How worried should you be about bird flu?

In today’s The Big Story podcast, the latest strain of H5N1 avian flu has been unpredictable. It’s spreading rapidly among cattle in the United States, many of them along Canada’s border. And it’s now been found in the milk supply of those cows, though FDA officials say that pasteurization means the milk is still safe to consume.

Dr. Scott Weese is an infectious disease veterinarian at the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph. Although H5N1 hasn’t been found in Canadian milk, Dr. Weese said that’s not because it isn’t here.

“We don’t really know if it’s in Canada yet. And it’s one of these absence of evidence versus evidence of absence,” said Dr. Weese. 

It’s clear this strain is different from previous versions of the virus. But to a world that has recently suffered through a pandemic, any new virus doing unusual things may seem terrifying. So: What happens next? How worried should you be?