If you have a backyard birth feeder and bird bath, it’s a good idea to take them down. That’s according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The agency also recommends not feeding ducks and other waterfowl that flock at area parks.

Samples taken from the first patient who died from bird flu show that a strain of the virus has “mutated” to infect humans more effectively. A patient - hospitalised last month in Louisiana - died after the H5N1 strain of avian influenza infected the individual.