The H5N1 tribe of bird flu has the ‘potential to become a pandemic’, according to an expert at the UK Health Security Agency.
Richard Pebody, director of epidemic and emerging infections at UKHSA, explained that while the virus is “not new”, and the risk to the public remains low, its functions have changed over the past year.
This follows a confirmed case of bird flu at a single sheep Monday for the first time in England.
At the agency’s annual conference in Manchester Tuesday, Mr. Pebody describes the news as “a new turn to the story”, but emphasizing the risk “did not necessarily change”.
‘H5N1 has the potential to become a pandemic, a future pandemic. And that’s why we look so closely and manage it so well.
“We know that the virus can infect other animal species. We must clearly examine it a little more, better understand what happened here and understand what the risk of human health is,” he said.
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The infection was traced in a single sheep in Yorkshire to routine supervisor over livestock where bird flu H5N1 was confirmed at captive birds.
Dr. Meera Chand, emerging infection lead at the UKHSA, said at the time that “the current evidence indicates that the bird flu viruses we see all over the world spread easily to humans” and “the risk of bird flu for the general public remains very low”.
The virus was also detected in dairy cattle in a number of US states this past spring and Sky News revealed in December that Horses can also contain the virus.
In 2024, dairy cows tested positive for the H5N1 stem of bird flu in different US states. Pic: ap
Human case in West Midlands
Mr. Pebody said: “H5N1 is not new. It has been for some time. It only showed up in the 1990s, mid -1990s, but it weakened and weakened over the years.
Bird flu in humans is rare, although a person in the West Midlands region in January tested positive After being infected while on a farm after ‘close and prolonged contact’ with infected birds.
While people can be infected from birds, it is a human-to-human transfer that scientists really are going on. Photo: Istock
What are the symptoms?
Symptoms may depend on the tension, but it may include a flu -like disease with fever, body pain, cough, sore throat, sore eyes and running nose.
Read more from Sky News:
What you need to know about bird flu
Recovery of bird flu ‘painfully slow’
Bird flu infects horses without symptoms
The UKHSA published its first annual report on Tuesday in which the infectious diseases were set out that influenced England, which included flu A (H5N1) as an ’emerging infection’, along with MPOS and pork drift.
It is said that his bird flu supervised programs, which take samples of people exposed to infected birds, have traced a ‘small number of’ workers who were asymptomatic [infected but not showing symptoms]with “one clinical infection in January 2025”.
“A human-to-human transfer has not yet been shown, despite extensive recent supervision,” the report added.
A list of “priority pathogens” published by UKHSA also contains the viral family orthomyxoviridae, to which flu a viruses belong.
In December, the government agreed an agreement Buy over five million doses of a vaccine for a trunk of bird flu to strengthen pandemic preparation.
Mr. Pebody said: “We must be prepared for the next emerging infection and indeed the next pandemic. So it is the core business of the agency.
