Bird Flu Spreading to New Animal Species Raises Risk to Humans

March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Bird flu's spread in Germany to a second animal species heightens concern the lethal virus may be adapting to mammals, including people, scientists said. In Azerbaijan, 11 possible human cases are being investigated.

German officials confirmed H5N1 infection in a stone marten, a type of weasel, which showed severe illness when found on the Baltic island of Ruegen on March 2, the World Health Organization said yesterday. As with three dead domestic cats found on the island, the marten is presumed to have contracted the virus from feeding on an infected bird, WHO said.

``It's a property of this virus that it can go into these animals,'' Hugh Pennington, who has studied viruses for more than 40 years, said yesterday by telephone from Aberdeen, Scotland. ``One just has to watch and see what happens because the virus has the property to evolve.''

The rate of H5N1 infections in humans is increasing as the virus spreads to more parts of Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Georgia yesterday became the 23rd country to report an initial outbreak in birds since February.

The virus has killed at least 96 of 175 people infected since late 2003, mainly in Asia, and may have claimed its first victims in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan.