Florida scientists have reported the first known and fatal case of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in a bottlenose dolphin.
Florida scientists have reported the first known and fatal case of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in a bottlenose dolphin.
Do you mean transmissibility? I get what you mean, but I’ve never heard this word used this way. (Virulence is, more or less, the non-fatal version of mortality – how much damage the disease does – so not that.)
Be that as it may, once the disease is established in a new species it tends to get less harmful because of exactly what you’re talking about – but plenty of diseases through history have been in the short run both fast-spreading and deadly, especially right after they jump into a new population. Which is exactly what H5N1 is doing right now (on all three counts).