Doctors and researchers said the moves will make it harder to detect potentially dangerous changes. If the virus continues to jump between species or the human case count grows, there’s a greater risk that it could mutate and become more easily transmissible between people,

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has merged H5N1 bird flu updates with routine updates for seasonal influenza, the agency's website showed on Monday. The number of people monitored and tested for bird flu will be reported on a monthly basis,