Category: Flu Virus

The bird flu has spread to dairy cows. Is is safe to drink milk? What if you have chickens in your backyard? Whats the latest news about bird flu? Photo: Getty Images.

The bird flu is here and has spread to dairy cows. Does that mean were headed for the next pandemic? Not yet.

Unless youre someone who is actively involved in raising birds or chickens, or you have close contact with infected cows, its unlikely youll be exposed, said Dr. Michelle Barron, veteran pandemic fighter and senior medical director of infection prevention and control for UCHealth

Animal handlers are usually the most at risk, said Barron, who is also a professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine on the Anschutz Medical Campus.

We dont get too worried about spillover unless we see prolonged human-to-human transmission, she said. Weve seen some cases of bird flu that have spread within the same household but doesnt necessarily spread beyond that.

While its important to monitor the virus, its not yet a threat to humans and shouldnt take up much brain space.

Barron broke down the basics and answered our burning questions about H5N1.

No. Unlike COVID-19, this strain of bird flu (H5N1) has been around for about 30 years. So far, only two human cases have been reported since an outbreak of the virus among domestic birds began in 2022, including a Colorado poultry farm worker and a Texas dairy farm worker. Both cases were mild and resulted from direct contact with sick animals.

While the virus has been around for a while, an outbreak that began in 2022 among birds has killed about 90 million domestic birds in the United States. If you paid north of $7 for a carton of eggs in 2023, this outbreak impacted your wallet. Egg prices in Colorado skyrocketed in early 2023 after an outbreak, dubbed the worst-ever resulted in the deaths of more than 6 million chickens between infections and culling efforts to reduce spread. This is the longest and deadliest outbreak of H5N1 in history, according to Barrons colleagues at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

The virus is making headlines again because it spread to mammals, including dairy cows, cats, dogs, bears, sea lions and more. As of May 2, H5N1 had been found in 36 herds of dairy cows in nine states among them, a dairy farm in northeastern Colorado.

The jump to mammals has experts watching closely, as the change gives the virus an opportunity to figure out how to replicate more efficiently in mammalian species.

Its bird flu, which is different from human flus or pig flus, Barron said. Animals can get the flu just like we do. The thing we know about this bird flu is that it mostly affects chickens, causing respiratory symptoms.

Highly pathogenic speaks to the mortality piece and the ability to cause severe disease. A highly pathogenic avian flu virus has a high rate of transmission and a high mortality rate in birds, Barron said.

Any animal has the potential to get infected, its just unclear how effective the virus will be, Barron said.

Yes, it can.

There have been a couple documented cases of transmission between birds and humans and cows and humans, but no human-to-human transmission, Barron said.

Barron said the risk of spillover to humans is very low right now.

But animal handlers should be careful.

Good protection measures include using gloves, masks and eye protection if you do have close contact with animals, but I imagine it can be a messy job, so that might not always be possible, Barron said. Weve seen some cases of bird flu that have spread within the same household in the past but doesnt necessarily spread beyond that. We dont get too concerned unless it spreads more widely.

Symptoms have been mild. Weve seen pink eye and some cold-like symptoms, Barron said.

Theres the potential for that to change, which makes everybody so nervous. Flu viruses can mix together and exchange genetics so pieces of a bird flu can get into a human flu, making the virus more transmissible to humans. Thats how pandemics often happen pieces of an animal flu get into human flus, and we dont have immunity to that new virus, she said.

Thats exactly right, Barron said. Pigs have receptors for bird flus, pig flus and human flus. The viruses dont necessarily make them sick, but they can hang out in the pigs respiratory systems and intermix. Thats where some of the genetic exchange can happen. Thats what happened in 2009 with the H1N1 swine flu pandemic.

Yes, pasteurized milk is safe to drink. The heating effects of the pasteurization process will kill the virus, and the virus fragments are not dangerous, Barron said.

Some believe raw milk has health benefits. Im in favor of pasteurization because of what I do, Barron said. I see what happens when people eat raw cheeses and drink raw milk. Im more worried about listeria, but bird flu is on that list now as well. The average person at the grocery store wont be encountering raw milk because it isnt sold there, although they may find some unpasteurized cheese.

Flu pandemics do occur every 20 years or so, the last one being swine flu in 2009, Barron said. When we get flu shots every year, were protecting against what we call antigenic drift. I like to tell people thats like if you have to write something over and over again on a chalkboard, by the time youre writing it the 20th time, there may be a spelling error.

That spelling error gets copied, and the original word eventually doesnt look the same. A pandemic is more likely to happen when there is an antigenic shift.

Thats when we have the human flu viruses mixed with the animal flu viruses that produce something our immune system doesnt have protection against. There have been other bird flu pandemics, including the 1997 H5N1 strain, the 1970s H1N1 flu strain, the 1968 H3N2 flu strain, and of course the 1918 H1N1 flu strain.

Right. It doesnt always have to be extremely deadly. I think thats something people assume. If you get this, youre going to die. And thats not necessarily true, Barron said. The term pandemic doesnt necessarily reflect the severity of the illness. It just means you have a susceptible group of people, and the virus can spread.

Unless you are working directly with animals, theres really nothing to do, Barron said Follow standard safe cooking practices, and consume pasteurized products. If you are working directly with animals, wash your hands frequently and consider wearing a mask or face shield to prevent splashing.

In some ways, no, Barron said. You cant stop wild birds, such as ducks and geese, from flying in and out and interacting with chickens. That proximity is always a risk. But on the flipside, backyard chicken operations are smaller, so the conditions and space constraints are different. The higher the volume, the higher the risk.

We have some antivirals that work against human flus, Barron said. I dont know if they would have the same effect against this bird flu strain. My suspicion is they would. But so far, the cases have been mild and really just call for observation and treating the symptoms as opposed to treating the disease.

At this point, its a completely different situation, Barron said. I think the main lesson is to be vigilant in our surveillance and paying attention to these smaller outbreaks.

I think the communication piece has also changed. Were making sure to get that information out there early so there arent all these conspiracy theories or information that is just wrong. Even if we dont know everything, were communicating better about what we do know, she said.

So, this is my personal bias and a professional hazard. I think you should always have hand sanitizer around because hands transmit so many infections, Barron said. But beyond that, no, I dont think so. Its good to be prepared for emergencies, but theres no need to stockpile.

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The bird flu has spread to dairy cows. Do you need to worry about another pandemic? - UCHealth Today

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Posted: May 14, 2024 Last Updated: 11 Hours Ago

Early tests on milk being sold in Canada found no signs of the virus that causes a dangerous form of bird flu, federal officials say.

Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) laboratories have tested 142 retail milk samples from "across Canada," reads a Tuesday statement from the agency.

To date, all samples in the CFIA's interim round of tests have been negative.

"Negative results mean that [virus] fragments are not present in milk. This supports current reports that the virus has not been detected in Canadian dairy cows," the CFIA's statement continued.

Canadian monitoring is underway as the U.S. grapples with an unprecedented outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in dairy cattle.

Cases have spread to 46 herds across nine states, and scientists south of the border suspect limited testing and surveillance could be masking the true scope of the outbreak since U.S. Food and Drug Administration tests recently found H5N1 virus particles in roughly one in five samples of milk being sold on store shelves.

Food safety specialists have been quick to note that pasteurization, a specialized heating process, works to kill a host of pathogens.

"There's no evidence showing that [H5N1] is threatening our milk supply," noted Siyun Wang, an associate professor of food, nutrition and health at the University of British Columbia.

In late April, U.S. federal officials said testing confirmed the pasteurization process worked for H5N1, ensuring pasteurized products remain safe to drink even if they contain viral fragments. (Health Canada made milk pasteurizationmandatory in 1991.)

Though the sale of raw milk is allowed in many U.S. states, there have been no reports yet of anyone getting sickfrom drinking it. A single human case of bird flu in a farm worker has been linked to the dairy cattle outbreaks in Texas,but the transmission route isn't yet clear, and the worker's only symptom was eye inflammation.

Multiple farm cats, however,have died after drinking contaminated raw milk from H5N1-infected cows.

Research on some of the earliest samples, published in the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, showed cats began showing symptoms a day or so after disease was found in cows and roughly half the infected cats died.

WATCH | Human bird flu case linked to U.S. dairy cattle outbreaks:

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In its latest statement, the CFIA said the agency understands that "Canadians may be concerned about the safety of milk and milk products" in this country, as well.

Testing on milk samples here is happening in collaboration with the CFIA, Public Health Agency of Canadaand Health Canada, using highly sensitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.

As for where exactly the samples came from in Canada and how long testing will continue CBC News is awaiting additional information from federal officials.

Scott Weese, a veterinarian and expert on infectious animal diseases at the University of Guelph, said the CFIA's early results are hopeful, suggesting there aren'twidespread infections going unreported, but they also don't guarantee the virus hasn't hit any Canadian cattle.

"It's a good start," he added. "It's a relatively small number of samples."

Alongside milk testing, the CFIA is also requiring negative test results for lactating dairy cattle being imported from the United States and "facilitating the voluntary testing of cows" that aren't presenting with any symptoms.

Weeseagreed it will be crucial to look at cattle movement and ensure no infected cows make it into Canada. But what's also important, he stressed, is wild bird surveillance alongside monitoringon Canadian farms, including financial support for farmersand clear communication on what happens if a farm does find a positive case.

That could mean the federal government goes as far as buying up all the milk from an infected premise, to ensure there are no disincentives for farmers to test their herds, Weese said: "We really should be doubling down on our prevention methods."

Wang, from the University of British Columbia, agreed ongoing testing should continue, both to ensure safety in the food supply chain and to generate more scientific data.

In the U.S., officials are ramping up surveillance, including wastewater monitoring efforts and nearly $200 million USin funding to test for H5N1, including payouts of $75 US for any farm workerwho agrees to give blood or nasal swab samples to help track the spread of this virus.

Lauren Pelley Senior Health & Medical Reporter

Lauren Pelley covers health and medical science for CBC News, including the global spread of infectious diseases, Canadian health policy, pandemic preparedness, and the crucial intersection between human health and climate change. Two-time RNAO Media Award winner for in-depth health reporting in 2020 and 2022. Contact her at: lauren.pelley@cbc.ca

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Federal tests find no signs of bird flu virus in Canadian retail milk - CBC.ca

Bird flu virus has been found in milk from infected dairy cattle. The Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, is preparing in case the current strain of avian flu circulating in the U.S. jumps to humans on a large scale. The FDA conducted a survey of 297 milk products and found viral RNA from the H5N1 bird flu in about 20% of samples.

Is such milk safe to drink? Scott Pegan, a professor of biomedical sciences in the School of Medicine at the University of California, Riverside, answers a few pressing questions about H5N1 bird flu virus showing up in milk.

An expert on emerging and persistent viruses, Pegan has partnered for several years with industry and federal agencies on research for drug discoveries and is a requested panelist and speaker at numerous forums on drug discovery, viruses, and structural biology.

The finding of 1 in 5 commercial milk samples containing fragments of the H5N1 avian flu does not currently pose any direct risks to consumers. In the U.S., commercial intrastate-sold milk is required to be pasteurized. This process is geared to kill viruses like H5N1 and bacteria that can pose a threat to human health. While killed, the remanent of viruses and bacteria in the milk do remain.

The indirect concern within the scientific and medical community is more around the increased risk of spillover to humans from animals serving as reservoirs for H5N1. Prior to the outbreak in dairy cattle, this concern principally revolved around risk of transmission to humans from wild birds or poultry. Typically, avian flu spillover infections outside of birds or poultry were observed principally in the upper respiratory track of mammals. The presence of H5N1 avian flu in the milk of these cattle shows that cattle may be able to provide a new reservoir for this virus increasing the odds of exposure to those in direct contact with the infected cattle. The more animals infected, the higher chance humans come in direct contact with the virus, which likely would lead to a greater number of human cases. The case of cattle to human transmission seen in Texas is in line with this concern. Also, the more mammals infected increases the chances the virus will adapt to other mammals, such as humans.

No, the virus cannot be spread through pasteurized milk and milk products. What is currently being reported is the detection of broken down H5N1 avian flu virus remnants, particularly the RNA of the virus. This is because the typical first line detection used for surveillance of viruses relies on the process of quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). This process only detects the presence of fragments from H5N1s RNA genome, but not necessarily intact virus capable of infection. Its akin to detecting the presence of a car engine, or transmission. You know the engine came from a car, but dont know if it came from a car capable of being a moving vehicle. Additional tests such as culturing the virus are then used to detect whether what is detected is an intact virus capable of infection.

The FDA and other research laboratories have been and are performing these additional tests. They have not reported any intact H5N1 avian flu virus in samples of commercial pasteurized milk so far and are unlikely given the pasteurization standards within the U.S.

Milk that has been pasteurized is safe and there is no current reason to avoid it or other pasteurized milk products based on the FDAs findings. However, there is a substantial risk of consuming unpasteurized milk and products of that milk. Over the past few years, there has been an increased consumer demand for these unpasteurized products. While not allowed to be sold via interstate brands, some states have relaxed local sale of these products at Farmers markets and similar outlets. Individuals may want to avoid those unpasteurized products until more information is obtained about this H5N1 avian flu outbreak in dairy cattle.

Cats have been previously reported to be susceptible to infection by various strains of Influenza A. The prevailing view has been that cats often contract these cases from close contact with human owners suffering from the flu. With humans not being a reservoir for the avian flu, feline cases of avian flu have historically been rare but present in several countries over the years countries where the avian flu has become endemic. In laboratory settings and what has been observed in wild and domesticated cats, the avian flu has been found to cause pneumonia as well as internal tissue and neurological damage with fatal outcomes.

Avian flu transmission to cats occurs through the same means as other strains, direct contact, contaminated surfaces, and ingestion. Transmission by ingestion of infected wild birds or poultry has been particularly highlighted in several feline deaths from domestic cats to large cats like tigers. The recent cattle outbreak in Texas also extended the risk of transmission through feline consumption of avian flu contaminated unpasteurized milk. Individuals should take care when coming into contact with animals consuming raw poultry and beef as well as milk that could be infected with avian flu virus.

As seen with several viruses capable of infecting multiple animals, close species-species proximity is a major factor in viruses spilling over to a new species. The avian flu outbreak in dairy cattle has created a new route for dairy workers to come into close contact with the virus. These workers should be on the lookout for infected animals and take measures to protect themselves from infection. These measures that were already implemented in several states prior to the outbreak aim to reduce risk of infection. These include use of N-95 masks, rubber boots, as well as certain types of coveralls, goggles, and hair covers that prevent individuals coming into contact with infected fluids.

Header image credit: JUN LI/iStock/Getty Images Plus.

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With H5N1 detected in dairy cows, is it safe to drink milk? - UC Riverside

The recent finding that pasteurized milk in the United States is no longer suspected of harboring the H5N1 avian influenza virus has alleviated some public health concerns. However, the persistence of the bird flu virus in the U.S. cattle population is alarming experts who fear that cattle could become a lasting reservoir for the virus.

This scenario provides the virus with more opportunities to mutate and potentially jump to humans. Research indicates that the virus can be transmitted between birds and cows, suggesting it could disseminate across extensive geographic regions.

Unlike other mammals that succumb to the virus, most cows carrying the virus do not show severe symptoms or die, making it difficult to detect infected animals without specific testing.

Additionally, a single cow might carry multiple flu viruses, raising the possibility of these viruses exchanging genetic material and creating new strains more capable of infecting humans.

Eventually the wrong combination of gene segments and mutations inevitably comes along. Whatever opportunity we may have had to nip it in the bud we lost by a really slow detection, said Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona.

The virus is not new; different forms of H5N1 have been in circulation since the 1990s, with a particularly lethal variant identified in 1996. While this variant has decimated millions of birds and affected various mammals, cows were not previously recognized as hosts until recently.

Following the discovery of H5N1 in U.S. cattle on March 25, with 36 herds in 9 states testing positive by May 7, concerns have escalated.

Every time it gets a new mammalian host species, like cows, theres more risk of human transmission and reduced human immunity, said Jessica Leibler, an environmental epidemiologist at Boston University.

Genomic analysis by the U.S. Department of Agriculture suggests that the virus transitioned from wild birds to cattle in late 2023. Thus, cows appear to be effective mixing vessels where the virus can exchange genetic material with other viruses, significantly enhancing the risk of developing a strain that can efficiently infect humans.

If you have a virus thats hopscotching back and forth between cows, humans and birds, that virus is going to have selective pressures to grow efficiently in all those species, said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan.

Gregory Gray, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at the University of Texas, pointed out the potential for H5N1 to become endemic in cows, a situation complicated by the impracticality of culling infected cattle.

The constant interaction between humans and these vast numbers of animals makes cattle an extremely concerning reservoir for bird flu.

The transmission mechanisms of the virus remain under investigation, with wild birds suspected as a primary vector. Concerns also exist about airborne transmission, which could explain the spread between dairy farms.

Current regulatory measures include mandatory testing of cows before interstate transport, which helps researchers track the viruss spread but may not halt it. However, given the potential for airborne transmission, vaccinating cattle against H5N1 might become necessary.

Current information on the transmission of the virus between humans is limited. A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on May 3rd confirmed that a dairy worker in Texas was infected, showing only mild symptoms. However, tests have not been conducted on others who live and work with this individual.

Although there have not been many reported deaths or severe cases among humans, suggesting that the virus may not be highly transmissible or lethal, exposure among farm workers may be quite common.

When you see symptomatic patients, thats the tip of the iceberg, Liebler said. She fears that the virus could remain undetected in various species for an extended period, potentially mutating and setting the stage for a future pandemic. We have an awareness now from the COVID pandemic of how devastating that could be, she added.

The experts are advocating for public health initiatives to commence testing on workers and their families to ensure any human transmission of the virus is promptly identified. H5N1 is with us. Its not a virus thats going to disappear by any means, Liebler concluded.

The continued presence of H5N1 in cattle poses significant risks, necessitating urgent and comprehensive measures to understand and mitigate its impact. As Leibler remarked, H5N1 is with us. Its not a virus thats going to disappear by any means.

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Cattle may become a permanent host for bird flu - Earth.com

A multistate outbreak of avian flu, with one in five commercial milk samples testing positive for genetic traces of the virus, has led to congressional hearings over concerns of the health risk passed to humans.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) is an infectious viral illness that spreads primarily among wild and domestic birds. But the virus that causes bird flu can sometimes jump into other animals, including dairy cows, and, in some cases, humans.

Although risk of infection remains low, a recent Senate committee hearing with a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief led to suggestions that the disease could kill in one in four Americans.

The Claim

A post on X, formerly Twitter, by user WarClandestine posted on May 10, 2024, viewed 269,000 times, included a screengrab from a news article that read "FDA says it's preparing for a bird flu pandemic in people that could kill one in four Americans."

User WarClandestine wrote: "It's starting to look like H5N1 Bird Flu may be 'Disease X.'

"The MSM have been subtly planting the idea in our heads, and now our health agencies are admitting they are preparing for the H5N1 pandemic.

"They are going to try it again...

"Mail-in ballots are their objective."

The Facts

The headline attached to this post is missing some crucial context that alters how it might be understood.

While it may be interpretated that H5N1 virus could kill 25 percent of the American population, that might only be true if everyone was infected with the disease.

As the full story published by the Daily Mail explains, FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf told a Senate Appropriations Committee last week that H5N1 mortality rates among those infected had been 25 percent in other parts of the world.

Califf told senators that the virus was mutating and that the FDA was preparing for a pandemic should it become more infectious.

"We got to have testing, got to have antivirals and we need to have a vaccine ready to go so we've been busy getting prepared for if the virus does mutate in a way that jumps into humans on a larger level," he said.

However, Califf added that the risk to public health was low, with only two human cases of H5N1 reported in the U.S., one of which was detected in Texas after exposure to dairy cattle presumed to be infected.

The data that supports a one-in-four mortality rate also deserves some scrutiny. Dr. Alastair Ward, associate professor of biodiversity and ecosystem management at the University of Leeds, told Newsweek that the statistic was thought to have come from the outbreak of H5N1 in Chinese poultry in the 1990s and had "nothing to do with the current outbreak among U.S. cows, which is a different reassortant of the virus."

"Twenty-five percent was not the population mortality rate, it was the mortality rate of Chinese poultry workersplucking, gutting and butchering in marketswho showed symptoms of infection during the early 1990s H5N1 outbreak in China, i.e. of those people at very high risk of exposure and who fell ill with high path avian flu, a quarter of them died.

"We have no idea what number or proportion of 1990s Chinese poultry workers were infected but showed minor or no symptoms or were challenged but did not become infected.

"There will have been some within each of these categories, so the mortality rate among 1990s Chinese poultry workers was almost certainly lower than 25 percent, and the Chinese population mortality rate will have been much, much, much lower."

Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) released data showing that between January 1, 2003, and March 28, 2024, among 254 cases of human H5N1 infection reported in Vietnam, China, Cambodia and Laos, 141 were fatal, meaning the case fatality rate was 56 percent.

However, as Ward told Newsweek,it was likely to have only been among those who presented with symptoms, noting that small sample sizes would create large proportional differences.

"People who don't suffer illness or who suffer mild symptoms tend to stay away from doctors so don't feature in these stats," he said.

"The 254 people presenting with avian flu symptoms over this time do not constitute a random or representative sample of the global human population or even the population exposed to H5N1 during that outbreak, so it is not an estimate of the mortality rate, it's the proportion of a small sample of ill people that died with H5N1 over several years.

"Past human cases have almost exclusively been among those who lived and/or worked very closely with poultry, and usually in situations where hygiene standards were substantially different to those in the U.S. and Europe."

A spokesperson for the FDA provided further data from WHO for 2003-2024 that showed among 888 cases reported to it, 463 of those had died.

The post on X by WarClandestine also hinted at a conspiracy theory based around "Disease X," which is a placeholder name for an unknown virus that could infect humans, first mooted by the World Health Organization.

"Disease X represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease," WHO said on its website.

The disease could come about in many ways, including as a result of biological warfare or the sudden spread of a virus similar to the "Spanish flu" that affected large parts of the world and is thought to have killed at least 40 million people in 1918-1919.

The WHO also considered adding a number of other diseases to its list of global threats, including arenaviral hemorrhagic fevers, highly pathogenic coronaviral diseases and Chikungunya, a viral disease transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes.

However, the name "Disease X" has been misused to claim that it is a real disease being concocted by global leaders to enforce political change around the world, a theory based on no evidence and a fundamental misunderstanding of how the term was coined.

The Ruling

Needs Context.

The claim that one in four Americans could die from H5N1 is somewhat misleading. FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said during a recent Senate hearing that some data shows H5N1 has a one in four mortality rate among those infected. It is not a projection of how many Americans will die should it spread.

The data it is based on is also thought to be old, from infections among Chinese poultry workers in the 1990s.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Read more:

Fact Check: Could Bird Flu Kill One in Four Americans? - Newsweek

US news

H5N1 has been found in commercially available milk but gaps in testing of cattle and humans are hampering effort to stop virus

Sun 12 May 2024 07.00 EDT

Serious gaps in testing animals and people could be obscuring the true rate of avian influenza cases in the US and make it difficult to understand how the H5N1 virus is spreading and how to stop it, experts say.

Facing reluctance from farms to test workers and animals, scientists are now turning to experimental studies to understand how H5N1, a highly pathogenic bird flu, is spreading through cows and on to other farms.

The bird flu count among dairy herds in the US continues rising, but infections are more widespread than previously realized, as testing in commercially available milk reveals.

While the risk to people is still low, that could change as the virus mutates, so its continued circulation remains a big concern.

This epizootic has caught people tremendously by surprise, said Gregory Gray, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Scientists knew cows could be infected with all four different influenza types, but weve never seen this amount of infection, nor have we seen it move so fast.

Understanding how the virus moves is essential to stopping it but testing, which can reveal such transmission patterns, has been slow and inadequate.

A dairy worker in Texas, the only person confirmed to have H5N1 in this outbreak and the first documented case of mammal-to-human transmission of the virus, sought out a test at a local health department, a recent study shows. The worker reported a form of conjunctivitis that caused their eyes to hemorrhage and turn red.

Yet after the positive test, officials were not able to test any other workers or animals at the farm where the person worked. That makes it difficult for scientists to understand how the virus spread to the worker and whether it has affected other people.

The people that we need to get at most now are the other folks on these farms that are getting exposed to huge amounts of virus in these environments, said Richard Webby, a virologist at St Jude childrens research hospitals department of infectious diseases. Thats not easy, and its not happening at a scope that we probably need.

Only about two dozen people have been tested for H5N1 in this entire outbreak. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not recommend testing unless symptoms develop after close contact with animals even if someone has milked a sick cow or lives with an infected person.

The lack of testing could be obscuring the true rate of transmission to people, if workers and their close contacts are not experiencing symptoms severe enough, or if they are unable or unwilling, to seek medical care.

Barb Petersen, the veterinarian who discovered the first case of H5N1 in Texas cows, said dairy workers were also sick some of them sick enough to miss work, which was very unusual, she said but they were not tested for the highly pathogenic avian influenza.

Other types of cows, including beef cattle and calves, seem to be going untested, despite evidence that the virus can be asymptomatic in cattle.

We dont know when this thing moves in the beef cattle, and no ones really talking about that, Gray said.

And it seems that pigs, which play a role in sparking human influenza epidemics, are not being monitored any more than usual, despite evidence that avian flu has spread from cows to chicken farms nearby and could spread in a similar fashion to swine farms.

Pigs are a concern because they can mix animal and human flu viruses, which could result in variants that are more transmissible or virulent among people.

Cows may have similar abilities, according to early research co-authored by Webby. Like pigs, cows have receptors for avian and human influenza, and might potentially make a hybrid virus that could affect humans more, Webby said.

But, he cautioned, the animals would have to be infected with both types of influenza at the same time, which is relatively rare especially at this time of year, when human influenza rates are low. Its theoretically possible, but perhaps unlikely but at the same time, if we have this virus continuing to circulate, it does increase the chances, even if those chances are really small.

Another challenge for scientists: the genomic sequences released thus far by US agencies were stripped of key data like when and where they were collected making it very difficult to track whats happening and how the virus is evolving, scientists say. This has global implications for understanding and tracking outbreaks among livestock.

The animal agriculture industry has largely resisted any attempts to test, with one Texas agriculture official telling the Biden administration to back off, in part because of mistrust of federal agencies among farmers.

Another problem is that cow farmers dont receive compensation for financial losses from lower milk yields or not being able to export cows to other markets, Gray said.

Theyre really concerned that if they wave the flag weve got the virus here, theyll be penalized either economically or through disruptions to their operating procedures, he said. We have to find a way to overcome that and protect the farms.

He points to poultry farms, which do have a federal compensation scheme for culling infected birds and which also monitor the poultry much more closely for infectious diseases, which allows them to take fast action to address outbreaks like these.

Scientists like Gray are also collaborating with farm veterinarians to test animals under nondisclosure agreements to avoid identifying farms.

And some of those veterinarians are conducting their own studies on the farms to understand transmission, Gray said. For instance, is the virus being moved through the milking procedure from cow to cow, is the virus aerosolized, is the virus moving from cow to cow through other means?

There are also questions about the extent to which people may be unwittingly spreading the virus, he said.

Some scientists, unable to track the transmission currently happening on farms, are turning to the experimental infection of healthy cows. The results of these experiments should come in the next few weeks, Webby said.

Is there anything actually different about this particular virus itself? Does it have properties that the other H5 circulating in wild birds doesnt? he asked. He is hoping that outbreaks like these are rare among cows, but understanding how they happen and then how they spread is critical to responding now and in the future.

Lets say we do eradicate this. Whats the chance of it happening again? Webby asked. If we can figure out how its moving, then I think we can absolutely think about eradicating this virus from cows.

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Lack of bird flu testing may be hiding true spread of virus on US farms - The Guardian US

Federal authorities on Friday pledged nearly $200 million in an attempt to control the spread of bird flu on dairy farms. Some of that money would go directly to farms to help them reduce the spread of the virus, cover veterinary costs and compensate farmers whove lost milk because of sick cows.

The money is also intended to encourage testing of both dairy cows and the people who work closely with them a key step, experts said, in understanding the true scope of bird flu, also known as H5N1, across the U.S.

Incentives work very well to get a better understanding of epidemiology, said Katelyn Jetelina, who tracks illnesses for a website called Your Local Epidemiologist.

Right now, there is no requirement for dairy cows to be tested unless theyre being moved across state lines, according to a recent federal order. Otherwise, the decision is left to farmers.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said that since that federal order went into effect at the end of April, the National Animal Health Laboratory Network reported 905 tests for bird flu among cattle. Among those, 112 were positive.

(During a press briefing Friday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said only around 80 cows had been tested since the order went into effect. A USDA spokesperson later clarified that since the order went into effect, an additional 80 tests have been conducted daily.)

As of Friday, 42 herds in nine states Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota, Ohio and Texas had been affected by the outbreak.

Those 42 family farm operations are suffering, and we want to make sure were there to provide help and assistance, Vilsack said.

The USDA will offer $98 million to affected farms over the next four months, which could equate to as much as $28,000 per farm, Vilsack said.

Jetelina called the program a fantastic step but way overdue. The outbreak among dairy cattle was first announced at the end of March.

The incentive program is a huge leap forward, especially for smaller farms, said Dr. Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. Its likely not enough, however, for larger farms that could lose upward of $3 million with a bird flu outbreak, he said.

This is not going to get fixed tomorrow, he said. But incentives like this lay the groundwork for it to be better, and it also gives us precedent if and when we deal with the next large outbreak.

The Department of Health and Human Services will put in an additional $101 million to ramp up monitoring of people who have been exposed to sick animals, contact tracing and genetic testing of the virus to watch for mutations.

Part of those funds will also go toward wastewater surveillance of the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to start posting that data publicly as early as Monday, a CDC spokesperson told NBC News.

A separate monitoring system called WastewaterSCAN, which tracks 191 sites in 41 states, is showing high levels of influenza A in the Midwest and Northeast. Thats unusual for mid-May, well past the typical flu season. The bird flu is a type of influenza A virus.

Those findings prompted the WastewaterSCAN researchers to look more closely at wastewater sites in Texas, where its believed the bird flu outbreak began.

Further testing indicated that, at the sites in Texas, what we were seeing was most likely attributable to an H5 influenza virus, said Marlene Wolfe, an assistant professor of environmental health at Emory University and program director forWastewaterSCAN.

While wastewater testing can detect influenza A, it cant distinguish whether the virus came from a human or an animal, according to the CDC.

The findings, coupled with recent announcements that fragments of the bird flu virus had been detected in 1 in 5 samples of pasteurized milk, indicate that bird flu may be spreading undetected. Further testing confirmed that the milk, along with other pasteurized dairy products including sour cream and cottage cheese, were safe to eat or drink.

Just one person, a dairy worker in Texas, has tested positive for the virus during the current outbreak. His illness was mild, and his only symptom was pinkeye.

But experts have suggested that other cases could be going undetected. Fridays incentives announcement included a $75 payment to any farm worker who agrees to give blood and nasal swab samples to the CDC.

Meanwhile, experts said the risk of bird flu spreading among the general public remains low.

Stay aware, but only let it take up a small part of your brain, Jetelina said. There is a good probability that this will fizzle away.

Erika Edwards is a health and medical news writer and reporter for NBC News and "TODAY."

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Bird flu cow-testing financial incentive introduced for U.S. farmers - NBC News

Even as it has become increasingly clear that the bird flu outbreak on the nations dairy farms began months earlier and is probably much more widespread than previously thought, federal authorities have emphasized that the virus poses little risk to humans.

Yet there is a group of people who are at high risk for infection: the estimated 100,000 men and women who work on those farms. There has been no widespread testing to see how many may be infected. None have been vaccinated against bird flu.

That leaves the workers and their families vulnerable to a poorly tracked pathogen. And it poses broader public health risks. If the virus were to find its way into the wider population, experts say, dairy workers would be a likely route.

We have no idea if this virus is going to evolve to become a pandemic strain, but we know today that farmworkers are being exposed, and we have good reasons to think that they are getting sick, said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health.

A majority of dairy farmworkers are Spanish-speaking immigrants, often undocumented, who may not have paid sick leave or be protected by occupational safety laws. They may lack access to medical providers, and their employers can be intolerant of absences.

This sector of workers is not only at the very, very highest risk because theyre having that direct, intimate contact with discharge, raw milk, with infected animals, but theyre also at the very, very highest level of risk in terms of having no social safety net, said Elizabeth Strater, an organizer with United Farm Workers.

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How Poor Tracking of Bird Flu Leaves Dairy Workers at Risk - The New York Times

A cow drinks water from a trough at a dairy farm. At least one Colorado dairy farm was hit by highly pathogenic avian influenza, though the lack of testing means that no one knows how widespread the virus is.

The bird flu has arrived in Colorado, and while it doesnt represent anywhere near the threat that COVID-19 did at the beginning of the pandemic, people should take some precautions with animals that could carry it, experts say.

The Denver Post compiled the latest information on H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza, the bird flu virus that has jumped to cows in at least nine states including Colorado and has infected a small number of people.

While the virus at this point is only a threat to people who work with animals, scientists are concerned that it could mutate enough to spread between people, possibly sparking another pandemic.

If you want more in-depth information, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Colorado Department of Agriculture will hold a virtual town hall on avian flu at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at tiny.cc/birdfluwebinar.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza had reached a dairy cow herd in northeast Colorado as of late April. The state also is investigating a second herd, but hasnt released any information while waiting for testing results.

Cows typically dont get influenza A viruses, the family that includes H5N1, so it was a shock to find they were infected, said Jenna Guthmiller, an assistant professor of immunology and microbiology at the University of Colorados Anschutz Medical Campus

At least 36 herds across nine states have tested positive, but without routine testing, the virus could be spreading undetected in others.

Over the last two years, some Colorado poultry operations have had to cull their birds (killing and properly disposing of all members of an infected flock to avoid spreading the virus to other farms), and the state health department has found infected wild birds or mammals in more than half of Colorados counties. You can reasonably assume that birds in your county also are carrying the virus, even if testing hasnt found it.

Right now, the country doesnt have a clear picture of how widely the virus has spread, particularly among cattle and people who work with them, Guthmiller said. Cows often have mild symptoms and may be able to spread the virus even if theyre asymptomatic, she said.

The major concern right now is still in dairy farm workers, she said.

The name refers to the high mortality rate among poultry. It doesnt appear to make cows severely ill, however, and we dont know how bad it could be for people.

A separate subgroup of H5 avian influenza, found in Asia in the 1990s, had an official human mortality rate of about 50%. The subgroup thats spreading now has caused 13 confirmed human cases worldwide and one death, though given the lack of testing, other cases may have flown under the radar, Guthmiller said.(Flu viruses are named based on two types of proteins on their surfaces. The current subgroup and the high-mortality one in Asia share one major protein H5 but have different forms of the second protein.)

So far, we only know of two human cases in the current U.S. outbreak: a poultry worker in Colorado in 2022 and a dairy worker in Texas this year. Both had mild symptoms and recovered.

So far, the current avian flu hasnt picked up mutations that would allow it to spread efficiently between humans in the way that the seasonal flu does. As it infects more mammals, however, it gets additional chances to adapt to bodies that are closer to our own. Scientists are watching for infections in pigs, in particular, because they can carry multiple types of flu viruses, which could swap genes and grant each other new abilities.

The concern is that if H5N1 spilled over to humans, it could cause a pandemic and stay with us as another seasonal flu virus, Guthmiller said.

Farmers are required to dispose of eggs and meat from infected birds. Since the virus is so severe in poultry, the odds of products slipping through because no one realized the birds were sick are extremely low.

Scientists found fragments of the bird flu virus in milk from grocery stores, but couldnt grow any live viruses, meaning the process of heating the milk to kill bacteria also killed the virus. Other products made with pasteurized milk also are safe to eat.

Raw milk might not be safe, however, because it hasnt undergone pasteurization to kill viruses and bacteria. (This made drinking it a risky decision even before the avian flu started to infect cows.) Cats in Texas died of neurological symptoms related to bird-flu infection after drinking raw milk, though researchers couldnt rule out that they could have caught the virus by eating wild birds.

Colorado doesnt allow sales of raw milk, though people in cowshare programs can receive it from the cow they partially own.

A sampling of ground beef from animals in states with avian influenza dairy outbreaks didnt find the virus in meat, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, though other studies are ongoing to find out if the virus could get into muscle tissue in cattle.

Veterinarians in Colorado have to report flu-like illnesses in cattle, and can request testing of herds.

The federal government also requires testing a sample of cows when moving a herd of lactating animals between states. It exempts calves and adult cows not involved in milk production. (The current leading theory is that the virus is spreading between cows during the milking process.)

On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked state health departments to work on distributing personal protective equipment to dairy and poultry farms, as well as slaughterhouses. Workers arent required to wear masks and other protection, however.

States and the federal government could do a better job working with people whom farmers trust, such as local veterinarians, to increase testing, Guthmiller said. Right now, farmers dont see a reason to invite attention, because H5N1 isnt causing significant harm to their herds, she said.

Theres the presumption its controlled, she said.

The Colorado Department of Agriculture advises people who own domestic birds to keep them away from wild birds, and report any unusual illnesses or deaths.

The agency also said people and pets should avoid contact with sick or dead birds. If you have to remove a dead bird from your property, wear gloves and a mask, and place the bird in two bags. Then immediately throw out the bird, mask and gloves, and thoroughly wash your hands.

People who spend time around cattle or raw milk should monitor themselves for flu-like symptoms or eye inflammation, Guthmiller said. Most clinics dont have the ability to test for specific influenza subtypes, so people with risk factors need to tell them so they can send the sample to a lab that does, she said.

You should go to a clinic to be seen and report these risk factors, she said.

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Bird flu has spread to cows in Colorado. Is avian influenza a threat? We answer your questions. - The Denver Post

The age of extinction

Virus sent to high-security facility so that experts can examine the potential risks to people and livestock

Sat 11 May 2024 11.08 EDT

Avian flu typically spreads by infecting wild birds and moving along migration routes, but the virus currently running rampant in the US is about to be transported across the Atlantic by plane.

This category A pathogen, which is now spreading among cows in the US, is being sent to a high-security laboratory in the UK so that experts can better understand the potential risks to people and livestock.

Its due to be shipped any day now, said Dr Ashley Banyard, a virologist at the UKs Animal and Plant Health Agency (Apha) lab in Weybridge, Surrey, last week. I saw the packaging instructions in my email this morning. It is essential this virus does not escape into the wider environment: globally, H5N1 has killed millions of wild birds and thousands of mammals.

Although avian flu is widespread in the UK, the specific genome being imported for testing is the only one known to infect cattle, and the US is the only place where it has been recorded. We really want to know if theres something special about this particular genotype thats emerged, said Banyard.

It is being shipped in a small amount of liquid within three tubes, with dry ice between layers a bit like a Russian doll. A special courier costs hundreds of pounds to safely transport it door to door.

The virus made headlines in the US in March after it was detected in dairy cows in Texas and Kansas following widespread reports of a loss of milk production. Since then it has been reported across nine US states, with no sign of slowing. It has also been detected in cats and a human, and is likely to have been spreading for months before it was detected.

Were hoping that the American situation will be controlled and be limited further, and then we wont see this virus in cattle going forward, but you just never know with these things, said Banyard.

Everyone who works at the Weybridge lab is counter-terrorism checked, and there are multiple levels of locked doors and key cards. I know it sounds kind of James Bondesque but it absolutely isnt theyre just laboratories, he said.

From Spanish mink to polar bears in the Arctic and seals in the Antarctic, a range of mammals have been killed by the virus, generally through eating infected meat.

The US outbreak has sparked alarm because it is the first time bird flu has been detected in a cow, and it is not clear how it got there. The fact the virus can spread in dairy herds has led to enormous concern it could spread more easily in people, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Its director general said last week the virus does not show signs of having adapted to spread human-to-human.

A pre-peer review paper published this month is the first to argue the virus came into dairy cows via a single introduction from a wild bird, and that it is transmitting cow to cow. It is currently believed that milk is the primary vector (perhaps via milking equipment) and symptoms are mild, including a drop in milk production and loss of appetite.

In the US, dairy cows being moved across states must now be tested for bird flu. Health officials say milk is fine to drink, provided it is pasteurised, a process which is designed to kill bacteria and viruses.

There are concerns cows may have been infected in other countries where testing is not being done, although Banyard is confident it hasnt already happened in the UK. Weve had more than 380 infected premises across the UK in the past two and a half to three years and have not seen any evidence of these symptoms in cattle, he said.

Very few livestock animals are brought in from the US, and it is rare for migratory birds to bring bird flu viruses from the US to Europe because it is not a common migration route. In the three years of this H5N1 outbreak, not a single north American strain has been found in Europe. And everyone in Europe has been looking, said Prof Ian Brown, a virologist from the Pirbright Institute in Surrey.

Brown said it was a surprise to see it crop up in dairy cows It shows us it can get into niches you wouldnt expect but this marks another chapter in the evolution of H5N1, which has continually surprised researchers with the number of animals it has been able to infect (at least 26 species of mammal have been infected). These are the early stages of an epidemiological investigation.

Scientists need to understand bird flus potential risks to humans. All international eyes are on this, said Brown. In order for the virus to start spreading between humans, it would have to make some genetic changes that mean it can replicate in human cells.

Brown said people who work in close contact with dairy cattle should be monitored, as they are the highest risk more than 200 people are being monitored in the US. We have to be watchful. We have to make sure we are on top of tracking this so that if the risk changes for humans we spot it early. Thats very important.

If bird flu did begin to spread between humans, it would be a cause for significant concern because the H5N1 virus has a high mortality rate. From 2003 to 2024, 889 cases were reported in 23 countries, and more than half of those people died, according to WHO. So pre-pandemic vaccines have already been stockpiled.

The virus is already circulating in ways it hasnt before. Prof Rowland Kao, an epidemiologist at the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh, said: The fact that were throwing another animal into the mix could potentially shift it around it creates another layer of unpredictability.

It is the first time an influenza A virus has been found in cattle, which could create threats to wildlife, and livestock and potentially humans that we have not experienced before.

Monitoring and sharing data such as testing the US genome in UK labs is crucial to keeping on top of any potential outbreak. We are far away from a human pandemic, Kao said. But it does bring things a step closer.

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