Paris - Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) has warned that the number of bird flu outbreaks in mammals has doubled globally in 2024, increasing the likelihood of the virus adapting and spreading to humans, although the risk of direct infection is still considered low.
The Paris-based organisation stated in a new report that the number of recorded infections in mammals, such as cows, dogs, and cats, reached 1,022 outbreaks in 55 countries, compared to only 459 outbreaks in 2023. According to what was published by the European news network in Brussels, "Euronews":
Avian Flu: A Threat Beyond Animal Health
The report indicates that the bird flu virus, known as H5N1, is showing an increasing ability to transmit to mammalian species, especially after widespread outbreaks in dairy farms in the United States. This increases the risk of a genetic mutation that facilitates its transmission between humans. While human cases remain rare, the World Health Organization has warned on more than one occasion that any direct or indirect transmission of the virus from animals to humans carries a potential risk of a future pandemic.
The report emphasized that avian influenza goes beyond being a veterinary health crisis; it has become a global emergency affecting agriculture, food security, trade, and the ecological balance.
It is estimated that more than 630 million domestic birds have died or been culled due to the virus over the past 20 years, while wild birds have suffered devastating losses that are difficult to accurately quantify due to the lack of comprehensive monitoring mechanisms.
This warning comes at a time when health and scientific agencies in the United States are experiencing significant budget cuts, including the cancellation of an epidemic program known as "Disease Detectives," raising additional concerns about lax early detection of the virus. The H5N1 virus, first discovered in 1996 in China, is considered one of the most dangerous types of influenza, causing high mortality rates in birds and, in some cases, human deaths when transmitted from birds to humans.
Although human-to-human transmission has been recorded only in rare and isolated cases, its transformation into a form capable of widespread human infection is a worst-case scenario that global health authorities are closely monitoring.