Bird flu is back with a vengeance.
Medical experts have discovered that one variant of the avian flu virus, dubbed H3N8, has undergone several mutations and can now cause more severe infections.
Additionally, the H3N8 virus — which is endemic among poultry farms throughout China — is transmissible by airborne droplets between animals that have no physical contact.
“Human populations, even when vaccinated … could be vulnerable to infection at epidemic or pandemic proportion,” researchers wrote in the journal Cell.
The H3N8 variant has been found in horses, dogs and seals as well as birds, but it has not made the leap into human populations — yet.
In March, however, a woman in China became the first known human fatality of H3N8 avian flu. She likely became infected in a “wet market,” an open-air market where live animals are bought and sold.
Such markets are considered by public health experts to be rich breeding grounds for cultivating potentially deadly viruses, bacteria and other infectious agents.