Avian flu is infecting wild bird populations across the globe, with 175 confirmed cases in the UK since October last year. Britain is not prepared for a possible spill-over of the bird flu virus into humans. According to Evening Standard, Dr Nicole Robb, Assistant Professor at Warwick University, said the UK’s testing capacity is currently not advanced enough to cope with transmission of the H5N1 virus from birds to humans.

Major vaccine companies are preparing avian flu vaccines if the H5N1 virus that has killed millions of animals mutates to infect humans.

Vaccine makers GSK, Moderna, and CSL Seqirus have begun developing new human shots to target the rapidly spreading strain of the virus. Others such as Sanofi have vaccines for H5N1 virus in stock that could serve as a base for producing shots tailored to the currently circulating strain.

Last month, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced it had created a group of 26 experts to model a potential outbreak of H5N1 if the virus were to evolve to spread between humans.

Scientists fear the virus could potentially evolve to spread between humans and become the catalyst for the next pandemic. However, health officials have cautioned that the chance of the virus jumping to spread from birds to humans remains low.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus warned last month: ‘Since H5N1 first emerged in 1996 we have only seen rare and non-sustained transmission of H5N1 to and between humans, but we cannot assume that will remain the case and we must prepare for any change in the status quo.’

The current avian flu outbreak has infected or killed more than 200million birds worldwide and thousands of mammals, including minks in Spain, seals in the US, sea lions in South America, and dolphins in the UK.

Since its emergence in 1996, there has only been rare and non-sustained transmission of the strain to and between humans. Only 131 cases of avian flu have been recorded in mammals since October 2021.

Humans who have been infected with the virus in the past have usually worked in poultry farms or been in contact with infected birds.

The UKHSA has urged the public to avoid contact with sick or wild dead birds in public areas such as parks and waterways.