First confirmed case of a fox dead from bird flu in Spain

A fox has been found dead in the province of Zaragoza infected with avian flu, marking the first confirmed case in Spain of a mammal in the current wave of the epidemic and a new step in the disease, but it is just "a warning, not something exceptional." This was stated to EFE by veterinarian Úrsula Höfle, who is a researcher at IREC-University of Castilla-La Mancha and an expert in viral diseases of birds, who explained that the analysis of samples taken from the dead fox "has confirmed in the veterinary laboratory" that it was due to avian flu. The transmission of the virus to the fox is a new sign of the increase in circulating viruses, but "it is not worrying." "It is a warning that the more viruses circulating, the more possibilities there are also of infecting mammals, because they consume dead infected birds," she added. It does not mean that there has been a mutation of the virus in the case of the dead fox, nor does it seem to have occurred; simply the animal would have ...