Increase of virus in wild birds is driving evolution and spread of new strains, researchers found
Birds killed by avian flu in the Gambia. Researchers urged countries to increase surveillance to understand how the virus is changing.Birds killed by avian flu in the Gambia. Researchers urged countries to increase surveillance to understand how the virus is changing.The epicentre of deadly bird flu outbreaks has shifted from Asia to Europe and Africa, a new study has found.
For 25 years, bird flu viruses typically emerged from Asia, but major changes in the virus and its spread among wild birds mean the outbreaks are shifting. Research shows that while outbreaks in 2016 and 2017 started in China, two new H5 viruses emerged in 2020 in African poultry and in 2022 in European wild birds.
The latest outbreak of the highly infectious variant of H5N1 caused Europe’s worst bird flu outbreak, before spreading globally. It has now reached every continent except Oceania and Antarctica, killing record numbers of domestic and wild birds, and even jumping into mammals. It can also jump to humans: since 2003, H5N1 was found in 873 humans, resulting in 458 deaths,. Most cases were linked to the handling of infected poultry, and it is not known to be able to transmit from human to human.
Despite the number of outbreaks, only 0.2% of cases were sequenced, researchers said, and urged countries to increase surveillance to understand how the virus is changing. Monitoring infrastructure is particularly weak in Africa, they said. The authors suggest the increasing persistence of avian flu in wild birds is driving the evolution and spread of new strains.
The spread of bird flu within the poultry industry is determined by human activity and how birds are traded. In wild birds, migratory flyways are key indicators of where the disease will spread, with key migration routes along the east Atlantic and Pacific flyways, meaning it has been able to spread to new areas that have never been exposed to it before.
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