Primer: Can humans get avian influenza?

A recent outbreak of H5N1 at a mink fur farm in Spain has some scientists worried.

Farms with dense populations of minks — which are mammals, like us — are ideal places for this virus to acquire new mutations or other genetic changes that could help it spread more easily between humans.

And testing at the fur farm revealed the virus had already acquired at least one such mutation. This makes us wonder: Is bird flu creeping closer to humans?

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