How worried should we be about avian flu?
The Briefing Room
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How Does Bird Flu Spread to Other Animals?
The most likely route of it spreading to wild mammals is when animals like foxes or otters or seals scavenge on dead birds. But there are other ways for example other mammals which are affected by influenza virus are farmed animals such as pigs and pigs can become infected. The last pandemic that we experienced of influenza in 2009 is often termed a swine flu pandemic because we know the most recent precursor virus in an animal source before it crossing to humans were pigs.
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