Which virus’s cause highly pathogenic disease?
Within Avian Influenza 16 H types and 9 N types are currently recognised. So far only strains H5 and H7 are known to cause the highly pathogenic form of the disease. As currently understood, when first introduced to poultry flocks these strains are in their mild low pathogenic form. It is often only after a few months that the virus will mutate into something far more lethal. Hence the underlying fear among scientists is that even mild conditions can easily become mass killers often devastating poultry stocks.
