![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/NINTCHDBPICT001002203270.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n3<\/p>\n
A protection zone has been set up around the siteCredit: Getty 3<\/p>\n The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “All poultry on the premises will be humanely culled.”<\/p>\n A 3km protection zone and 10km surveillance zone has been declared around the site near Ravensthorpe, Kirklees.<\/p>\n It comes after\u00a0a new animal study from the US Centres for Disease Control found that bird flu is capable of spreading through the air.<\/p>\n The study’s researchers warned that this poses an “ongoing” threat to public health and urged individuals to take extra care in and around farms.<\/p>\n This is because the virus – like Covid-19 – can be transmitted through respiratory droplets that remain suspended in the air for extended periods of time. <\/p>\n Since 2024, over 70 people in the US have been ingected with H5N1 – the majority of whom work on poultry or dairy farms.<\/p>\n Bird flu has spread across more than 1,000 dairy farms in the country and is now endemic among US cattle. <\/p>\n In January, a bird flu outbreak was found at another farm in England<\/a>, and experts feared the virus is one mutation from becoming pandemic.<\/p>\n The government said all poultry on the infected site, in East Yorkshire, was humanely culled after a strain of the\u00a0H5N1 bird flu<\/a>\u00a0virus was detected.<\/p>\n It was the 16th outbreak of the HPAI H5N1 strain in kept birds in 2024, according to the Nation Farmers Union (NFU)\u00a0AI tracker<\/a>.<\/p>\n In December, the\u00a0virus was found on Turkey farms in Norfolk<\/a>, which led to the culling of thousands of birds just days before Christmas.<\/p>\n Bird flu, or avian influenza, has killed millions of birds worldwide.<\/p>\n The highly contagious bug is now spreading to mammals, raising fears it could trigger another pandemic through potential human-to-human transmission.<\/p>\n In December, an animal sanctuary in Shelton,\u00a0Washington, announced that twenty exotic cats, including a Bengal tiger, four cougars, a lynx and four bobcats, have died after contracting bird flu.<\/p>\n What you need to know about Avian Influenza or Bird Flu<\/p>\n So far, there is no evidence that H5N1 can spread between humans.<\/p>\n But this increase in transmission gives the virus lots of opportunities to mutate – a process where a pathogen changes and can become more dangerous.<\/p>\n Experts\u00a0from the US<\/a>\u00a0recently discovered H5N1 is already just one mutation away from developing the ability to transmit person-to-person.<\/p>\n Scientists at Scripps Research in San Diego tested various genetic mutations on virus material from infected cattle.<\/p>\n Bird flu: Could it be the next human pandemic?<\/p>\n By Isabel Shaw, Health Reporter<\/p>\n The H5N1 bird flu is running rampant in wildlife around the world and is now spreading in cows.<\/p>\n In recent months, it infected people in Canada and the US leaving them severely unwell.<\/p>\n This increase in transmission has given the virus lots of opportunities to mutate – a process where a pathogen changes and can become more dangerous.<\/p>\n Scientists fear it’s only a matter of time before one of these mutations makes it better at spreading among mammals – and\u00a0potentially humans<\/a>.<\/p>\n Experts recently discovered that H5N1 is already just one mutation away from developing the ability to transmit person-to-person communication.<\/p>\n Some experts<\/a>\u00a0believe the\u00a0virus could already be spreading among some animal species.<\/a><\/p>\n So far, there is no evidence that H5N1 can spread between humans.<\/p>\n But in the hundreds of cases where humans have been infected through contact with animals over the past 20 years, the mortality rate is high.<\/p>\n From 2003 to 2024, 889 cases and 463 deaths caused by H5N1 have been reported worldwide from 23 countries, according to the World Health Organisation.<\/p>\n This puts the case fatality rate at 52 per cent.<\/p>\n Leading scientists have already warned an\u00a0influenza is the pathogen most likely to trigger a new pandemic<\/a>\u00a0in the near future.<\/p>\n The prospect of a flu pandemic is alarming.<\/p>\n Although scientists have pointed out that vaccines against many strains,\u00a0including H5N1<\/a>, have already been developed, others are still in the pipeline.<\/p>\n They found that the Q226L mutation enhanced the virus’s ability to attach to human-like cell receptors, giving bird flu the potential to behave like other human flu viruses.<\/p>\n A recent case of bird flu suggests the virus might have already\u00a0mutated to better spread among humans.<\/a><\/p>\n The case, spotted this month in a hospitalised Louisiana man, is the first “severe”\u00a0bird flu<\/a>\u00a0case in the US, amid its rapid spread through\u00a0cows<\/a>\u00a0this year.<\/p>\n Tests show the case involved a mutated version of H5N1 that helps it bind to human upper respiratory cells.<\/p>\n This could make it easier to spread between people through\u00a0coughing or sneezing<\/a>, raising concerns the virus is adapting to infect humans more effectively.<\/p>\n Bird flu viruses do not typically bind to a cell receptor in human upper airways, which helps explain why H5N1 rarely infects people or spreads between them.<\/p>\n Bird flu is spread by close contact with an affected bird.<\/p>\n This includes touching or petting an infected bird, touching droppings or bedding, or\u00a0killing or preparing infected poultry for cooking.<\/p>\n However, bird flu cannot be caught\u00a0through eating fully cooked poultry or eggs, even in areas with an outbreak of bird flu.<\/p>\n The World Health Organisation (WHO<\/a>) says the human risk remains low, but urges countries to share information quickly for monitoring and preparedness as the virus spreads.<\/p>\n 3<\/p>\n So far, there is no evidence that H5N1 can spread between humansCredit: Getty![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/vp-graphic-bird-flu_720.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Avian](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/avian-influenza-research-1002203294.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n