A severe and fast-spreading type of avian flu is spreading through Britain’s birds, infecting higher numbers than ever before and killing birds up and down the country.

As charities caution the public to avoid any bird carcasses they see, experts warn there’s a chance this flu — or another like it — could one day infect humans.

Some 22 million birds — twice the usual number — have been infected with avian flu over the last year, with a particularly agressive strain called ‘H5N1’ thought to be driving the outbreak.

As well as being fast-spreading, the strain is causing a large number of bird deaths. Millions of chickens have also been culled in an effort to quell the outbreak.

The Cornwall Wildlife Trust issued a warning last week that members of the public should stay away from any dead seabirds they come across.

‘Under no circumstances touch or handle the animals due to high risk and severity of Avian bird flu,’ the organisation wrote in a Facebook post.

This is because, although it’s very rare, avian flu can spread to humans. And sometimes, as in the case of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, an avian flu can spread very quickly among people.

How likely is bird flu to spread to humans?

At the moment, the chances of catching H5N1 avian flu are very small. In fact, the virus has only infected 860 people since 2003.

University of Reading microbiologist Dr Simon Clarke says the number of cases is so low because the current strain would struggle to spread from person to person.

It would likely need to spread to another animal more like us than birds to learn how to infect people more easily.

‘It’s just not particularly likely to jump and spread between humans, it would be more likely to come through another animal like a pig,’ he told MailOnline.

‘Pigs are just more like us and we farm them intensively, so you could see a situation in developing countries where infection control protocol isn’t as stringent and there is some crossover.’

Clarke and other experts agree that regular seasonal flu is more likely to be behind the next pandemic.

But coupled with a bad winter flu season — which some experts say is likely after a — the risk of bird flu spreading to humans may increase.

University of Nottingham disease experts and emeritus professor Keith Neal told MailOnline: ‘Seasonal flu we know is going to come, avian flu is on the horizon — it might come.’

But high leves of both viruses makes it more likely they will ‘interact and cause a major genetic shift,’ he said.

This could make the virus better at spreading to humans.

East Anglia University infectious disease expert Professor Paul Hunter explained: ‘If you get two unrelated flu viruses at same time infecting the same cell, they start to switch genetic material,’ he explained.

‘In the past that has led to the genetic shift that can cause pandemics.’

But that doesn’t mean it will cause one anytime soon.

Hunter told MailOnline bird flu would probably cause another human outbreak one day. But it’s impossible to know when.

‘These things are very random events and you can never really predict when they’re going to happen. But the more of it around, the higher the risk,’ he said.

Neal said that although a normal flu is likely to cause the next pandemic, bird flu was nonetheless a bigger concern as we ‘have no natural protection.’

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