Bird flu strain found in U.S. cows flown to UK lab for testing --Virus sent to high-security facility so that experts can examine the potential risks to people and livestock | 11 May 2024 | Avian flu typically spreads by infecting wild birds and moving along migration routes, but the virus currently running rampant in the U.S. is about to be transported across the Atlantic by plane. This category A pathogen, which is now spreading among cows in the U.S., is being sent to a high-security laboratory in the UK so that experts can better understand the potential risks to people and livestock. "It's due to be shipped any day now," said Dr Ashley Banyard, a virologist at the UK's Animal and Plant Health Agency (Apha) lab in Weybridge, Surrey, last week. "I saw the packaging instructions in my email this morning." ...The U.S. outbreak has sparked alarm because it is the first time bird flu has been detected in a cow, and it is not clear how it got there. [Yes, it's a big mystery.]