Killer Flu: Bird flu pandemic in humans just 'three mutations' away

The world has yet to see a form of the deadly bird flu virus that could spread easily between people and cause a global outbreak - but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen, scientists said on Thursday.

After studying 15 years of data on bird flu viruses in the wild, researchers said some strains were already part way along the road to acquiring a handful of mutations needed to change into a form that could cause a devastating human pandemic.

“The remaining... mutations could evolve in a single human host, making a virus evolving in nature a potentially serious threat,” Derek Smith of Britain’s University of Cambridge, who led the research, told reporters.

Currently, bird flu, or H5N1 avian flu, can be transmitted from birds to birds, and birds to humans, but not from humans to humans. When it does pass from birds to humans, it is usually fatal.

Read more: Bird flu pandemic in humans just 'three mutations' away - HEALTH - FRANCE 24

China bans poultry imports from Netherlands to guard bird flu risk

China has banned the imports of poultry products from the Zeeland province of the Netherlands where an outbreak of H7N1 bird flu virus was reported on March 22, China's quarantine watchdog said.

Any poultry and poultry products by mail or carried by tourists from the Netherlands will be returned or destroyed, officials from China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the Ministry of Agriculture said in a joint statement posted on the government's website (www.gov.cn) Sunday.

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