The detection of bird flu in a sheep is another sign that the H5N1 virus is adapting to hop to new hosts

Bird flu has been detected in a single sheep for the first time in England, in an area where the disease had been confirmed in captive birds. The government said while this marked the first time avian influenza H5N1 had been found in a sheep. It is not the first time it had been detected in livestock in other countries.

By most indications, the avian influenza outbreak that has washed over U.S. farms is at an ebb. Experts don’t seem hopeful, however, that the problem has taken care of itself.