Ducking and Diving

A 79 year old man living with circa 20 ducks in his home, is the first UK human to contract the H5N1 strain of bird 'flu (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/07/first-uk-person-to-catch-h5n1-bird-flu-strain-is-named). Other humans, in different parts of the world, have caught the H5N1 strain of bird 'flu. These have, however, generally been people living in close proximity with large numbers of birds for commercial reasons. Bird 'flu is generally brought to commercial birds in the UK by migrating wild birds. There have, thus far, been no cases of human-to-human transmission of this virus. That was, of course, also true of Sars-CoV-2, until comparatively recently. We get zoonoses from animals when the infective agent jumps to humans. Protection from pandemics requires the regular monitoring of viral diseases in wild and domestic animal populations.