Meanwhile, Digard says it would be wise to check UK dairy herds for the new strain, although there is no evidence yet that it has escaped from North America.
In the EU, EFSA recommended increased surveillance in mammals, especially in the vicinity of poultry farms affected by bird flu.
Do we have bird flu vaccines?
There are vaccines that could work against bird flu, but it's still unclear how effective they would be against a particular strain and how quickly companies could ramp up production.
A GSK spokesperson told POLITICO that the company has a contract with the European Health Emergency Response Agency to produce 85 million doses of its Adjupanrix pandemic vaccine if needed. Adjupanrix is a “model” flu vaccine that can be adapted to any flu strain that emerges as the cause of a pandemic.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the European Commission confirmed it has a joint contract with GSK and CSL Seqirus to supply the companies with modified flu vaccines if needed in a pandemic.
Andrew Fenwick, a spokesman for CSL Seqirus, told POLITICO that the company's zoonotic flu vaccine would likely protect against the strain currently circulating in the US.
The European Medicines Agency has also approved AstraZeneca's pandemic flu vaccine, which was tested using the H5N1 strain.
