Bird flu virus may have turned deadlier in the recent outbreak this year as scientists have discovered a strain in a person in Texas with as many as nine mutations. These changes in the virus can increase its efficiency in causing the disease, replicating in the brain, and increasing its severity as per researchers at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed).
This discovery had brought to light a concern that H5N1 strains of bird flu undergo rapid mutations when it infects a new host species. While the virus is commonly present in wild birds and pose risk to chicken, its spread in a wide range of mammals means multiple mutations that makes it more deadly. For the first time, the virus started infecting dairy cows in the spring of 2024. These findings have been published in the journal Emerging Microbes & Infections.
