The risk from H5N1 has never been greater – but making our farms bio-secure is harder than it seems

Thomas Rawson, epidemiology research associate, Jameel Institute at Imperial College London, authors an op-ed for The Telegraph on the risk of H5N1 bird flu, which has recently been reported to infect cows. He discusses the limitations of biosecurity measures and other methods of reducing the risks of spread and spillover – calling for more rigorous use of data to investigate how infections move through poultry populations.

Thomas writes: 'While bacteria like Campylobacter are sadly widespread throughout the system, it does mean we can use this organism to begin this work immediately without having to wait for more bird flu outbreaks. Next then is to understand how wild bird populations move and interact throughout the UK to help build better predictive maps of where outbreaks are likely to occur, so we know where and when we may have to be extra vigilant. Research on this currently is severely lacking.'