As the H5N1 strain of avian flu continues to spread, infecting nearly 60 million poultry and over 6,000 wild birds according to the latest numbers from the Center of Disease Control (CDC), recently the disease has been found in mammals including minks, otters, foxes and sea lions according to the World Health Organization (WHO). “H5N1 has spread widely in wild birds and poultry for 25 years, but the recent spillover to mammals needs to be monitored closely,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during the February press conference. Despite the detection of H5N1 in mammals, experts say it is unlikely that it could mutate in such a way as to easily infect humans.
