Category: Flu Virus

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Heres the latest news about a global outbreak of H5N1 bird flu that started in 2020, and recently spread among cattle in U.S. states and marine mammals across the world, which has health officials closely monitoring it and experts concerned the virus could mutate and eventually spread to humans, where it has proven rare but deadly.

A sign warns of a outbreak of bird flu.

May 16The USDA conducted a study, and discovered that after high levels of the virus was injected into beef, no trace was left after the meat was cooked medium to well done, though the virus was found in meat cooked to lower temperatures.

May 14The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released influenza A waste water data for the weeks ending in April 27 and May 4, and found several states like Alaska, California, Florida, Illinois and Kansas had unusually high levels, though the agency isnt sure if the virus came from humans or animals, and isnt able to differentiate between influenza A subtypes, meaning the H5N1 virus or other subtypes may have been detected.

May 10The Food and Drug Administration announced it will commit an additional $8 million to ensure the commercial milk supply is safe, while the Department of Agriculture said it will pay up to $28,000 per farm to help mitigate the spread of the disease, totaling around $98 million in funds.

May 9Some 70 people in Colorado are being monitored for bird flu due to potential exposure, and will be tested for the virus if they show any symptoms, the Colorado Department of Public Health told Forbesit was not immediately clear how or when the people were potentially exposed.

May 1The Department of Agriculture said it tested 30 grocery store ground beef products for bird flu and they all came back negative, reaffirming the meat supply is safe.

May 1The Food and Drug Administration confirmed dairy products are still safe to consume, announcing it tested grocery store samples of products like infant formula, toddler milk, sour cream and cottage cheese, and no live traces of the bird flu virus were found, although some dead remnants were found in some of the foodthough none in the baby products.

April 30Wenqing Zhang, head of the World Health Organization's Global Influenza Programme, said during a news briefing "there is a risk for cows in other countries to be getting infected," with the bird flu virus, since its commonly spread through the movement of migratory birds.

April 29The Department of Agriculture told Forbes it will begin testing ground beef samples from grocery stores in states with cow outbreaks, and test ground beef cooked at different temperatures and infected with the virus to determine if it's safe to eat.

April 24The USDA said cow-to-cow transmission may be occurring due to the cows coming into contact with raw milkand warned against humans and other animals, including pets, consuming unpasteurized milk to prevent potential infection.

April 18Jeremy Farrar, chief scientist for the World Health Organization, said during a press conference the threat of bird flu spreading between humans was a great concern, since its evolved and has increasingly been infecting mammals (on land and sea), which means it could possibly spread to humans.

April 1The CDC reported the second U.S. human case of bird flu in a Texas dairy farmer who became infected after contracting the virus from infected dairy cows, but said the person was already recovering.

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Bird flu doesnt transmit easily from person-to-person, according to the World Health Organization. Bird flu rarely affects humans, and most previous cases came from close contact with infected poultry, according to the CDC. Because human-to-human spread of bird flu poses pandemic potential, each human case is investigated to rule out this type of infection. Though none have been confirmed, there are a few global casesnone in the U.S.where human-to-human transmission of bird flu was thought to be probable, including in China, Thailand, Indonesia and Pakistan.

It is very deadly. Between January 2003 and March 28, 2024 there have been 888 human cases of bird flu infection in humans, according to a report by the World Health Organization. Of those 888 cases, 463 (52%) died. To date, only two people in the U.S. have contracted H5N1 bird flu, and they both were infected after coming into contact with sick animals. The most recent case was a dairy worker in Texas who became ill in March after interacting with sick dairy cows, though he only experienced pink eye. The first incident happened in 2022 when a person in Colorado contracted the disease from infected poultry, and fully recovered.

Raw, unpasteurized milk is unsafe to drink, but pasteurized milk is fine, according to the FDA. Bird flu has been detected in both unpasteurized and pasteurized milk, but the FDA recommends manufacturers against making and selling unpasteurized milk since theres a possibility consuming it may cause bird flu infection. However, the virus remnants in pasteurized milk have been deactivated by the heat during the pasteurization process, so this type of milk is still believed safe to consume.

The CDC warns against eating raw meat or eggs from animals confirmed or suspected of having bird flu because of the possibility of transmission. However, no human has ever been infected with bird flu from eating properly prepared and cooked meat, according to the agency. The possibility of infected meat entering the food supply is extremely low due to rigorous inspection, so properly handled and cooked meat is safe to eat, according to the USDA. To know when meat is properly cooked, whole beef cuts must be cooked to an internal temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit, ground meat must be 160 degrees and poultry must be cooked to 165 degrees. Rare and medium rare steaks fall below this temperature. Properly cooked eggs with an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit kills bacteria and viruses including bird flu, according to the CDC. It doesnt matter if they may or may not have [avian] influenza runny eggs and rare pieces of meat are never recommended, Francisco Diez-Gonzalez, director and professor for the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia, told Forbes. To play it safe, consumers should only eat fully cooked eggs and make sure the yolks are firm with no runny parts, Daisy May, veterinary surgeon with U.K.-based company Medivet, said.

Symptoms of bird flu include a fever, cough, headache, chills, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, runny nose, congestion, sore throat, nausea or vomiting, diarrhea, pink eye, muscle aches and headache. However, the CDC advises it cant be diagnosed based on symptoms alone, and laboratory testing is needed. This typically includes swabbing the nose or throat (the upper respiratory tract), or the lower respiratory tract for critically ill patients.

This years egg prices have increased as production decreased due to bird flu outbreaks among poultry, according to the USDA. A dozen large, grade A eggs in the U.S. costed around $2.99 in March, up almost a dollar from the fall. However, this price is down from a record $4.82 in January 2023, which was also spiked by bird flu outbreaks. Earlier this month, Cal-Maine Foodsthe countrys largest egg producertemporarily halted egg production after over one million egg-laying hens and chickens were killed after being infected with bird flu.

Once chickens have been infected with bird flu, farmers quickly kill them to help control the spread of the virus, since bird flu is highly contagious and fatal in poultry. The USDA pays farmers for all birds and eggs that have to be killed because of bird flu, as an incentive to responsibly try and curb the spread of the disease. The USDA has spent over $1 billion in bird flu compensation for farmers since 2022, according to the nonprofit Food & Environment Reporting Network.

The FDA has approved a few bird flu vaccines for humans. The U.S. has a stockpile of vaccines for H5N1 bird flu, but it wouldnt be enough to vaccinate all Americans if an outbreak were to happen among humans. If a human outbreak does occur, the government plans to mass produce vaccines, which can take at least six months to make enough for the entire population. Sequirs, the maker of one of the approved vaccines, expects to have 150 million vaccines ready within six months of an announcement of a human bird flu pandemic. Although there are approved vaccines for other variants designed for birds, there are none for the H5N1 variant circulating. However, the USDA began trials on H5N1 animal-specific vaccines in 2023.

As of May 14, more than 90 million poultry (primarily chickens) in 48 states have been euthanized because of bird flu since 2022, and 46 dairy cow herds across nine states have tested positive, according to data from the CDC (unlike chickens, cows appear to recover from the virus). The USDA believes wild migratory birds are the original source of the cow outbreaks that recently has experts concerned it may mutate and spread more easily in humans, though the CDC said its risk to the public remains low. Farrar called the cattle infections in the U.S. a huge concern, urging public health officials to continue closely monitoring the situation because it may evolve into transmitting in different ways. The increased number of mammal bird flu infections since 2022 could indicate that the virus is looking for new hosts, and of course, moving closer to people, Andrea Garcia, vice president of science, medicine and public health for the American Medical Association, said. More than 10 human bird flu cases were reported to the World Health Organization in 2023, and all but one survived. Bird flu has devastated bird populations, and 67 countries reported the deaths of 131 million poultry in 2022 alone. Although bird flu typically infects wild birds and poultry, its spread to other animals during the outbreak, and at least 10 countries have reported outbreaks in mammals since 2022. Around 17,400 elephant seal pups died from bird flu in Argentina in 2023, and at least 24,000 sea lions died in South America the same year. Besides cattle, bird flu has been detected in over 200 other mammalslike seals, raccoons and bearsin the U.S. since 2022. Although rare, even domestic pets like dogs and cats are susceptible to the virus, and the FDA warns against giving unpasteurized milk to cats to avoid possible transmission.

WHO Warns Threat Of Bird Flu Spreading To Humans Is Great Concern (Forbes)

One In Five Milk Samples From Across US Had Traces Of Bird Flu Virus, FDA Says (Forbes)

Can Pets Get Bird Flu? Heres What To Know (Forbes)

Avian H5N1 (Bird) Flu: Why Experts Are WorriedAnd What You Should Know (Forbes)

More here:

Well-Cooked Burgers Safe From Bird Flu Virus, Study Finds - Forbes

BALTIMORE -- What a win for the Flu Jays.

Scraping together their nine healthiest men behind Jos Berros, who woke up Monday morning still unsure if he could even pitch, the Blue Jays pulled off a 3-2 win over the Orioles that means as much to them as any so far this season.

You dont want to say that May 13 is a huge game, but this is a huge [expletive] win, manager John Schneider said. We had nine guys. We obviously had no moves to make. I couldnt be more proud of the guys that were out there tonight.

This is the second time a virus has torn through the Blue Jays clubhouse this season, but this one has been particularly harsh. Schneider sounded like he should find a recording studio before his deep voice lost its gravelly rasp. It was Daulton Varsho, the star of the show, who might be the one healthy player left. Grinning wide in front of the postgame cameras after waves of weary Blue Jays had trudged by, Varsho looked like the last survivor in a zombie movie.

I told them before the game, Theres no secrets here, boys. Youre not getting pinch-hit for, youre not getting pinch-run for. Vogey, Kirky, I hope youre feeling fast. Yeah, its May 13, but thats a huge [expletive] win.

Schneider is right. It doesnt matter if it is May 13, the Blue Jays are living in a completely different context than most teams at this point.

Now 19-22, the Blue Jays are in the basement of the AL East, staring up at this Os team that has blurred past them. Three or four seasons ago, the Blue Jays were cast as the next great powers in the division, but theyre still fighting to taste that, and given how these past few seasons have ended for Toronto, frustrations are building quicker than ever.

Thats why a win like this carries so much weight, even when fans are still bringing sweaters to ballparks. The Blue Jays cant afford to continue their skid through this series against the Os and their upcoming date with the Rays. Even with some soft spots against the White Sox on the other side of this hill, the Blue Jays have put themselves in a spot where another three-game skid could have serious, long-term implications.

Now, with a water in one shaky hand and a Gatorade in the other, the Blue Jays try to begin their climb again.

"Obviously, their record isnt toward the top like ours and some other teams are, but thats a tough team, said Orioles starter Corbin Burnes. I think you saw it tonight. Every AB felt like it was a tough out. Pitching-wise, when they line up their guy like that with their best bullpen arms, its going to be a tough game. Definitely what you sign up for when you get in division games."

Burnes was stuck facing Berros who, other than a pair of home runs surrendered to Adley Rutschman, looked like his dominant self over seven innings before Yimi Garca and Jordan Romano put on a masterful performance on the back end.

Berros only knew hed be able to pitch around 10 a.m. Monday morning when his fever broke and he began to sweat it out. There was water, fruit, painkillers and electrolytes working to rebuild him. Berros said that he felt pain "everywhere" in his body, leaving him worried that he might strain something if he threw too hard, but this man is "La Makina" for a reason.

Varsho was brilliant, robbing a home run from Ryan OHearn in the fourth and then launching one of his own in the eighth to tie the game at 2 and save the Blue Jays from another crippling loss. Surrounded by sick and tired teammates, even Varsho, typically one of this clubs most reserved personalities, was beaming with pride.

I think this showed that the nine guys in the lineup really, really care about this team, Varsho said. Up and down through that lineup, we put really good at-bats together and we won this game because of that.

Call this a character win. The Blue Jays didnt play perfect baseball, but thats not what this was about. Playing with no bench, half a bullpen and a roster running on fumes, the Blue Jays found a way to gut one out with whatever they had left.

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Daulton Varsho robs homer, hits homer in Blue Jays' comeback win - MLB.com

(NewsNation) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched a wastewater tracking dashboard Tuesday in an effort to monitor and stop the rapid spread of bird flu, which has been detected in cattle in nine states.

Over 40 cattle herds across the country have confirmed cases of the H5N1 virus, also called bird flu.

The CDC dashboard will track all influenza A viruses from 600 wastewater treatment sites around the country in order to help public health officials pinpoint where the viruses show up most aggressively.

Flu viruses that cause human disease circulate at very low levels during the summer months, so the presence of high levels of influenza A in wastewater during this time could be a reliable indicator that something unusual is going on in a particular area, reported STAT.

As of May 4, data from 189 of the agencys wastewater sampling sites showed that an influenza A virus had been detected at higher-than-average levels in sites, including some in Illinois and Alaska.

Concerns around the spread of bird flu have heightened as the virus becomes more widespread in dairy cows.

Avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, is an infection from a type of influenza virus that usually spreads in birds and other animals, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

The virus usually spreads in birds but can also infect humans if they come in contact with an infected animals body fluid, like spit, respiratory droplets or feces, the medical center said.

It can also be spread if a human breathes in small dust particles in animal habitats or gets it into their eyes, nose or mouth after touching animal body fluids. People who work with poultry, waterfowl and livestock are most vulnerable to catching the virus.

Its extremely rare for the virus to spread from one human to another, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Researchers still dont know how the recent outbreak of bird flu spread to cattle, but the leading theory is that it has to do with milking machines that could be carrying the virus, Jenna Guthmiller, an assistant professor of immunology and microbiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, said in the universitys journal.

She said high levels of the virus have been found in the cows udders, and the infection appears restricted to dairy cows, which furthers this possibility.

Influenza A has never been recorded like this in cows before. Theres the occasional cow infected, but they are not a natural host for influenza A viruses, so this is really quite shocking to the field, she said.

Bird flu has been detected in 42 cattle herds in nine states as of Tuesday, according to federal data.

These states include Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Kansas, Colorado, Idaho, Ohio, South Dakota and Texas.

Researchers at Stanford University and Emory University found high amounts of bird flu viral RNA in archived wastewater samples from three sites in northern Texas, reported STAT. The virus had been present at detectable levels since late February, one month before the state confirmed its first case of bird flu in cattle, the outlet reported.

There has been only one confirmed human case of bird flu this year, which came out of Texas.

The person had direct exposure to dairy cattle presumed to be infected with bird flu and experienced eye inflammation as their only symptom, state officials said.

The CDC is monitoring 260 people who have been exposed to infected dairy cows for flu-like symptoms. Thirty-three people have been tested for the virus, according to agency data.

The agency says the current risk of contracting the virus to the general public is low as these cases are rare in humans.

Right now, the H5N1 bird flu situation remains primarily an animal health issue. However, the CDC is watching this situation closely and taking routine preparedness and prevention measures in case this virus changes to pose a greater human health risk, it said.

According to the CDC, symptoms of bird flu in humans range from eye redness or mild flu-like upper respiratory symptoms to pneumonia, high fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, muscle or body aches, headaches, fatigue, and shortness of breath or difficulty breathing.

Less common signs and symptoms include diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, or seizures, according to the agency.

The virus has been found in high levels in the raw unpasteurized milk of infected cows.

CDC officials warned last week that people who drink raw milk could theoretically become infected if the bird flu virus comes in contact with receptors in the nose, mouth and throat or if they inhale the virus into their lungs.

The Food and Drug Administration and the CDC both have long said that raw milk is one of the riskiest foods people can consume.

Raw milk can be contaminated with harmful germs that can make you very sick, the CDC warned.

But despite those warnings, sales of raw milk have risen.

Since March 25, when the bird flu virus was confirmed in cattle for the first time, weekly sales of raw cows milk have ticked up 21% to as much as 65% compared with the same periods a year ago, according to the market research firm NielsenIQ.

States have widely varying regulations regarding raw milk, with some allowing retail sales in stores and others allowing sales only at farms.

Viral remnants have been found in samples of milk sold in grocery stores, but the FDA said those products are safe to consume because pasteurization has been confirmed to kill the virus.

Bird flu is not transmissible by eating properly prepared and cooked poultry and eggs so these are safe to eat, the FDA has said.

The chance of infected poultry or eggs entering the food chain is extremely low because of the rapid onset of symptoms in poultry as well as the safeguards USDA has in place, which include testing of flocks, and Federal inspection programs, the agency said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Bird flu is spreading, but should you be worried? - FOX 59 Indianapolis

Heres a look at medical treatment for bird flu in humans.

Q: How is bird flu treated in humans?

Available data and limited studies suggest several antiviral medications used to treat seasonal flu in people are also effective against bird flu, according to the CDC. These antivirals include oseltamivir, sold under the brand name Tamiflu.

Antiviral medicines can help reduce the severity of the illness, prevent complications and improve the chances of survival.

The key is for people with suspected or confirmed infections to take the antivirals as soon as possible. Antiviral treatment works best when started within 48 hours of the first flu symptoms.

For more serious infections, supportive care such as oxygen therapy and IV fluids may also be needed. A severe case could require a patient be placed on a breathing machine.

Historically, bird flu carries a high mortality rate in humans and complications of bird flu can include pneumonia and sepsis.

Q: Can antivirals be used to prevent an infection?

Maybe. Antivirals are sometimes given to a person soon after an exposure to a sick or dead animal in order to prevent an infection.

Q: Are Tamiflu and other flu antivirals available over the counter?

A: No. They are only available with a doctors prescription.

Q: How do the antivirals work?

Antivirals such as Tamiflu work by attacking the flu virus to keep it from multiplying in your body. This helps reduce the severity and duration of flu symptoms.

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How is bird flu treated in people? It's extremely rare - The Atlanta Journal Constitution

It's not just hunters, poultry farmers, and dairy farmers that need to be wary of the current bird flu outbreak happening in the United States.

City folk, especially those with pets, need to take care, too, scientists say.

A community science project, called the New York City Virus Hunters (NYCVH) Program, has published research that shows a small number of birds flying through the big apple over the last few years were infected with a highly contagious strain of avian influenza.

Between 2022 and 2023, volunteers collected 1,927 bird poop samples from various urban parks and green spaces scattered across the city, as well as some samples from animal rehabilitation centers.

In total, samples from six birds tested positive for the virus, including a red-tailed hawk, three Canada geese, a peregrine falcon, and a chicken.

While the presence of bird flu in New York City poses a low risk to humans and pets living there, it is not a zero-risk situation.

"It's smart to stay alert and stay away from wildlife," says Christine Marizzi, a microbiologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "This also includes preventing your pets from getting in close contact with wildlife."

New York City lies in the path of many migrating wild birds, and as Marizzi and her co-authors of the NYCVH study explain, "This brings them into contact with a highly dense population of humans and pets, providing an extensive urban animalhuman interface in which the general public may have little awareness of circulating infectious diseases."

While findings suggest the latest highly pathogenic avian influenza strains have been in New York for at least two years already, no human cases have been reported, which means a spillover event is probably rare.

That said, in Texas, a farm worker recently fell ill from the bird flu after most likely contracting it from a sick cow. That unique case is possibly the first instance of mammal-to-human transmission of avian influenza.

The World Health Organization has recorded only a small number of humans contracting the flu from birds worldwide since the current outbreak began in 2020, and only that one case in Texas is linked to a mammal.

Still, officials at WHO are taking the potential threat of mammal spillovers very seriously, as the H5N1 virus can be quite deadly if it does infect humans.

In the US alone, the bird flu outbreak has already jumped from migrating birds to wild foxes, raccoons, possums, skunks, seals, leopards, bears, mountain lions, and bobcats. Domestic cats and dogs have also fallen ill. Even cattle and goats.

Some at WHO describe the current avian flu outbreak as "a global zoonotic animal pandemic".

In one case earlier this year, a dozen cats on a dairy farm died from drinking bird flu-contaminated cow milk.

"Birds are key to finding out which influenza and other avian viruses are circulating in the New York City area, as well as important for understanding which ones can be dangerous to both other birds and humans," says Marizzi.

"And we need more eyes on the ground that's why community involvement is really critical."

The study was published in the Journal of Virology.

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Highly Pathogenic Bird Flu Detected in Birds in New York City - ScienceAlert

It's now official: the highly pathogenic bird flu A(H5N1) that's been spreading across the globe since 2020 has now been passed from a cow to a dairy farmer in the US, the first confirmed cow-to-human transmission of this virus on record.

The good news is the case was caught quickly and the virus manifested as inflammation in the eye, rather than any type of upper respiratory infection. So the chances of it having been passed on to anyone else, if human-to-human transmission is even yet possible, are lower.

What's more, after nervously watching it spread through poultry and wild animals, we've now got some solid data on how the bird flu presents in humans, which should help experts in assessing the threat to public health and in identifying more cases if and when they appear.

"It's a huge thing that the virus has jumped from birds to mammals, dairy cows in this case, and then to humans," says environmental toxicologist Steve Presley, the director of the Biological Threat Research Laboratory at Texas Tech University.

Presley and his colleagues are behind the newly published paper on this one case of cow-to-human bird flu transmission, confirmed in tests carried out in highly biosafe laboratory conditions, and shared with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The farm worker reported redness and discomfort in their right eye towards the end of March 2024. Though they hadn't been in contact with birds or poultry, they were working with cows some of whom had been showing signs of sickness.

It's only recently that this bird flu passed from poultry to livestock in the US, which was something of a surprise for experts because it was the first time ever that highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) had been detected in dairy cattle. Closer monitoring of dairy cows and those who come into contact with them will now be required.

This is only the second human case of this bird flu in the US, and human-to-human transmission hasn't been observed anywhere yet. But each time the pathogen finds a human host, it has more chances to adapt and mutate to be more infectious to our species which seems to have happened in this case.

"The virus identified in the worker's specimen had a change (PB2 E627K) that has been associated with viral adaptation to mammalian hosts and detected previously in humans and other mammals infected with HPAI A(H5N1) viruses and other avian influenza A virus subtypes," Presley and his CDC and Texas state health authority colleagues write in their paper.

The current bird flu outbreak started in 2020, and although human infection is rare, there's a high mortality rate. That means it's vital that we understand how disease is being passed between animals, and where this is happening.

We know it's now in a host of mammals, including foxes, seals, sea lions, bears, and domestic cats. With the stakes so high, and the pandemic fresh in people's minds, scientists are working overtime to try and minimize the ongoing spread of the influenza.

"[This study is] going to lay the foundation, I believe, for a lot of research in the future of how the virus is evolving," says Presley.

The research has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

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Bird Flu Jumps From Cow to Human in The US: Experts Confirm First Case - ScienceAlert

A flurry of reports about the genetics of the bird flu currently infecting U.S. cattle are offering insight into how the virus has and continues to spread. Since it first emerged in late 2020, this particular type of bird flu has infected a dizzying array of bird species, about 20 mammal species and some people (SN: 3/6/23; SN: 4/3/24). But transmission from cow to cow and from cow to person and other animals is new.

Now researchers tracing the family tree of the H5N1 avian influenza virus say that the outbreak in cattle, first reported in late March, probably started in late December 2023 (SN: 4/25/24). Cases of low milk production a symptom of infection in dairy cows in the Texas panhandle were reported in late January and early February. The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed the H5N1 diagnosis on March 25.

Since then, the virus has spread to dairy cows in at least nine U.S. states. A dairy farm worker in Texas got an eye infection, presumably from contact with sick cows. And genetic remains of the virus have been found in grocery store milk, suggesting the outbreak is widespread.

Mia Kim Torchetti, a veterinarian who directs the USDAs Diagnostic Virology Laboratory at the National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa, says she had hoped this incursion could be stamped out quickly, but as detections in birds and mammals pile up, I have rapidly lost hope.

Though all public health agencies consider the risk of the bird flu spreading widely in people to be low, the outbreak is still reminiscent of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In that case too, researchers had used genetic analyses to determine that the outbreak had started long before cases were recognized (SN: 1/29/20). And as with COVID, preliminary data are coming out in press releases and preprints without first going through peer review. That doesnt mean the results arent trustworthy, but it does suggest we are in the early days and conclusions may change. The early data also point to myriad versions of influenza viruses preceding the cattle outbreak, just as many waves of SARS-CoV-2 variants caused peak after peak of COVID cases.

We often call the avian influenza virus currently infecting cattle by its nickname, H5N1 bird flu. But its full name is highly pathogenic avian influenza A H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b genotype B3.13.

That specificity denotes the virus place in its family tree. Highly pathogenic avian influenza A H5N1 viruses which are deadly to chickens and related birds are a huge family tree of bird flu viruses. They all have the H5 form of hemagglutinin, a protein that latches onto host cells so the virus can infect them. The first highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus was found in 1996. Since then, scientists have documented the trees expansion, with some limbs dying off and others making it big. One successful limb of the tree is clade 2.3.4.4b. It has sprouted branches of its own, including genotype B3.13.

Various H5N1s have winged their way around the world after infecting wild birds. A different version crossed the Atlantic in 2014 and caused an outbreak in North American poultry in 2015, but it didnt take hold, Torchetti says. This time is different.

Clade 2.3.4.4 viruses have been infecting poultry and wild birds for several years. But the limb of the tree were dealing with now H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b emerged in Europe in October 2020 when two bird flu viruses swapped parts. It came to the Americas in 2021. It has killed more than 90 million birds in the United States since January 2022, including wild birds and commercial poultry and backyard and hobbyist flocks that were culled when the virus was detected.

Influenza viruses are all about the swap meet.

Instead of one long novel, the genetic instruction books of influenza A viruses are more like a series of eight novellas, known as gene segments. Each segment carries one or more of the 11 genes that the virus needs to infect host cells and copy itself. When people, birds or other animals are simultaneously infected with more than one type of influenza virus, the viruses may exchange segments and thus create a new type of virus. This process called reassortment has resulted in pandemic strains of flu, including the 1918 influenza pandemic and 2009s swine flu (SN: 5/22/09).

Viruses cant swap parts willy-nilly. Not all combinations are compatible with each other. But whats unusual about this clade of H5N1s is that it undergoes reassortment far more often than earlier relatives, Torchetti says.

In wild birds in the Americas, this interchange of genes has been occurring for the last almost 24 months among H5N1 and other bird flus, says Rafael Medina, a virologist at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.

Torchetti and colleagues have found more than 100 genotypes in clade 2.3.4.4b, mostly generated by reassortment. About 20 of those genotypes managed to spread among wild birds, poultry and the occasional other wild animal, the researchers reported May 1 in a preprint posted at bioRxiv.org.

One such reassortment happened shortly before the start of the cattle outbreak, scientists reported May 3 at Virological.org. Genotype B3.13 is a mix of four gene segments from the H5N1 that arrived from Europe in 2021 and four gene segments from a low pathogenicity bird flu from North America. (Low pathogenicity viruses arent usually deadly and may not produce any symptoms in infected birds.) It shows up relatively rarely among the viruses sampled in birds, Torchetti says. The B3.13 genotype is actually not common. The cattle have made it common. In fact, if predicting which virus might spillover into cattle based on prevalence in wild birds, this one was a little bit of an underdog, she says.

All the dairy cattle that have tested positive for H5N1 bird flu have this genotype, suggesting that the virus made the leap from birds to cows just one time. That probably happened in Texas toward the end of last year, Torchetti and colleagues as well as the team posting to Virological.org conclude.

Of the four gene segments the B3.13 genotype picked up, one produces an enzyme that helps copy the virus and the other makes a protein that encases the virus RNA. These specific gene segments have a role in the efficiency of virus replication, but scientists dont yet know whether that swap or other changes allowed the virus to more easily infect cattle or grow in mammalian cells, says Tavis Anderson, a research biologist at the USDA Agricultural Research Services National Animal Disease Center in Ames.

With COVID-19 variants, specific genetic changes led to new properties of the virus that made it more contagious or helped it evade the immune system (SN: 12/16/21; SN: 3/1/22). But theres no obvious indicator of that happening with the H5N1 currently spreading, Anderson says. In other words, B3.13 has been successful at replicating in cattle, but that may be more happenstance than thanks to any special properties of the virus.

No one knows exactly where, when and how the virus passed from wild birds into cattle.

Cows may have grazed on grass that wild birds carrying the virus pooped on, or the cows may have picked it up through contaminated feed or other livestock-bird interactions, Medina says. Its present at such a high levels in nature [that] the potential of spilling over into domestic animals is something that shouldnt surprise us anymore, he adds.

Once in cows, the virus started spreading from cow to cow. Theres now concern that cows could serve as mixing vessels for new varieties, much the way that pigs have been crucibles for the reassortment of avian, human and swine influenza viruses (SN: 5/14/24; SN: 2/12/10). USDA monitors influenza viruses in domestic swine and wild hogs but hasnt detected any H5 viruses in those animals, Anderson says.

Genetic signals suggest that cattle carrying the virus spread it from Texas to Kansas, Michigan and New Mexico. Theres also a genetic link suggesting that the cows from Michigan spread the virus to North Carolina, but the USDA researchers have found no record of cows moving between those states. More likely, these researchers say, cows that were moved from Texas to North Carolina spread the virus there.

Genetic analyses and shipment records confirm that H5N1 bird flu spread from Texas to other U.S. states, probably when infected dairy cattle with no symptoms were moved from state to state. The virus has been detected in nine states.

Since getting into cattle, the virus has jumped into other species including cats in Kansas and Texas that drank infected raw milk. More than half of infected cats from one north Texas dairy died within a few days of having the milk, probably because the virus went to the cats brains and nervous systems, researchers reported April 29 in Emerging Infectious Diseases.

The B3.13 genotype virus has also spilled from cows to raccoons, poultry and wild birds including blackbirds and grackle, researchers said in the Virological.org report. There were as many as five spillbacks from cattle to poultry and three from cows to wild birds, Torchetti and colleagues found. More spillbacks create more possibilities for swapping gene segments and thus more opportunities for a lethal or transmissible virus to emerge, possibly even one that could spread in people. Though agencies agree that risk to people is low, they have warned that human cases from exposure to an infected animal should be expected to pop up from time to time. And though there may be limited spread between people, such as family members, experts dont expect the virus as is to spread easily from person to person.

The Texas dairy farm worker who got an H5N1 eye infection was carrying a slightly different but closely related version of B3.13 from the one found in cows, researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and colleagues reported May 3 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The person had contact with some dairy cows showing signs of H5N1 infection that were similar to symptoms in cattle at nearby farms with confirmed cases.

A veterinarian who works at multiple dairies in the Texas panhandle encouraged the worker to get tested for H5N1. They went to a Texas Department of Health field site but didnt reveal where they worked.

The worker is one of 13 people worldwide confirmed to have been infected with a clade 2.3.4.4b virus, and the only one thought to have been infected by a mammal. Some, including the dairy farm worker and a poultry farm worker diagnosed in 2022, have had no symptoms or mild ones. Others have developed severe or critical illnesses. One person in China died in 2022. The dairy farm worker got an antiviral medication called oseltamivir and has fully recovered.

A close look at the genetic makeup of the virus that infected the dairy farm worker revealed that it carried a mutation in a gene known to help the virus replicate better in mammalian cells. But without samples from cattle or other people on the farm, researchers have little information about the evolution of the virus in cattle and whether it can pass from person to person.

Its possible that the workers virus is a slightly earlier version of the one from cows, the CDC researchers say. That suggests that after first jumping from a wild bird into a cow, the virus spread more widely in cattle than previously thought. One twig of the B3.13 branch moved from Texas to other states. Thats the one that has been identified in cows and milk. Meanwhile, close cousins may have continued to quietly infect cows including ones at the workers farm.

Lets hope any callbacks to the early days of 2020 will end here. New regulations that went into effect April 29 governing the movement of dairy cattle and other measures may help contain the virus spread in cattle. So far, it hasnt turned up in the 30 samples of ground beef the USDA has tested. And the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced May 10 that the latest round of nearly 300 samples of dairy products it tested did not contain the virus.

A wider outbreak in cattle might allow the virus to adapt to spread easily in mammals, including humans. One big thing coronavirus taught us is to never underestimate a virus, especially one that can change quickly.

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Genetic analyses of the bird flu virus unveil its evolution and potential - Science News Magazine

Bird flu is spreading into unprecedented territory in the United States, infecting scores of cows at dairy farms in nine states and jumping to one farm worker only the second confirmed case ever of a human getting infected by the H5N1 virus within the United States. Federal and local agencies are working to monitor and curtail the spread of H5N1. We asked scientists who study bird flu what we know about the virus and how it might be kept at bay or could expand into the next pandemic.

Avian flu is, as its name suggests, most commonly found in wild and farm birds worldwide, with periodic outbreaks occurring among mammals. H5N1, a particular strain of bird flu, periodically flares up more expansively; it was cited for causing more than 100 million bird deaths globally in 2022 and has been detected in dozens of species of mammals. In the United States, the virus has been detected in more than 200 different mammals, including cats, goats, and raccoons.

Most often, the virus gets transmitted when one animal eats an infected animal or comes in contact with bodily materials like feces and saliva from an infected animal, as explained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Avian flu viruses rarely infect humans. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that from 2003 to April 1, 2024, 23 countries reported a total of 889 human cases of H5N1. The most common symptoms in people, according to the CDC, include eye redness (conjunctivitis), respiratory difficulties, fever, cough, sore throat, and pneumonia.

However, more than half of the worldwide human cases (463) resulted in death. It is a highly pathogenic strain, explains Erin M. Sorrell, PhD, MSc, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Maryland. It has the ability to replicate outside the traditional locations where low-pathogenic influenza does: the intestinal tract for poultry; the upper and lower respiratory tracts in humans. The virus becomes systemic in its infection.

In the United States, the first known case of transmission to a human occurred in 2022. The CDC says that person, who worked directly with infected poultry, reported mild fatigue and recovered.

The second known case was reported in March 2024, in a dairy farm worker in Texas. The only symptom was conjunctivitis in both eyes, which receded, according to a case assessment by the CDC and Texas health agencies.

As of now, this is a low-risk situation for humans, says Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. But that could change as the virus spreads among more animals, he warns.

There are varying levels of concern among scientists who are watching the outbreak. One reason for that concern is that it has begun spreading to dairy cows animals that have a lot of close contact with humans.

Dairy cows do not normally get infected with Influenza A viruses, which is what bird flu is, says Jenna Guthmiller, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine.

The assessment of the Texas case notes that the worker reported no contact with sick or dead wild birds, but direct and close exposure to dairy cows. Some of those cows showed signs of illness that had been appearing at other dairy farms in the area, including decreased milk production, reduced appetite, lethargy, fever, and dehydration. A map from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) shows the states where the virus recently has been found.

Tests of cattle in the area where the worker got infected determined that the bovine outbreak started when a wild bird infected a cow at a Texas farm in December, perhaps through bodily secretions into the cattles food or water supply.

The concern is that cows might become hosts that spread the virus to humans, Guthmiller says. That spread can occur a number of ways, including through milk from the udders that farm workers could absorb through their eyes, nose, or mouth.

So far, the risk of humans getting infected is low, the CDC states in summaries about H5N1. But Rick Bright, PhD, former deputy assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), says that because the virus is spreading among both birds and cows on farms where people work, the opportunity for infecting a human is increasing.

In the milking parlor of a farm, people work extremely close to the cows udders, even if they are primarily guiding the milking machines.

Your face, your shoulders, your head are at the level of the cows udders, says Guthmiller, who milked cows on the dairy farm where she grew up. We are literally putting our faces right where the flu viruses are coming out.

If a milking machine gets infected with the virus from one cow, the infection can be spread to other cows and to workers who use the same machine.

The main transmission that people believe is occurring is through these milkers becoming contaminated, then moving on to the next cow, Guthmiller says. She says it would add significant time and cost for a farm to try cleaning the milkers after each cow.

It seems that this virus is transmitting [from cow to cow] before cows even show any symptoms, or their symptoms are mild, Guthmiller says. Cows cant tell us that theyre not feeling well.

Data that signal warning signs of an illness, like decreased production from a few cows, take a long time to come to the notice of managers who are monitoring hundreds or thousands of cows. Meanwhile, humans and animals continue to have close contact with infected cattle.

Cows are routinely traded between farms. Theyre going from one farm to another, which could lead to outbreaks on more farms, Guthmiller says.

In April, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) mandated that dairy cows receive a negative test for Influenza A before being transported to another state.

The poultry industry has dealt with avian influenza for years, says Sorrell at Johns Hopkins. The common responses include culling entire flocks to stop the spread.

The dairy industry has no experience with testing and responding to cows with avian flu. It is much easier, faster, and cheaper for poultry farms to buy and raise new birds than for a dairy farm to do the same with cows, Sorrell explains.

Scientists are still learning about the extent of the disease and how it is being transmitted on farms.

We dont know how many cows are infected, we dont know how many people have been exposed, says Bright, now chief executive of Bright Global Health, which focuses on responses to public health emergencies.

Getting the answers requires surveillance of animal and human populations no easy task. Disease surveillance in the United States is a fractured and uneven endeavor, carried out mostly on a voluntary basis by state and local governments with guidance and prodding from federal agencies.

Scientists who have been critical of the federal effort say surveillance should include more testing of farm workers and cattle. But for various reasons (including lack of trust in government regulators), workers and farm managers are wary of government officials conducting tests. The tests could also help discover viral mutations that might facilitate the spread of the infection among humans.

Bright worries that by the time the virus is confirmed in even a small number of people (say, 10), it will have spread so widely that an epidemic might be at hand. Some scientists speculate that more dairy farmers already have become sick, but havent been tested for H5N1.

If we havent caught the virus before it mutates to efficiently transmit person-to-person, all bets are off in terms of being able to control it, Bright says.

Farm workers could wear personal protective equipment (PPE) such as gloves, goggles, and masks but PPE is rare on dairy farms. (The infected worker in Texas reported wearing gloves.)

Most diseases of cows dont affect humans, so theres very little biosecurity on dairy farms, Guthmiller says. Were not concerned with getting something from the cows.

Plus, PPE is especially uncomfortable and inconvenient in a milking facility. Masks impede breathing and get soaked from sprayed milk. Goggles get sprayed as well and they decrease visibility. People arent wearing safety glasses, Guthmiller says. That would be an annoyance.

The CDC has asked local jurisdictions to offer PPE to dairy farms. Reports are that few farms have taken up the offers.

Pasteurized milk does not transmit H5N1 and is safe to drink, the FDA says. The conclusion is based on repeated qPCR (quantitative polymerase chain reaction) tests of pasteurized milk and other pasteurized dairy products (including cottage cheese and sour cream) that showed no live, infectious bird flu virus. The agency said that fragments of the flu were found in some samples, but that those fragments had been inactivated by the pasteurization process.

Influenza viruses are very sensitive to heat from the pasteurization process, which kills them, Sorrell says.

On the other hand, raw milk, which has not gone through that process, is not protected from the virus, Sorrell explains. A study of cats that got sick or died from H5N1 this year concluded that they had been infected by drinking unpasteurized milk from the cows on dairy farms.

The USDA conducted testsof commercially sold ground beef in states where H5N1 had been confirmed in cattle. No samples have shown traces of H5N1.

The United States has two candidate vaccines available to manufacturers for the production of a vaccine against H5N1 if an outbreak occurs among humans, according to the CDC.

Some scientists are not convinced that vaccine production could ramp up quickly enough to meet the need. Bright notes that the vaccines are produced through the decades-old process of injecting a virus into eggs, then harvesting the fluid to create an inactivated virus. Its a slow process.

Some scientists, including at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, are exploring the use of mRNA technology to speed up production of a vaccine for bird flu, in much the same way as some COVID-19 vaccines were quickly developed.

Bright and Osterholm note that adjusting vaccines to address mutations of a virus is a perpetual challenge. Anything we have in the stockpile right now may not even come close to matching up with the new virus, Osterholm says.

In early April, the CDC sent a health advisory to clinicians and state public health departments to consider the possibility of H5N1 infection in patients who develop respiratory illness or conjunctivitis, and who had been exposed to potentially sick or dead birds or livestock.

The USDA and HHS have instituted several ways to financially support farms to help curtail the spread of H5N1, including reimbursing them for PPE, for costs of testing and treating their cattle, and for lost milk production in herds affected by the virus.

The CDC is working with state and local health departments to monitor people exposed to infected cattle, and is boosting its analysis of data about Influenza A among people, including in wastewater samples and emergency room visits.

For a person who does become infected by the virus, the CDC recommends antiviral drugs that are used for influenza.

Despite these and other steps, some scientists worry that government agencies are not doing enough to monitor the often-invisible spread of H5N1. The thing that is a concern to me is the lack of [widespread] testing of animals and milk on farms, Guthmiller says. By not having a better grasp of this outbreak, it could get a lot worse for dairy cows, for our food chain, and could have the potential to jump into a pandemic.

Continued here:

How worried should we be about avian flu? Academic experts weigh in - AAMC

"Avian influenza A (H5N1)," "bird flu," and "H5N1 bird flu" all refer to an illness caused by influenza type A viruses, which primarily affect birds. H5N1 bird flu was first identified in geese in China in 1996 and in people in Hong Kong the following year. Almost 25 years later, in 2020, a new variant of H5N1, referred to as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), was detected in wild birds in Europe; it was first seen in birds in the U.S. and Canada in late 2021, and has since been detected in a variety of wild bird species in all 50 states.

(The term highly pathogenic relates to how the virus impacts birds, not necessarily humans. There is also a low pathogenic avian influenza [LPAI] that usually causes mild illness in birds and poultry; however, some LPAI strains can mutate into strains that can cause severe illness and even death in poultry.)

In February 2022, the virus began causing sporadic outbreaks of HPAI H5N1 in backyard and commercial poultry flocks in the U.S., causing serious illness and death in infected chickens. The number of outbreaks has increased and spread over timeas of May 2024, the CDC reported poultry outbreaks in 48 states.

In addition, there have been sporadic infections in mammals (including bears, bobcats, minks, mountain lions, raccoons, skunks, and others), according to the CDC. And now, as of early May, there have been outbreaks in dairy cattle in nine states.

In the two human cases in the U.S., neither involved person-to-person spreadboth people were infected after exposure to animals presumed to have bird flu. The most recent case, in April 2024, occurred in a dairy worker in Texas who became infected after being exposed to cows that were presumed to be infected, as described in a letter to the editor published in the New England Journal of Medicine in May.

The previous case, reported in April 2022 in Colorado, involved a person exposed to poultry also presumed to be infected, although this case may have been a contamination of the nasal passages with the virus as opposed to an actual infection, according to the CDC. Both cases in humans were mild, and both people recovered.

Link:

H5N1 Bird Flu: What You Need to Know - Yale Medicine

Sales of raw milk appear to be on the rise, despite years of warnings about the health risks of drinking the unpasteurized products and an outbreak of bird flu in dairy cows.

Since March 25, when the bird flu virus was confirmed in U.S. cattle for the first time, weekly sales of raw cows milk have ticked up 21% to as much as 65% compared with the same periods a year ago, according to the market research firm NielsenIQ.

That runs counter to advice from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which calls raw milk one of the riskiest foods people can consume.

Raw milk can be contaminated with harmful germs that can make you very sick, the CDC says on its website.

As of Monday, at least 42 herds in nine states are known to have cows infected with the virus known as type A H5N1, federal officials said.

The virus has been found in high levels in the raw milk of infected cows. Viral remnants have been found in samples of milk sold in grocery stores, but the FDA said those products are safe to consume because pasteurization has been confirmed to kill the virus.

Its not yet known whether live virus can be transmitted to people who consume milk that hasnt been heat-treated.

But CDC officials warned last week that people who drink raw milk could theoretically become infected if the bird flu virus comes in contact with receptors in the nose, mouth and throat or by inhaling virus into the lungs. Theres also concern that if more people are exposed to the virus, it could mutate to spread more easily in people.

States have widely varying regulations regarding raw milk, with some allowing retail sales in stores and others allowing sale only at farms. Some states allow so-called cowshares, where people pay for milk from designated animals, and some allow consumption only by farm owners, employees or non-paying guests.

The NielsenIQ figures include grocery stores and other retail outlets. They show that raw milk products account for a small fraction of overall dairy sales. About 4,100 units of raw cows milk and about 43,000 units of raw milk cheese were sold the week of May 5, for instance, according to NielsenIQ. That compares with about 66.5 million units of pasteurized cows milk and about 62 million units of pasteurized cheese.

Still, testimonies to raw milk are trending on social media sites. And Mark McAfee, owner of Raw Farm USA in Fresno, California, says he cant keep his unpasteurized products in stock.

People are seeking raw milk like crazy, he said, noting that no bird flu has been detected in his herds or in California. Anything that the FDA tells our customers to do, they do the opposite.

The surge surprises Donald Schaffner, a Rutgers University food science professor who called the trend absolutely stunning.

Food safety experts like me are just simply left shaking their heads, he said.

From 1998 to 2018, the CDC documented more than 200 illness outbreaks traced to raw milk, which sickened more than 2,600 people and hospitalized more than 225.

Raw milk is far more likely than pasteurized milk to cause illnesses and hospitalizations linked to dangerous bacteria such as campylobacter, listeria, salmonella and E. coli, research shows.

Before milk standards were adopted in 1924, about 25% of foodborne illnesses in the U.S. were related to dairy consumption, said Alex OBrien, safety and quality coordinator for the Center for Dairy Research. Now, dairy products account for about 1% of such illnesses, he said.

I liken drinking raw milk to playing Russian roulette, OBrien said. The more times people consume it, the greater the chance theyll get sick, he added.

Despite the risks, about 4.4% of U.S. adults nearly 11 million people report that they drink raw milk at least once each year, and about 1% say they consume it each week, according to a 2022 FDA study.

Bonni Gilley, 75, of Fresno, said she has raised generations of her family on raw milk and unpasteurized cream and butter because she believes its so healthy and lacks additives.

Reports of bird flu in dairy cattle have not made her think twice about drinking raw milk, Gilley said.

If anything, it is accelerating my thoughts about raw milk, she said, partly because she doesnt trust government officials.

Such views are part of a larger problem of government mistrust and a rejection of expertise, said Matthew Motta, who studies health misinformation at Boston University.

Its not that people are stupid or ignorant or that they dont know what the science is, he said. Theyre motivated to reject it on the basis of partisanship, their political ideology, their religion, their cultural values.

CDC and FDA officials didnt respond to questions about the rising popularity of raw milk.

Motta suggested that the agencies should push back with social media posts extolling the health effects of pasteurized milk.

Communicators need to make an effort to understand why people consume raw milk and try to meet them where they are, he said.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Excerpt from:

There's bird flu in US dairy cows. Raw milk drinkers aren't deterred - The Associated Press