PARIS: France has reported an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu among red foxes northeast of Paris, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) said on Tuesday, as the spread of the virus to mammals raised global concerns.
After three foxes were found dead in a nature reserve in Meaux near where gulls had died, one of the foxes was collected and tested, WOAH said in a report, citing French authorities.
The World Health Organization last month described the bird flu situation as “worrying” due to the recent rise in cases in birds and mammals. It has been reviewing its global risk assessment in light of recent developments including cases of human transmission in Cambodia, where an 11-year-old girl died from the disease last month.
Avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, has been spreading around the world in the past year, killing more than 200 million birds, sending egg prices rocketing and raising concern among governments about human transmission.
The virus infected a cat in France in late December. It has also been detected in minks in Spain, foxes and otters in Britain, sea lions in Peru and grizzly bears in the United States.
In Cambodia, authorities collected samples from 12 people who had been in contact with the girl who died on Feb 22 as they wanted to test for human-to-human transmission.
The girl’s 49-year-old father subsequently tested positive but was asymptomatic. Cambodian authorities said, however, that he did not contract the virus from his daughter but from exposure to infected birds.
Over the last two decades, there have been nearly 900 confirmed H5N1 cases in humans with more than 450 deaths, according to the WHO.