New pandemic fears as virologists find bird flu spreads ‘efficiently’ in ferrets – warn strain could be 100 TIMES worse than Covid if ever spreads to humans

Bird flu spreads “efficiently” in ferrets, scientists warn, amid growing fears it could cause another pandemic.

Experts have called the discovery “deeply worrying” and claim it shows the pathogen is one step closer to spreading to humans.

This is the first known study that unequivocally confirms that mammals not only contract the disease individually, but can also transmit it to others.

However, the deaths of infected mammals such as mink, foxes, raccoons and bears in recent months suggest that this may have been the case.

H5N1 – the strain of bird flu behind the current outbreak sweeping the world and believed to be the worst on record – does not spread easily between people.

But mutations in the virus that facilitate mammal-to-mammal transmission could change that, some experts fear.

There are fewer than 900 human cases of H5N1 worldwide, which kills nearly 50 percent of those affected.

The virus is usually picked up through close contact with an infected bird, dead or alive.

Now, new research, pending peer review, shows that H5N1 “can cause a lethal disease in several mammalian species.”

Canadian researchers, including some from government health agencies, infected ferrets with one of four H5N1 strains.

Read more: Prepare now for DOG FLU! Mutated form of bird flu affecting dogs ‘creeping’ towards ability to infect humans, scientists say

Ferrets were chosen for the study because they have a similar respiratory structure to humans, giving experts an idea of ​​how a virus would react to humans.

They found that “direct contact” with a strain of H5N1 isolated from an infected bird had “fatal consequences,” the paper added.

This raises the prospect that the strain “has evolved certain adaptations that allow higher rates of replication, pathogenicity and transmission.”

They warned that if such a species made the jump to humans, the consequences could be catastrophic.

“Because there is little or no population-wide H5-specific immunity, an H5N1 isolate capable of long-term transmission would transmit a species to humans, likely representing a devastating infection in an immunologically naïve population,” they wrote.

John Fulton, a pharmaceutical industry consultant and founder of BioNiagara, told MailOnline that H5N1 posed a “100 times worse threat than Covid”.

He added: “This discovery is of great concern and governments must act immediately by identifying and mobilizing all manufacturing capacity with high potential for vaccines and therapies for the prevention and treatment of H5N1 bird flu.”

Some countries, including China, have been vaccinating against the H5N1 strain for years.

Some countries, including China, have been vaccinating against the H5N1 strain for years. Birds are vaccinated by an injection into the egg or a spray on the chicks while they are still in the box

However, according to UK public health policy, vaccination of chickens is currently illegal. But the Veterinary and Phytosanitary Agency, a branch of DEFRA, is currently reviewing possible human vaccine candidates in the UK should the virus spread to humans. “The number of layers available to produce eggs for vaccine production is already at risk and is vulnerable to complete destruction of the egg-producing flock, leaving us with limited production capacity,” Mr Fulton said.

Birds are vaccinated by an injection into the egg or a spray on the chicks while they are still in the box.

However, according to UK public health policy, vaccination of chickens is currently illegal.

But the Veterinary and Phytosanitary Agency, a branch of DEFRA, is currently reviewing possible human vaccine candidates in the UK should the virus spread to humans.

“The number of layers available to produce eggs for vaccine production is already at risk and is vulnerable to complete destruction of the egg-producing flock, leaving us with limited production capacity,” Mr Fulton said.

Vaccine makers GSK, Moderna and CSL Seqirus have begun developing new human injections to combat the fast-spreading strain of the virus.

Others, such as Sanofi, stock generic vaccines against the H5N1 virus that can be tailored to the strain currently circulating.

As with other forms of flu, people can become infected if the virus gets into their eyes, nose or mouth, or is inhaled.

However, with bird flu, it usually occurs in people who spend a lot of time with infected animals, e.g. B. bird watchers.

In early 2023, a wave of human bird flu cases emerged.

Earlier this year, a Cambodian man and his daughter were diagnosed with H5N1.

Their cases sparked international concern, as many experts feared the infection was evidence that the virus had mutated to better infect humans after entering the world’s bird population.

Further testing revealed that the H5N1 strain did not spread rapidly among wild birds of the Cambodian family, but rather a variant known to spread locally in Prey Veng province, where they lived .

There has been only one case of a Briton contracting H5N1 since the outbreak began in October 2021.

Alan Gosling, a retired engineer in Devon, contracted the virus in early 2022 after his ducks, some of which lived at his home, became infected.

The UK Health Safety Authority (UKHSA) has currently set the threat level at level three because there is “evidence” of changes in the virus genome that could cause “mammalian infection”.

Any “permanent” transmission of the pathogen from mammal to mammal would raise the threat level to four, while from human to human it would increase to five.