The World Health Organization voiced alarm at the growing spread of H5N1 bird flu to new species, including humans, who face an ‘extraordinarily high’ mortality rate.

Infected person is recovering from virus after being exposed to dairy cattle. Disease has sickened herds in Texas, Kansas and other states in recent days.

Centre for Food Safety says it has instructed traders to suspend import of poultry meat and products from relevant areas with immediate effect.

In addition to outbreaks in birds, seals and sea lions, officials have collected samples of dead porpoises and penguins found on beaches, with no confirmed results.

The places include four Japanese prefectures as well as several regions in the US, Canada, France, Belgium and Germany.

Discovery raises concerns the deadly virus could pose a threat to penguins and other local species.

There has been a surge of outbreaks in mammals, which are biologically closer to humans.

Experts say H3N8 bird flu variant is rarely fatal, does not spread easily and there is no need for public alarm.

World Health Organization confirms death of 56-year-old patient in Guangdong province but stresses likelihood of human-to-human transmission remains low.

Government pandemic adviser Professor Yuen Kwok-yung says he received threats after repeatedly calling for ban on sale of live animals at wet markets.

The girl from rural Prey Veng became ill on February 16 and was sent to hospital in Phnom Penh, where she died on Wednesday.

As bird flu hits more and varied animals, like at a mink farm in Spain, the fear is that the virus could evolve to spread more easily between people, and potentially trigger a pandemic.

Avian flu has reached new corners of the globe and become endemic for the first time in some wild birds that transmit the virus to poultry.

The UN health body says the risk to humans is low ‘for the moment’, though the spillover to animals like foxes, sea lions and bears needs to be watched closely.

Acute shortages are the result of soaring feed prices caused by Ukraine war which forced many Malaysian farmers to cut output, but a new government subsidy is expected to aid recovery.

According to the zoo, the infection in a deceased hammer-headed stork or hamerkop – a wading bird – was discovered during a routine check.

Zhong Nanshan, China’s top respiratory expert, among experts warning of parallel risks as pandemic measures, reduced immunity and chill affect public health.

The outbreak of the highly pathogenic H1N1 strain of avian flu was detected late December; around 500,000 chickens have since died of the disease or been culled.

The patient was in close contact with a large number of infected birds, and human-to-human transmission is neither suspected nor expected.

It is likely the first case of H5N1 among humans in India and the country’s first human bird flu death, local media said.

Formally established in 1921, the Hong Kong branch of the SPCA has spent the past 100 years rescuing animals, neutering and fostering strays, and educating the public. It’s been an uphill struggle.

The first human infections from a highly infectious influenza virus needs constant vigilance, the pair warn in a letter to Science magazine.

Two samples of bird droppings taken from Mai Po nature reserve tested positive for the highly pathogenic H5N8 strain.

Humans cannot contract the highly pathogenic H5 subtype, but there are concerns about it jumping species and causing a coronavirus-like pandemic.

President and the head of US intelligence suggest Wuhan lab warrants investigation, while Chinese state newspaper asks US to explain a 2018 bird flu experiment.

The spread of bird flu types H5N1, H7N9 and H5N6 in China is closely connected to poultry trade networks rather than just wild bird migration, researchers have found.