(Express) – Israeli authorities have reported an outbreak of H5N8 bird flu at a turkey farm in the northern region of Hazafon, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Thursday, citing a report from Israel’s agriculture ministry. The virus infected 350 out of a flock of 13,500 turkeys in Ma’ale Gilboa, the report said. Some 200 birds died of the virus and the rest of the flock was slaughtered, the OIE said. The contagious H5N8 strain has never been detected in humans –
but it is entirely possible for a strain to mutate and begin being transmitted between people. However, cases of bird flu were reported in the UK in 2014, with others in Germany, South Korea, China and Japan. Flu is a rapidly mutating virus, hence the numerous strains which have been identified, ranging from H1N1, which caused the Spanish flu outbreak of 1918 which killed an estimated 100 million people, to H7N9, which caused an ongoing epidemic in China. READ MORE
