Analysis-Why public health officials are not panicked about bird flu

FILE PHOTO: A worker on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development holds up a crane that died following an outbreak of avian flu in the lake of a nature reserve, an important bird migration destination in the Hula Valley, northern Israel, January 2, 2022. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A new strain of bird flu that transmits easily among wild birds has triggered an explosive spread into new corners of the globe, infecting and killing a variety of mammals species and raising fears of a pandemic more lethal than COVID-19.

But the very changes that have allowed the virus to infect wild birds so efficiently likely made it harder to infect human cells, leading disease experts told Reuters. Their views underpin global health officials' assessments that the current outbreak of H5N1 poses low risk to people.