The zoonotic transfer risk
Matt Sanderson’s article, “The risks from bird flu” ( Solidarity 675 ) is right to raise the alarm, and the limitations of current precautions. Since this highly pathogenic strain of the H5N1 subtype of bird flu emerged two years ago, it spread far and wide across bird populations. A particular concern the last half year, beyond the economic impact, and the very small number of humans knowingly infected, is the large number of mammals infected. Thousands or tens of thousands of sea lions seem to have been killed by bird flu in south America this year. Many mink were found infected prior to the...