[Will avian influenza virus become a human virus?].

Since 1997, an Influenza virus of avian origin appears regularly in human causing severe respiratory infections leading to death in half cases. This Influenza A (H5N I) virus which is at the origin of this illness circulates in wild birds and in domestic birds. Million poultry have been regularly infected or slaughtered on 3 continents: Asia, Africa and Europe. H5NI virus, like any other Influenza virus, has the ability to adapt its genome and theoretically could easily jump from the avian animals to human directly. On the other hand, since 10 years it still did not acquire this capacity. This paper summarise our knowledge on the risk of a future pandemic.