Avian flu: What are the risk to humans? [Video]

H5N1 or avian flu is decimating wildlife around the world and is now spreading among cattle in the United States, sparking concerns about “pandemic potential” for humans. Now a health expert is urging Canada to scale up surveillance north of the border.

“The risk grows the more mammals are infected,” Dr. Isaac Bogoch, a Toronto-based infectious disease specialist, told CTV News Channel on Sunday. “The more mammals that get infected, the more opportunities there are for this virus to mutate.”

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Bogoch is urging authorities to “actively search” for the virus and implement broad-based surveillance as the risk grows in Canada because of the scale of the outbreaks south of the border.

“You know, if you don’t look you’ll never find it,” Bogoch told CTV News Channel host Renee Rodgers. ” Cast a broad net.”

Why should we be concerned?

Matthew Miller, from McMaster’s Immunology Research Centre in Hamilton, agrees with the infectious disease specialist …