America is currently dealing with the biggest bird flu outbreak in history – and there’s real concern it could mutate and begin to spread in humans, according to Professor Luke O’Neill.

The US poultry industry has been battling a highly virulent strain of bird flu for more than two years now – with over 100 million chickens and turkey culled as a result.

The strain is also severely impacting the wild bird population and just this month, a group of workers on a Colorado bird farm contracted the virus.

In all six people on the farm picked up the virus, making it the single biggest bird flu event in humans the US has ever recorded.

Figures show that around half of the 900 people who have contracted bird flu around the world since the early 2000s have died – although the current strain seems to lead to relatively mild symptoms.

On The Pat Kenny Show this morning, Trinity Professor Luke O’Neill there is concern amongst scientists that “this could be the next pandemic to afflict humans”.

“Millions and millions of birds have died,” he said. “It is the biggest bird flu outbreak ever in history, they reckon.

“They are culling loads of poultry here in America, wild birds are dying as well and of course, the question is will it mutate and then jump into humans?”

"Deadly"

Prof O’Neill said bird flu (H5N1) was first reported in wild geese in 1996 – and it has since spread to other species.

“It's deadly for birds,” he said.

“It's one of the worst flus that a bird can catch basically and then they noticed it began to spread, about a year ago, into the poultry farms in America and again they began culling them.

“It's lethal, as I say, it's got almost 100% mortality in birds.

“Then, of course, they began to find it in humans.

“Two weeks ago, there were six reported cases in humans in Colorado. They were all poultry workers who were involved in culling birds and six got infected.

“Ten people in total have been infected with this.”

Bird flu

He said the disease is currently a ‘dead end’ in humans, meaning it does not spread between people.

“As I say though, they're looking very closely at that because that can change as we know,” he said.

“If it did jump into humans, with that level of fatality, it'd be really serious, obviously enough.”

Prof O’Neill said humans should have an existing level of immunity to bird flu as a result of the standard flu virus we are exposed to each year.

He said the current flu medications we have would also offer some level of protection.

Bird flu Infrared. Image: Zoonar GmbH / Alamy

Meanwhile, the ‘big one’ authorities are looking at is developing an RNA-based vaccine against bird flu.

“The US government has just given Moderna - remember them - $176 million to help them make an RNA vaccine against this,” he said.

“So it is being taken quite seriously here in America, given the level of spread, so we could get a vaccine quite quickly, which is a good sign as well.”

Testing

Prof O’Neill said medical companies are also working on a rapid test for the disease in humans – noting that is currently takes several days to get a positive diagnosis.

“There was one case in Australia of a girl getting infected and it took weeks for that test to come back to say she had an H5n1,” he said.

“That's not feasible if this starts to spread in humans, obviously.

“So again, they are ramping up the making antigen testing like we did for Covid, it'll be very similar tests that will be available.

The question is how much do they invest in this? How big is the risk?

But certainly, they're beginning to move towards antigen testing as a quick way to do it.”

He said there are also increasing calls for international coordination in response to the threat – with calls for countries around the world to increase testing among birds and other animals.

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