Aggressive bird flu is spreading – expert warns

Now Jonas Waldenström, professor of microbiology at Linnaeus University, is urging the public not to touch sick birds.

"The risk of the virus being transmitted to humans is small, but it exists, and with the highly pathogenic variant, the amounts of virus are large in sick birds," he says, according to the press release.

The trend is particularly visible in Skåne and has affected bird species such as geese and cranes. According to Waldenström, the outbreak is not surprising.

"This is entirely expected given the developments during the autumn in Germany, France, Spain and the UK, where, among other things, thousands of cranes have died from bird flu."

He believes that the outbreak will subside during the winter, but that bird flu is here to stay because the infection has a global spread.

"It's not good. A lot of mammals like foxes, seals and even cows in North America have gotten sick. But it's hard to predict the future."