Scientists Sound Alarm as Bird Flu Jumps Between Mammals

In a scientific first, researchers in Chile have confirmed the mammal-to-mammal transmission of the H5N1 bird flu virus, marking a critical turning point in the virus’s global trajectory.

The virus initially jumped from birds to sea lions on the Chilean coast, then rapidly spread along South America’s shoreline, killing over 40,000 sea lions and affecting more than 120,000 birds.

The virus’s spread didn’t stop there, it reached the remote wild zones of Antarctica, where scavenger birds near the Antarctic Peninsula were found infected.

This alarming development, documented by scientists at the University of Chile and published in Nature Communications, reveals that H5N1 has adapted in ways previously unseen in mammals.

Though human-to-human transmission has not yet been detected, scientists caution that if further mutations occur, it could potentially trigger a global public health crisis. The virus remains a zoonosis, transmitting from animals to humans only in rare, high-exposure cases—but the trajectory of its evolution demands close international monitoring.