animal study from the US Centres for Disease Control found that bird flu is capable of spreading through the air.
In January, a bird flu outbreak was found at another farm in England, and experts feared the virus is one mutation from becoming pandemic.
The government said all poultry on the infected site, in East Yorkshire, was humanely culled after a strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus was detected.
It was the 16th outbreak of the HPAI H5N1 strain in kept birds in 2024, according to the Nation Farmers Union (NFU) AI tracker.
In December, the virus was found on Turkey farms in Norfolk, which led to the culling of thousands of birds just days before Christmas.
Bird flu, or avian influenza, has killed millions of birds worldwide.
The highly contagious bug is now spreading to mammals, raising fears it could trigger another pandemic through potential human-to-human transmission.
In December, an animal sanctuary in Shelton, Washington, announced that twenty exotic cats, including a Bengal tiger, four cougars, a lynx and four bobcats, have died after contracting bird flu.
So far, there is no evidence that H5N1 can spread between humans.
But this increase in transmission gives the virus lots of opportunities to mutate - a process where a pathogen changes and can become more dangerous.
Experts from the US recently discovered H5N1 is already just one mutation away from developing the ability to transmit person-to-person.
Scientists at Scripps Research in San Diego tested various genetic mutations on virus material from infected cattle.
They found that the Q226L mutation enhanced the virus's ability to attach to human-like cell receptors, giving bird flu the potential to behave like other human flu viruses.
A recent case of bird flu suggests the virus might have already mutated to better spread among humans.
The case, spotted this month in a hospitalised Louisiana man, is the first "severe" bird flu case in the US, amid its rapid spread through cows this year.
Tests show the case involved a mutated version of H5N1 that helps it bind to human upper respiratory cells.
This could make it easier to spread between people through coughing or sneezing, raising concerns the virus is adapting to infect humans more effectively.
Bird flu viruses do not typically bind to a cell receptor in human upper airways, which helps explain why H5N1 rarely infects people or spreads between them.
Bird flu is spread by close contact with an affected bird.
This includes touching or petting an infected bird, touching droppings or bedding, or killing or preparing infected poultry for cooking.
However, bird flu cannot be caught through eating fully cooked poultry or eggs, even in areas with an outbreak of bird flu.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the human risk remains low, but urges countries to share information quickly for monitoring and preparedness as the virus spreads.
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So far, there is no evidence that H5N1 can spread between humans
Credit: Getty