2023-07-16 06:45:00
Two alerts in two days. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the European health authority (Efsa) warned at the end of the week of an increased circulation of the bird flu virus. On Wednesday, the WHO expressed concern that increasing cases of bird flu in mammals might help the virus spread “more easily” to humans. And Thursday, the European health authority Efsa recommended strengthening the monitoring of possible contamination of cats and dogs by avian flu in areas where the virus circulates.
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Infected domestic cats
Between the end of April and the end of May, the European health authority identified 93 poultry and 634 wild birds infected with the avian influenza virus “from the northernmost regions of Norway to the Mediterranean coast”. But that’s not all. Several mammals have also been infected around the world. Fox, polecat, black bear or raccoon in the United States, red fox in Belgium and Sweden, sea lion in Chile and Peru, coatis in Uruguay and Germany, raccoon in Canada… “The majority of wild mammals affected by Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) are carnivores that hunt wild birds, feed on dead wild birds, or do both. in a report.
Even more worrying, the virus seems to be spreading in homes. 24 domestic cats and a caracal in captivity have tested positive for HPAI in Poland. The cats showed signs of respiratory distress and neurological symptoms, and some of them died, says Efsa. Antibodies were also detected in a cat and five dogs in an Italian farm affected by an outbreak of HPAI in poultry. The mode of transmission remains unknown: “No cat-to-cat or cat-to-human transmission has been demonstrated to date,” noted the European health authority.
The fear of a virus adapted to the human species
The European agency therefore recommends increasing surveillance of the virus in free-ranging wild and domestic carnivores in high-risk areas, and avoiding exposure of pets to dead or sick animals. Because the prospect of transmission to humans is worrying. “Bird flu viruses normally spread among birds, but the increasing number of cases of H5N1 avian flu detected in mammals – which are biologically closer to humans than birds – raises concerns that the virus may be adapting to more easily infect humans,” the WHO said in a statement.
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The WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (WHO) are also concerned that certain mammals might serve as “mixing reservoirs”. for influenza viruses, which would lead to the emergence of new viruses that might be even more dangerous for animals and humans.
Between May 10, 2022 and July 4, 2023, five new human cases of contamination were reported in the United Kingdom and China. “The five people had been exposed to poultry or live poultry markets before the detection of the disease”, underlines Efsa. The European health authority considers that the risk of infection by the HPAI virus remains low for the general population, and low to moderate for people exposed to infected birds or mammals. But still recommends avoiding exposure to dead or sick seabirds or mammals.
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