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A leading infectious disease expert has warned that the bird flu virus could spark a pandemic "more severe" than Covid-19 if it mutates and evolves to spread between humans.

The alert comes as the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) has confirmed dozens of outbreaks of the H5N1 strain , with cases detected in wild birds and commercial poultry across the country. Officials say the risk to the public remains very low, but scientists stress the need for vigilance as outbreaks grow across Europe and the US.

"What we fear is the virus adapting to mammals, and particularly to humans, becoming capable of human-to-human transmission, and that virus would be a pandemic virus," Marie-Anne Rameix-Welti, medical direct

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