Avian influenza

The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a stark warning regarding the spread of bird flu (H5N1) to various species, including humans, expressing deep concern over its impact and potential consequences, according to reports from AFP.

The World Health Organization voiced alarm Thursday at the growing spread of H5N1 bird flu to new species, including humans, who face an "extraordinarily high" mortality rate.

"This remains I think an enormous concern," the U.N. health agency's chief scientist Jeremy Farrar told reporters in Geneva.

Given that humans do not have immune defenses against bird flu viruses the emergence of a virus capable of infecting & spreading rapidly among the population poses the risk of a pandemic

The European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) issued a stark warning regarding the looming threat of a large-scale bird flu pandemic, underscoring the potential consequences if the virus were to transition to humans and establish human-to-human transmission.

The poultry industry is grappling with a major concern: the relabelling of imported eggs and chicken meat, raising issues of authenticity and traceability within Bulgaria. Daniel Bozhankov, head of the Association of Industrial Poultry Breeding, highlighted this ongoing problem, stating that imported products are often repackaged and falsely presented as Bulgarian in the market network.

The cranes are the most endangered this time, and the focus is in Hungary, where around 10,000 of these birds have died so far.
In our country, bird flu has appeared in the places that cranes use to rest during their flight to the south. There is a great danger that the virus will be transmitted to domestic poultry, according to RTS.

China notified the World Health Organization (WHO) that a woman infected with H3N8 bird flu had died last month, DPA and Reuters reported.

This is only the third known case of human infection and the first fatality from this strain of bird flu.

The other two cases were also reported in China last April and May, the WHO said.

China has confirmed the first known human case of the H3N8 strain of avian flu, but health authorities say there is a low risk of widespread transmission among people.

H3N8 is known to have been circulating since 2002 after first emerging in North American waterfowl. It is known to infect horses, dogs and seals, but has not previously been detected in humans.

Pelicans on Skadar Lake in Montenegro. Photo: PR Centar

Bojan Zekovic of the Centre for the Study and Protection of Birds, CRZP, said that 15 pelicans at the lake had died since the first case of avian flu was registered in Montenegro in April 6.

They report that the previously circulating strain mutated and is now more contagious to humans.