Surging bird flu outbreaks raise human-infection risk, UN agencies warn

FILE PHOTO: A South African National Parks ranger monitors a group of African penguins at Cape Town's famous Boulders penguin colony, a popular tourist attraction and an important breeding site which which are suffering an outbreak of avian flu in Cape Town, South Africa, September 27, 2022. REUTERS/Esa Alexander/File Photo

(Reuters) - Three UN agencies on Wednesday warned that an ongoing rise in avian flu outbreaks globally raised concerns that the virus might adapt to infect humans more easily, and urged countries to strengthen disease surveillance and improve hygiene at poultry farms.

Earlier this year, a new H5N1 strain of bird flu that is highly contagious among wild birds explosively spread to new geographical regions, infecting and killing a variety of mammal species and raising fears of a pandemic among humans.