The global outbreak of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus and its high toll on animal populations raise concerns about spillover into humans, but human host barriers need to be considered when estimating transmission potential.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Relevant articles
Open Access articles citing this article.
-
Adjuvanted influenza vaccination increases pre-existing H5N1 cross-reactive antibodies
Nature Communications Open Access 07 January 2026
-
Genetic strategies for avian influenza resilience in poultry: from host-pathogen interaction studies to precision breeding
Functional & Integrative Genomics Open Access 24 November 2025
-
Assessing the spatial risk of wild birds in avian influenza transmission using global risk score
Scientific Reports Open Access 02 September 2025
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$32.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to the full article PDF.
USD 39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References
European Food Safety Authority et al. EFSA J. 21, e07917 (2023).
Aguero, M. et al. Euro. Surveill. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2023.28.3.2300001 (2023).
Puryear, W. et al. Emerg. Infect. Dis. 29, 786–791 (2023).
H5N1 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Poultry and Wild Birds: Winter of 2021/2022 with Focus on Mass Mortality of Wild Birds in UK and Israel (WOAH, 2022).
Long, J. S. et al. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 17, 67–81 (2019).
Avian Influenza Weekly Update Number 906 (WHO, 2023); https://go.nature.com/3sbxXof
Wang, M., Fu, C. X. & Zheng, B. J. N. Engl. J. Med. 360, 2583–2584 (2009).
Sandbulte, M. R. et al. PLoS Med. 4, e59 (2007).
Imai, M. et al. Nature 486, 420–428 (2012).
Stevens, J. et al. Science 312, 404–410 (2006).
Haller, O. et al. Trends Microbiol. 23, 154–163 (2015).
Chen, Y. et al. Science 373, 918–922 (2021).
Manz, B. et al. PLoS Pathog. 9, e1003279 (2013).
Gotz, V. et al. Sci. Rep. 6, 23138 (2016).
Graaf, A. et al. Emerg. Infect. Dis. 29, 1492–1495 (2023).
Acknowledgements
The work was funded by a grant from the European Research Council to M.S. (no. 882631—Bat Flu); grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft to M.S. (SCHW 632/16-1) and M.B. (BE 5187/4-2); the EU Horizon 2020 program grant agreement VEO (no. 874735) to M.B.; and the medical faculty at the University of Freiburg through the Hans A. Krebs Medical Scientist Programme to K.C.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Peer review
Peer review information
Nature Microbiology thanks Richard Webby and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ciminski, K., Chase, G., Schwemmle, M. et al. Advocating a watch-and-prepare approach with avian influenza. Nat Microbiol 8, 1603–1605 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-023-01457-0
Published:
Version of record:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-023-01457-0
This article is cited by
-
Adjuvanted influenza vaccination increases pre-existing H5N1 cross-reactive antibodies
Nature Communications (2026)
-
Assessing the spatial risk of wild birds in avian influenza transmission using global risk score
Scientific Reports (2025)
-
Genetic strategies for avian influenza resilience in poultry: from host-pathogen interaction studies to precision breeding
Functional & Integrative Genomics (2025)
-
H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b dynamics in experimentally infected calves and cows
Nature (2025)