Could babies get bird flu through breast milk? Maybe, a study hints

Human breast tissue may be capable of hosting — and passing on — bird flu.

Human mammary glands contain sugars that avian influenza can latch onto to infect cells, researchers report August 8 at medRxiv.org. The finding, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, raises the possibility that nursing babies could be infected with bird flu through breast milk.

When H5N1 bird flu was detected in dairy cattle in 2024 — primarily in the mammary glands in the udder — and in…