The United Kingdom has confirmed an outbreak of Avian Flu (bird flu) on poultry farms in Yorkshire. The UK’s Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs had raised the threat level from the virus from medium to high several hours prior. All birds on the property where the outbreak occurred will be humanely killed, the government announced in a statement. The infections are the latest in a series of outbreaks that have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of millions of birds around the world.
In the United States, the USDA announced an additional H5N1 bird flu outbreak in dairy cows, increasing the national total to 443 outbreaks. The government agency also confirmed another outbreak in backyard poultry birds in a property in Montana.
According to infectious disease experts, the ongoing spread of the virus to birds and a variety of mammals may mean that the virus is moving closer to person-to-person transmission. The longer the Avian Flu is allowed to circulate and mutate among mammals, the more likely it will evolve the ability to spread between humans.
