Avian flu virus detected in New York City wild birds

The H5N1 avian flu virus has been discovered in a small number of wild birds in New York City.

The highly infectious and severe virus was detected in fecal samples in six New York City birds representing four different species

Bird flu is now widespread in wild birds around the globe, and it has been causing outbreaks in U.S. poultry and dairy cows

"It is important to mention that, because we found H5N1 in city birds, this does not signal the start of a human influenza pandemic

We know that H5N1 has been around in New York City for about two years and there have been no human cases reported."

Only one human case of H5N1 bird flu occurred recently in the United States, involving a dairy worker in Texas, the CDC says.

However, researchers are worried that as bird flu spreads worldwide, the risk of it jumping into humans continues to grow.

The samples in the latest study were taken by local high school students working as paid interns for a wild bird monitoring program.

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