An expert has calls for work to start on a vaccine against bird flu in case the illness "jumps" to humans. Scientists have expressed concern about how far across the world avian influenza is spreading and say its spread should be closely monitored.
Avian influenza has been detected as far away as South America and the virus has also killed mammals such as sea lions, mink, foxes and otters. It is infecting wild bird populations across the globe and they say it could potentially infect some species, perhaps even endangered ones, that have never before been in contact with the flu - creating uncertainty about how they will react to the virus.
Professor Ian Brown, head of virology at the UK's Animal and Plant Health Agency, said spread of the virus to mammals raised the threat to humans. He told Sky News: "Any spillover event [to other species] on the scale we are seeing increases the risk. We know from COVID that pandemic preparation takes time, to get vaccines, antivirals and therapeutics.
"We don't have H5 vaccines ready to vaccinate people. We should start the process."
He told the PA news agency it was important to closely monitor the spread of bird flu, and mutations in the virus, and learn lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic. He added: "Have we got good systems that are globally set up to track and monitor those concerning events fast?"
He added: “If this virus was to ever, heaven forbid, jump to humans, we need to have done that basic work in the animal and bird sector. So it is about global responsiveness here and working together globally to make sure we can track this virus very fast and understand what it’s doing.
“My biggest concern is have we got that global structure… have we learnt all the lessons from Covid?"
However speaking to Radio 4's Today programme last week, Professor Brown cautioned that the UK is a ‘long way’ from seeing Covid-19-like infection in humans.
Asked whether there was a possibility that bird flu could become a virus that infects humans like Covid-19, he said: “At the moment, we’re a long way from that. We’ve seen this jump, we’ve not seen maintenance in a mammalian species and, importantly, we haven’t seen a succession of changes in the virus that tell us it’s moving more towards a virus that can infect humans.
“This still is a spillover, but we need to be watchful, which is why we’re doing the surveillance."
