US providing frequent updates on bird flu outbreak: WHO

A World Health Organization (WHO) official said on Tuesday (Apr 30) there was a risk of the H5N1 bird flu virus spreading to cows in countries other than the United States through migratory birds. WHO further noted that Washingtonis frequently updatedabout the outbreak.

So far, the US is the only country where dairy cows havebeen infectedasearlier this month, US authorities said a person working on a dairy farm in Texas was recovering from bird flu after having been exposed to cattle.

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"We have been receiving informationandwe have been receiving almost daily updates," said Wenqing Zhang, head of the global influenza programme at the World Health Organization.

"The response update has been updated routinely and in transparency.So we've got the information when it's availableandwe update our risk assessment,"shetold a press conference onbeing asked whether or notthe US was being transparent.

The official said that serological studies were underway but may take time to complete, adding that genetic sequencing data hadbeen madeavailable, some "at a very early stage" of the US cattle outbreak.

She added that "the genetic sequence data of the human case was immediately available when it came out".

WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier added: "The fact that this got picked up,the factthat we now know about individual cases somewhere in some farm -- that shows that the surveillance system works."

Avian influenza A(H5N1) first emerged in 1996. The 2.3.4.4b clade of the virus, first detected in 2020, is behind an exponential growth in the number of outbreaks in birds.

The strain has led to the deaths of tens of millions of poultry, with wild birds and land and marine mammals also infected.

(With inputs from agencies)