A sheep from northern England has become the first mammal worldwide to test positive for bird flu according to British government detection leading to increasing worries about an impending global health crisis.
Multiple government statements show that the H5N1 bird flu virus has claimed lives among bears, cats, dairy cows, dogs, dolphins, seals, and tigers throughout the global ecosystem.
The statement said;
The case was identified following routine surveillance of farmed livestock on a premises in Yorkshire where highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) had been confirmed in other captive birds
The disease has affected humans but with symptoms ranging from full recovery to fatal outcomes while people have not transmitted it to each other.
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The ewe sheep with mastitis showed signs of breast tissue inflammation while remaining symptom-free apart from this condition according to testing conducted by British authorities of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Animal and Plant Health Agency.
The positive test result for sheep milk alongside the animal sample indicated similarity to current H5N1 outbreaks among dairy cows in the United States according to molecular and cellular virology professor Ed Hutchinson from MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research.
Although he mentioned a lack of ongoing transmission evidence from sheep the incident appeared confined to one case.
The British Ministry in Charge of Rural Affairs has implemented livestock surveillance across premises where bird flu infections occurred in captive birds since dairy cows experienced outbreaks in the United States.
