Bird flu outbreaks in mammals double, raising human risk

PARIS: Outbreaks of bird flu in mammals more than doubled across the world last year, raising the risk that the virus could potentially spread between humans, an international agency warned on Friday.

Avian influenza has spread across the world like never before in the last few years, leading to the mass culling of poultry, sending egg prices soaring and causing the deaths of several people in contact with infected animals.

While the overall risk of human infection remains low, bird flu outbreaks among mammals such as cattle, dogs and cats increase the possibility that the virus could eventually adapt to transmit between humans, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) said in a new report.

The number of mammal outbreaks soared to 1,022 across 55 countries last year, compared to 459 in 2023, according to the Paris-based agency, which monitors animal diseases worldwide. “It is concerning because it is a change in the pattern of the epidemiology of the virus,” WOAH´s director general Emmanuelle Soubeyran told AFP.

Health experts have been sounding the alarm about the potential pandemic threat posed by bird flu, which has shown signs of mutating as it spreads in particular among dairy cows in the United States. The new report comes as the budgets of US health and science agencies have been slashed by the Trump administration.