{"id":265761,"date":"2025-03-24T18:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T18:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/24\/bird-flu-found-in-sheep-in-u-k-a-world-first\/"},"modified":"2025-03-24T18:18:10","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T18:18:10","slug":"bird-flu-found-in-sheep-in-u-k-a-world-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/24\/bird-flu-found-in-sheep-in-u-k-a-world-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Bird Flu Found in Sheep in U.K., a World First"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/newsgraphics\/images\/icons\/defaultPromoCrop.png?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Bird Flu Found in Sheep in U.K., a World First\" title=\"Bird Flu Found in Sheep in U.K., a World First\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Bird flu has infected a sheep in Britain in what the government on Monday described as the first case of its kind reported anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While avian influenza had already been detected in cattle and other mammals, including in the United States, the infection of a sheep will increase concern over the potential impact of the disease\u2019s spread.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/influenza-of-avian-origin-confirmed-in-a-sheep-in-yorkshire\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">statement<\/a>, Britain\u2019s government said that avian origin flu (or H5N1) had been found in a ewe during what it called \u201croutine surveillance\u201d of livestock in Yorkshire in the north of England, where cases had been confirmed in captive birds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cAll affected birds and the infected ewe were humanely culled to mitigate the risk of further disease spread,\u201d the statement from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said. \u201cFurther official testing of the remaining flock of sheep at the premises, including the lambs of the affected ewe, were negative for the presence of avian influenza virus.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Britain\u2019s chief veterinary officer, Christine Middlemiss, said that strict biosecurity measures had been put in place to prevent the further spread of disease but urged owners of animals to \u201censure scrupulous cleanliness is in place,\u201d and to report any signs of infection to the authorities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Transmission of bird flu to humans is relatively rare, although one case was reported in January in England\u2019s West Midlands in a person who was said to have been in proximity to sick birds on a farm. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/bird-flu\/situation-summary\/index.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">said on Friday<\/a> that there have been 70 confirmed human cases since 2024.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The virus is spread through contact with infected birds or other species, including through touching their droppings and bedding, although people can also catch the virus by killing or preparing infected poultry for cooking.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Avian flu has been detected in cattle, in the United Sates, with the Centers for Disease Control reporting 41 cases and 989 dairy herds affected as of Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Other animals, including cats, foxes and pigs, have also been known to contract the virus, though the addition of sheep to that list will add to the concern.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Phil Stocker, chief executive of the National Sheep Association, which represents British sheep farmers, said that the case did not pose a threat to food safety but raised questions about farming different kinds of animals in the same location. \u201cIn this instance sheep and poultry have mixed on the same farm, resulting in the transmission of avian influenza,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Meera Chand, emerging infection lead at the U.K.\u2019s health security agency, said that while \u201cglobally, we continue to see that mammals can be infected with avian influenza,\u201d the \u201ccurrent evidence suggests that the avian influenza viruses we\u2019re seeing circulating around the world do not spread easily to people \u2014 and the risk of avian flu to the general public remains very low.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/24\/world\/europe\/bird-flu-sheep-england.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bird flu has infected a sheep in Britain in what the government on Monday described as the first case of its kind reported anywhere in the world. While avian influenza had already been detected in cattle and other mammals, including in the United States, the infection of a sheep will increase concern over the potential [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/newsgraphics\/images\/icons\/defaultPromoCrop.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[169713,24294,1336,165314,1200,22771,84420,18448,196588,4256,503,1021,6000,1052,197698],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265761"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265763,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265761\/revisions\/265763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}