Bird flu is causing global concern to scientists and it is being examined whether it can become a new pandemic, after it was detected in cows in America, while traces of the H5N1 virus were detected as far as Antarctica.
Available evidence shows a rapid spread of the virus after 2020 through wild migratory birds and spreading to other animals such as seals and cows, with thousands of deaths recorded. Characteristically, only in 2023 only 600,000 wild birds in Latin America died from this disease, while in 2024 it was detected in four locations in Antarctica.
According to experts, the sharp increase in bird flu cases is due to three factors. First, pathogenic viruses spread rapidly in birds, and second, man consumes poultry at an alarming rate, so that there are billions worldwide in breeding farms.
Third, climate change combined with climate-damaging human activity create the conditions for the virus to spread rapidly and uncontrollably.
Here’s a timeline created by the BBC for the spread of H5N1:
1996: detected in poultry in Guangdong, China
1997: the first human deaths in Hong Kong
2005: Spread to wild birds in a major way. New strains appear.
2020: A strain that can be maintained in wild bird populations year-round.
2020-22: Endemic to wild bird populations
2021: Arrives in North America
2022: Located in South America
2024: Confirmed in Antarctica
How dangerous is the flu for humans?
Relatively few people have contracted the virus so far, but it has a high fatality rate among those who do: More than 50% of people known to be infected have died.
It has also jumped multiple times to other species to infect different mammals, however, the virus is not believed to have evolved or mutated enough to easily jump.
Characteristically, the first human cases were reported in Hong Kong in 1997, and the global spread of the virus was relatively slow: In the first 13 years, only 800 people were reported to have been infected, with poultry workers at greatest risk.
In addition, transmission to humans occurs after contact with sick birds, or with their droppings, saliva or feathers. But the exact mechanism by which the virus jumps species is not yet known.
The experts therefore believe that a real threat will occur when it can be transmitted to humans through mammals, because the spread of the virus will not be able to be managed.
As countermeasures they suggest a series of restrictions on poultry farms, close monitoring of wild birds and measures against climate change. These ways will make the situation more manageable, while giving wild bird populations a chance to develop immunity to the virus, thus limiting global dispersal that has intensified in years of escalating climate change.
Source: newsbeast.gr
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