The first case of bird flu being recorded in non avian wildlife was a fox in Durham in 2021, according to data from the Animal and Plant Health Agency.
Since then, nine otters and foxes across the UK have tested positive for the virus in England, Scotland and Wales. The animals are believed to have eaten dead wild birds that were infected with the virus.
Experts have said that the risk to the public is low. The Durham fox is the only animal in our region to have tested positive for the disease.
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There were seven cases of otters and foxes testing positive for avian flu in 2022. These were one fox in Cheshire, two otters in Fife, one otter on the Shetland Islands, one otter on the Isle of Skye and two foxes in Cornwall.
There has only been on case so far in 2023, a fox in Powys, Wales. The information came as Professor Ian Brown confirmed spoke on the BBC Radio 4 today programme that though avian flu had jumped species, the UK is still a "long way" from being in a situation where bird flu could infect humans and spread in a similar way to Covid-19.
Professor Brown said: "We’ve recently detected events both here and around the world, evidence that this virus can on certain occasions jump into other species. To be clear though, this is still a bird virus essentially, that wants to be in birds.
"These are wild mammals, animals that scavenge on sick and dead birds, and there’s a lot of dead wild birds at the moment due to the bird flu presence around the globe, and those animals are consuming and being exposed to very high quantities of virus and that’s leading to some spillover infection. What we don’t have any evidence of is that it can then go from fox to fox or otter to otter, so these are what we call dead-end infections."
Asked about risk to humans, Professor Brown continued: "We need to understand the consequence of this infection. Does it make the virus change by jumping its host? We’re aware those events can sometimes lead to that."
But he confirmed that we are a long way from bird flu becoming a virus that can infect humans in the same way that Covid-19 has done. He added: "We’ve seen this jump, we’ve not seen maintenance in a mammalian species and, importantly, we haven’t seen a succession of changes in the virus that tell us it’s moving more towards a virus that can infect humans. This still is a spillover, but we need to be watchful, which is why we’re doing the surveillance."
The UKHSA warned that "rapid and consistent acquisition of the mutation in mammals may imply this virus has a propensity to cause zoonotic infections", meaning that it could potentially spread to humans. The UKHSA currently puts the level of risk to human health from avian flu at level three, which means there is "evidence of viral genomic changes that provide an advantage for mammalian infection".
A January UKHSA risk assessment said: "There are confirmed mammalian infections reported from multiple other countries, including multiple species in the USA, a cat in France, and a large outbreak in farmed mink in Spain… The apparent transmission between mink is of significant concern but there is no clear evidence that this has continued in mammalian species since the initial outbreak."
However, there have been no reported cases of avian flu in humans between October and December and only one case from October 2021 to September 2022. Dr Meera Chand, incident director for avian influenza at UKHSA, said: "Latest evidence suggests that the avian influenza viruses currently circulating in birds do not spread easily to people. We remain vigilant for any evidence of changing risk.
"There have recently been some detections of avian influenza viruses in a small number of mammals in the UK, however, the risk assessment conducted by UKHSA and partners did not identify any signals of increased risk to the general public from avian influenza at present."
Due to the impact of avian flu, 2022 was considered a "devastating" year for wild birds according to the National Trust, especially along the Northumberland Coast. The Farne Islands closed to tourists to prevent the risk of bird flu transmitting to humans in July, though that was too late for many of the birds who had returned to breed; as with many other parts of the North East coast, such as Coquet Island (which is managed by the RSPB).
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