EU food safety chief warns on bird flu threat to pigs | 5 May 2025 | Europe's vast pig herds threaten to become a "dangerous virus laboratory" should they be infected by the growing international bird flu outbreak that has already spread to poultry, cattle and sheep, the EU’s food safety chief has warned. The continent must be on high alert after mass contamination of livestock in the US has stoked fears the pathogen could mutate to spread between people, said Bernhard Url, outgoing executive director of the European Food Safety Authority. His remarks highlight the alarm caused by the latest H5N1 bird flu outbreak's infiltration of other species. The U.S. H5N1 outbreak that began in March last year has spread to dairy cattle in 17 states and poultry in all 50.