A new strain of bird flu (highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI) has been detected on a duck farm in California.
The World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) reported the outbreak of the new strain, H5N9, earlier this week on its website.
The more common H5N1 strain was also found at the same farm, which is located in Merced County, according to reports.
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"This is the first confirmed case of HPAI H5N9 in poultry in the United States," WOAH wrote.
Health agencies are conducting "comprehensive epidemiological investigations and enhanced surveillance," according to the statement.
David J. Cennimo, an associate professor of medicine and pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, said this new strain could point to the "adaptability" of influenza viruses.
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"Birds are very susceptible to avian influenza in general. Some strains of the virus are mild, some deadly," he told Fox News Digital.
H5N9 has been seen in the past, Cennimo noted, and generally causes mild illness in birds.
"The ducks in California, however, were dying," he said. "Genetic testing showed this H5N9 was different from historical samples and was, in fact, a reassortment."
(Reassortment is the process by which influenza viruses swap gene segments, according to the National Institutes of Health.)
With influenza viruses, scientists name them based on the Hs and Ns (hemagglutinin and neuraminidase surface proteins), according to Cennimo.
There are "continual mutations" of flu strains, so not all H1 versions are the same, the doctor said.
"This is why humans are getting influenza vaccines yearly, and you will see the strain compositions change some years, even though they remain H1N1 and H3N2," he said.
"In this case, the H5 in the H5N9 was the H5 from the currently circulating H5N1 bird flu that is more pathogenic."
With H5N9, he said, the virus appears to have switched its N1 and picked up an N9 from another virus.
This can happen when two different viruses simultaneously infect the same animal, he said.
"While H5N9 is not generally a very dangerous virus, we need to keep an eye on this new strain," Cennimo cautioned.
"To date, I am not aware of any human infections with H5N9. Again, this will be monitored."
Dr. Jacob Glanville, CEO of Centivax, a San Francisco biotechnology company, told Fox News Digital, noted that birds are "constantly a reservoir" for many types of influenzas that normally do not infect people.
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"Researchers monitor them, as the bird flus have evolved to become human global pandemic strains multiple times in the past," he told Fox News Digital. "In order to infect humans, they need to mutate in order to adapt from a bird to human host."
Researchers become concerned when there are large outbreaks of bird flus in poultry farms, according to Glanville.
In addition to interfering with the food supply, having many infected birds in proximity to pigs, cows and humans greatly increases the risk of mutations that could spill over into "mammalian infections."
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"Currently, this is the main concern for H5N1," he said. "Other reports of bird flu are worth monitoring but are currently low risk."
To date, there have been 67 confirmed cases of human bird flu in the U.S. and one death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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