Human cases of bird flu 'an enormous concern': WHO
The World Health Organization voiced alarm Thursday at the growing spread of H5N1 bird flu to new species, including humans, who face an "extraordinarily high" mortality rate.
Apr 18, 2024
0
2
The World Health Organization voiced alarm Thursday at the growing spread of H5N1 bird flu to new species, including humans, who face an "extraordinarily high" mortality rate.
Apr 18, 2024
0
2
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials said Monday they have met with state health leaders in Georgia and around the country, telling them to be prepared for more human cases of bird flu after a dairy worker ...
Apr 9, 2024
0
14
The United States' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a health alert after the first case of H5N1 avian influenza, or bird flu, seemingly spread from a cow to a human.
Apr 8, 2024
0
0
Bird flu is always a concern for health officials, not only for its effects on food supply chains, but for its potential for causing infections in humans. However, rarely, if ever, do humans contract this virus.
Apr 5, 2024
0
0
A Texas plant full of egg-laying hens has been shut down temporarily after bird flu was detected in the animals.
Apr 3, 2024
0
0
An unnamed person in Texas had been diagnosed with the H5N1 avian flu after close contact with infected dairy cattle, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday.
Apr 1, 2024
0
1
A person in Texas has been diagnosed with bird flu, an infection tied to the recent discovery of the virus in dairy cows, health officials said Monday.
Apr 1, 2024
0
55
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, in collaboration with JLP Health and others, have identified how the tick-borne Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus enters our cells. The results are published in Nature Microbiology ...
Mar 28, 2024
0
21
The latest studies at Hudson Institute of Medical Research have identified a novel therapy that controls the body's response to the influenza virus, limiting damaging inflammation and promoting recovery from severe infection.
Jan 16, 2024
0
0
A 2-year-old girl is the second person in Cambodia to die of bird flu this week, and the third this year, the country's Health Ministry has announced.
Oct 10, 2023
0
1
About two dozen - see section below
Birds (class Aves) are winged, bipedal, endothermic (warm-blooded), vertebrate animals that lay eggs. There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Birds range in size from the 5 cm (2 in) Bee Hummingbird to the 2.7 m (8 ft 10 in) Ostrich. The fossil record indicates that birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs during the Jurassic period, around 150–200 Ma (million years ago), and the earliest known bird is the Late Jurassic Archaeopteryx, c 155–150 Ma. Most paleontologists regard birds as the only clade of dinosaurs that survived the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event approximately 65.5 Ma.
Modern birds are characterised by feathers, a beak with no teeth, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a lightweight but strong skeleton. All birds have forelimbs modified as wings and most can fly, with some exceptions including ratites, penguins, and a number of diverse endemic island species. Birds also have unique digestive and respiratory systems that are highly adapted for flight. Some birds, especially corvids and parrots, are among the most intelligent animal species; a number of bird species have been observed manufacturing and using tools, and many social species exhibit cultural transmission of knowledge across generations.
Many species undertake long distance annual migrations, and many more perform shorter irregular movements. Birds are social; they communicate using visual signals and through calls and songs, and participate in social behaviours including cooperative breeding and hunting, flocking, and mobbing of predators. The vast majority of bird species are socially monogamous, usually for one breeding season at a time, sometimes for years, but rarely for life. Other species have breeding systems that are polygynous ("many females") or, rarely, polyandrous ("many males"). Eggs are usually laid in a nest and incubated by the parents. Most birds have an extended period of parental care after hatching.
Many species are of economic importance, mostly as sources of food acquired through hunting or farming. Some species, particularly songbirds and parrots, are popular as pets. Other uses include the harvesting of guano (droppings) for use as a fertiliser. Birds figure prominently in all aspects of human culture from religion to poetry to popular music. About 120–130 species have become extinct as a result of human activity since the 17th century, and hundreds more before then. Currently about 1,200 species of birds are threatened with extinction by human activities, though efforts are underway to protect them.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA