Experts name likely source of next pandemic

Experts think the source of the next pandemic could spread to humans through contact with horses.

The warning comes after experts discovered bird flu antibodies present in horses in Mongolia, suggesting that horses around the world could be vulnerable anywhere that avian flu is found.

It is believed that the H5N1 virus, also known as avian flu, is the most likely cause of the next pandemic and experts now fear asymptomatic horses could be spreading it undetected, and it could even pass to humans.

A research letter published by scientists at the University of Glasgow detailed how they found bird flu virus antibodies in blood samples taken from horses in Mongolia.

Lead researcher, Professor Pablo Murcia, explained to Sky News what it could mean for us.

“It’s very important, now we know these infections can occur in nature, that we monitor them to detect them very rapidly,” he said.

“Horses, like many other domesticated animals, live in close proximity to humans and if this virus was to establish in horses the probability of human infection increases.”

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In addition, the team from the Medical Research Council-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research also fear the horses could become a kind of “mixing bowl” in which new strains of the virus could form.

For example, if a horse were to become infected by both equine flu (the H3N8 virus) and bird flu (the H5N1 virus) simultaneously, it could lead to the viruses sharing genetic data and evolving.

The H5N1 virus has been known for decades and has previously primarily infected poultry. But, in recent years, a variant has been observed infecting migratory birds and even jumping to mammals, infecting more than 700 cow herds across 15 states in the US, the Centers for Disease Control says.

60 farm workers have also been infected, but each has suffered only mild symptoms. However, experts who were involved in monitoring the Covid pandemic are concerned about future mutations.

Dr Tulio de Oliveira, director of the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation in South Africa and the person who first detected the Omicron variant in the Covid pandemic, explained: “The last thing that they (the US) would need at the moment is another pathogen that evolved and mutated.”

“If you keep H5N1 circulating for a long time and across different animals and in humans, you give the chance that that can happen. They do not need another potential pandemic.”

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