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.
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