Israeli authorities have reported an outbreak of H5N8 bird flu at a turkey farm in the northern region of Hazafon, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Thursday, citing a report from Israel’s agriculture ministry. The virus infected 350 out of a flock of 13,500 turkeys in Ma’ale Gilboa, the report said. Some 200 birds died of the virus and the rest of the flock was slaughtered, the OIE said.

The contagious H5N8 strain has never been detected in humans – but it is entirely possible for a strain to mutate and begin being transmitted between people.

However, cases of bird flu were reported in the UK in 2014, with others in Germany, South Korea, China and Japan.

Flu is a rapidly mutating virus, hence the numerous strains which have been identified, ranging from H1N1, which caused the Spanish flu outbreak of 1918 which killed an estimated 100 million people, to H7N9, which caused an ongoing epidemic in China.

In 2017, H3N2 was dubbed Australian flu because of the problems it caused Down Under, with the flu season the worst in a decade.

The strain was deemed to pose a particular risk for pregnant women, the elderly and children.

Flu symptoms emerge rapidly and can include a sudden fever, an aching body, feeling tired or exhausted, a dry cough, a sore throat, a headache, difficulty sleeping and a loss of appetite.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified influenza as posing one of the biggest risks of a global pandemic.

Speaking last year, Dr Rima Khabbaz, director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID), a division of the US-based Center for Disease Control (CDC), told Express.co.uk: “Influenza is top of the list of threats.

“We are not talking about one virus, but a series of viruses.

“It’s a pandemic virus and it’s not a question of if, but when there will be another flu pandemic.”

Dr Jonathan Quick, chair of the Global Health Council (GHC), described the influenza virus as the most “diabolical, hardest-to-control and fastest-spreading potential viral killer”.

A flu pandemic without the proper medicine and food supply could cause “the global economy to collapse” as millions are people are crippled by the influenza virus.

If an outbreak was to spread, 33 million people could be killed in the first 200 days of an outbreak, Dr Quick said.

He added: “Within the ensuing two years, more than 300 million people could perish worldwide.”

A total of 217,000 British tourists visit Israel annually.

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