Bird flu in US cows: Should Europe be worried?

Digard, meanwhile, says it would be wise to check dairy herds in the U.K. for the new strain even though there’s no evidence yet it has escaped North America.

In the EU, EFSA has advised increased surveillance in mammals, especially in those near bird flu-affected poultry establishments.

Do we have vaccines against bird flu?

There are vaccines that could work against bird flu, but it’s still unclear how effective they would be versus a particular strain and how quickly companies could ramp up production.

A GSK spokesperson told POLITICO the company has a contract with the EU’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority to produce 85 million doses of its pandemic preparedness vaccine, Adjupanrix, if needed. Adjupanrix is a "mock-up" flu vaccine that could be adapted to whatever influenza strain emerges as the cause of a pandemic. 

A spokesperson for the European Commission, meanwhile, confirmed it had a joint contract with GSK and CSL Seqirus for the companies to deliver adapted flu vaccines if needed in a pandemic.

Andrew Fenwick, a spokesperson for CSL Seqirus, told POLITICO that the company's zoonotic flu vaccine would likely protect against the strain currently circulating in the U.S. 

The European Medicines Agency has also approved AstraZeneca’s pandemic flu vaccine, which was tested using a strain of H5N1.