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bird_flu [2025/05/18 00:53] – [Timeline of current animal pandemic] gary1bird_flu [2026/08/03 09:03] (current) – [Timeline of current animal pandemic] gary1
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       *Mar 2025: avian influenza H5N1 2.3.4.4b continues to cause issues globally as it is highly pathogenic, and is evolving to infect mammals, in particular, seals, sea lions, cats and cattle (via avian receptors, an ancient biological hangover that remains with some modern mammals such as cattle), but now including sheep and sheep milk, and has become panzootic sparking concerns we may be on the brink of a human pandemic worse than Covid-19. It is now rampant in Europe, Asia, South America and the US, where it’s running wild in the poultry and dairy industries — not helped by Donald Trump’s new secretary of health and human services, Robert F Kennedy Jr, who advocates letting the virus rip. Fortunately, H5N1 is not yet airborne and does not spread easily to or between humans. Unlike COVID-19 that spreads through the air, H5N1 2.3.4.4b spreads most effectively by direct contact with secretions like saliva, mucus or faeces as well as ingesting dead animals or unpasteurised milk, itself a form of secretion. (([[https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-30/next-pandemic-risk-h5n1-2-3-4-4b-bird-flu-avian-influenza/105104736]]))       *Mar 2025: avian influenza H5N1 2.3.4.4b continues to cause issues globally as it is highly pathogenic, and is evolving to infect mammals, in particular, seals, sea lions, cats and cattle (via avian receptors, an ancient biological hangover that remains with some modern mammals such as cattle), but now including sheep and sheep milk, and has become panzootic sparking concerns we may be on the brink of a human pandemic worse than Covid-19. It is now rampant in Europe, Asia, South America and the US, where it’s running wild in the poultry and dairy industries — not helped by Donald Trump’s new secretary of health and human services, Robert F Kennedy Jr, who advocates letting the virus rip. Fortunately, H5N1 is not yet airborne and does not spread easily to or between humans. Unlike COVID-19 that spreads through the air, H5N1 2.3.4.4b spreads most effectively by direct contact with secretions like saliva, mucus or faeces as well as ingesting dead animals or unpasteurised milk, itself a form of secretion. (([[https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-30/next-pandemic-risk-h5n1-2-3-4-4b-bird-flu-avian-influenza/105104736]]))
       * May 2025: virus now infecting Antarctic seals with fur seals and elephant seals heavily impacted, while crabeater seals and Weddell seals have also died from the virus. Surprisingly, many penguins appear to be asymptomatic carriers. It has also reached the Kerguelen Islands with concerns it will jump to the Heard and McDonald islands and then to Macquarie Island and then to mainland Australia.(([[https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-18/antarctica-avian-flu-h5n1-evolution-pandemic-potential/105271154]]))       * May 2025: virus now infecting Antarctic seals with fur seals and elephant seals heavily impacted, while crabeater seals and Weddell seals have also died from the virus. Surprisingly, many penguins appear to be asymptomatic carriers. It has also reached the Kerguelen Islands with concerns it will jump to the Heard and McDonald islands and then to Macquarie Island and then to mainland Australia.(([[https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-18/antarctica-avian-flu-h5n1-evolution-pandemic-potential/105271154]]))
 +      * July 2026: virus now infected sea birds mainly in coastal South Australia but the spread to sea gulls is likely to result in a super spreader scenario 
  
  
  
bird_flu.txt · Last modified: 2026/08/03 09:03 by gary1

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