The president of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) stated that the chances of human infection have increased due to the spread of bird flu to more species and its expanding geographic range.

Monique Eloit stated that there would only be a serious problem if there had been a transfer between cows, which is something that American authorities are currently looking into. Her remarks came in response to the government’s announcement of cases of the disease in dairy cows in multiple states and one person in Texas.

In recent years, hundreds of millions of chickens have been culled worldwide due to avian influenza, sometimes known as bird flu. The virus is mostly carried by migratory wild birds.

Even though there haven’t been as many outbreaks this season, the virus has still killed off a lot of creatures and expanded to new areas like Antarctica and South America, completely destroying rare species colonies.

The virus that causes bird flu primarily affects foxes, but it also infects numerous other animal species, such as cats, tigers, seals, dolphins, and bears.

“Over the last few months, we have had a whole series of diverse and varied mammals. It is worrying to see this extension to other species,” the head of the Paris-based organisation told Reuters in an interview.

“Ultimately, we find ourselves with more and more species and more animals which are contaminated, therefore necessarily a higher viral load with a risk of contamination of humans,” she said.

People who have intimate contact with wild birds or poultry may become seriously or fatally infected during bird flu epidemics, but there hasn’t been any evidence of persistent human-to-human transmission to date. Scientists report that the chance of contracting the disease is quite minimal for the majority of individuals who are not exposed to diseased animals.

Because the flu viruses that infect humans and animals can evolve, there is a risk that one of them will become contagious to other mammals, including humans.

(Adapted from Reuters.com)

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