This story is starting to get some attention in the US.

One US professor of food safety warned "Raw milk is unpasteurized and has a plethora of bacteria and viruses in it ... if there is any bird flu in the [raw] milk, it's not going to be denatured or killed. So, you run a minor risk from raw milk"

There are a number of birds who travel between the US and New Zealand: Whimbrel, Snipes, Sandpipers, Godwits, Curlews, Shearwaters, Fulmars, Prions, and Petrels, and Terns.

RNZ: 'Timing is not good' for H5N1 pandemic - flu scientist

If the latest mutation of bird flu currently infecting cows in the United States figures out human-to-human transmission, the timing could not be worse, a prominent Kiwi flu researcher says.

H5N1 has made the jump to cattle, showing up in herds across the US in recent weeks. Scientists believe the virus might be passing from cow to cow, not relying on transmission from infected birds. There are reports of cats on farms getting infected after drinking the cows' milk, and one case of a human in the US contracting the disease after contact with cattle.

Dr Richard Webby is an infectious diseases researcher at Saint Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and the director of the World Health Organization's Collaborating Centre for Influenza Studies. He told RNZ's Sunday Morning the virus' sudden jump into cows and its fast spread took experts by surprise.

"It's almost like the Crusaders losing five in a row. Had you asked me six weeks ago what the chance [was] of finding this virus in cows, I would have said none. So it's a completely new event for us.

"We think we know this virus, and then something happens next week that teaches us that we didn't really know anything about it."
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