Press "Enter" to skip to content

Tag: avian flu

Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

What we’re starting to learn about H5N1 in cows, and the risk to people

Published April 30, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: STAT
Published on:
By Helen Branswell, Megan Molteni

The H5N1 bird flu virus has been around for decades, and the damage it wreaks on chickens and other poultry is well documented. But the recent discovery that the virus has jumped into dairy cattle — whose udders seem to be where the virus either infects or migrates to — has dumbfounded scientists and agricultural authorities.

Questions for which there are pretty clear answers when it comes to birds are suddenly unsettled science in cows. How are they getting infected? Are they transmitting the virus cow to cow, or are human actions — activities that are part of the day-to-day of farming — serving as an unrecognized amplifier of viral transmission? In the interface between infected cows and humans, how might people be at risk? Does consuming milk laced with live H5 virus pose a hazard?

Continue readingWhat we’re starting to learn about H5N1 in cows, and the risk to people
Comments closed
Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

There’s never a good time to drink raw milk. But now’s a really bad time as bird flu infects cows

Published April 29, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: STAT
Published on:
By Helen Branswell

Scientists who know about the types of pathogens — E. coli and Salmonella among them — that can be transmitted in raw milk generally think drinking unpasteurized milk is a bad idea. But right now, they believe, the danger associated with raw milk may have gone to a whole new level.

“If I were in charge, for the moment I would forbid the selling of raw milk,” said Thijs Kuiken, a pathologist in the department of viroscience at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, who has done research on H5N1 and the damage it inflicts for about two decades.

Continue readingThere’s never a good time to drink raw milk. But now’s a really bad time as bird flu infects cows
Comments closed
Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

Cattle testing for H5N1 bird flu will be more limited than USDA initially announced

Published April 26, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: STAT
Published on:
By Megan Molteni

New federal rules aimed at limiting the spread of the H5N1 bird flu virus among dairy cattle go into effect Monday, but detailed guidance documents released Friday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture reveal its mandatory testing order is less stringent than initially described.

While that is easing concerns from farmers and veterinarians about the economic and logistical burden of testing, it leaves questions about how effective the testing program will be at containing additional outbreaks.

Continue readingCattle testing for H5N1 bird flu will be more limited than USDA initially announced
Comments closed
Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

Canadian officials considering ‘pre-pandemic’ vaccines as bird flu spreads through U.S. livestock

Published April 26, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: Ottawa Citizen
Published on:
By Elizabeth Payne

As H5N1 bird flu spreads rapidly through livestock and other animals across the U.S., Canadian officials are exploring stockpiling “pre-pandemic” H5N1 vaccines as a precaution.

The highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) has not been detected in any Canadian livestock and the risk of transmission for the general public is considered low, but the recent rapid spread of the virus through livestock and elsewhere in the U.S. has public health officials around the world on high alert.

Health experts are urging people not to drink raw, unpasteurized, milk and to make sure meat is thoroughly cooked, but they say the real potential risk from bird flu is not from food, but from the possibility that changes to the virus enable it to jump from animals to humans. That could create a potential influenza pandemic because human immunity to the virus is expected to be minimal.

Continue readingCanadian officials considering ‘pre-pandemic’ vaccines as bird flu spreads through U.S. livestock
Comments closed
Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

USDA Now Requiring Mandatory Testing and Reporting of HPAI in Dairy Cattle as New Data Suggests Virus Outbreak is More Widespread

Published April 24, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: AgWeb
By Tyne Morgan

USDA is now ordering all dairy cattle must be tested prior to moving the animals across state lines as a way to help stop the spread of HPAI H5N1 impacting dairy herds across the country. This comes after a lab at Ohio State University detected genetic material of the virus in 38% of retail milk samples they’ve tested, data that also suggests the current outbreak is being underreported.

In a new Federal Order announced on Tuesday, USDA says in an effort to protect the U.S. livestock industry from the threat posed by highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza, there are a number of actions being taken with federal partners to limit the spread.

Continue readingUSDA Now Requiring Mandatory Testing and Reporting of HPAI in Dairy Cattle as New Data Suggests Virus Outbreak is More Widespread
Comments closed
Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

Bird flu virus found in grocery milk as officials say supply still safe

Published April 23, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: The Washington Post
Published on:
By Lena H. Sun, Rachel Roubein, Dan Diamond

Viral fragments of bird flu have been identified in samples of milk taken from grocery store shelves in the United States, a finding that does not necessarily suggest a threat to human health but indicates the avian flu virus is more widespread among dairy herds than previously thought, according to two public health officials and a public health expert who was briefed on the issue.

Continue readingBird flu virus found in grocery milk as officials say supply still safe
Comments closed
Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

H5N1 bird flu virus particles found in pasteurized milk but FDA says commercial milk supply appears safe

Published April 23, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: STAT
Published on:
By Helen Branswell, Nicholas Florko, Megan Molteni, Rachel Cohrs Zhang

Testing conducted by the Food and Drug Administration on pasteurized commercially purchased milk has found genetic evidence of the H5N1 bird flu virus, the agency confirmed Tuesday. But the testing, done by polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, cannot distinguish between live virus or fragments of viruses that could have been killed by the pasteurization process.

The agency said it has been trying to see if it could grow virus from milk found to contain evidence of H5N1, which is the gold standard test to see if there is viable virus in a product. The lengthy statement the agency released does not explicitly say FDA laboratories were unable to find live virus in the milk samples, but it does state that its belief that commercial, pasteurized milk is safe to consume has not been altered by these findings.

Continue readingH5N1 bird flu virus particles found in pasteurized milk but FDA says commercial milk supply appears safe
Comments closed
Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

Scientists say USDA is sharing too little data too slowly on H5N1 flu

Published April 23, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: CNN
Published on:
By Brenda Goodman

When the US Department of Agriculture announced late Sunday that it had publicly posted new data from its investigation into a bird flu outbreak in cattle, scientists eagerly searched a well-known platform used globally to share the genetic sequences of viruses.

The sequences weren’t there. As of Tuesday morning, they still aren’t.

Researchers looking to track the evolution and spread of H5N1 say the information that was posted — raw data on a US server — isn’t very useful and is anything but transparent. They also say the government’s release of information in the outbreak, which was confirmed in cattle almost a month ago, has been painfully slow.

Continue readingScientists say USDA is sharing too little data too slowly on H5N1 flu
Comments closed
Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

Bird flu detected in cows in three more Michigan counties, agriculture department says

Published April 12, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: Michigan Public
Published on:
By Zena Issa

The recent detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu, has been confirmed in three additional dairy herds in Michigan counties: Ionia, Isabella, and Ottawa, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said Friday. That brought the total to four affected counties, with Montcalm County the first to detect the disease in a dairy herd about two weeks earlier.

Continue readingBird flu detected in cows in three more Michigan counties, agriculture department says
Comments closed
Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

CDC sequencing of H5N1 patient samples yields new clinical clues

Published April 3, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on:
By Lisa Schnirring

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last night released a detailed analysis of H5N1 avian flu samples taken from a patient in Texas who was exposed to sick cows, which suggests that the infection might involve the eyes but perhaps not the upper respiratory tract.

Also, when CDC scientists compared the human H5N1 samples to viruses from cattle, wild birds, and poultry, they found in the human sample a mutation with known links to host adaptation.

Continue readingCDC sequencing of H5N1 patient samples yields new clinical clues
Comments closed
Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

Tests confirm avian flu on New Mexico dairy farm; probe finds cats positive

Published April 2, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on:
By Lisa Schnirring

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service yesterday announced that tests have now confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in…

Continue readingTests confirm avian flu on New Mexico dairy farm; probe finds cats positive
Comments closed
Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

Avian flu infects person exposed to sick cows in Texas

Published April 1, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on:
By Lisa Schnirring

Federal and state health officials today reported that a person connected to a dairy farm in Texas has tested positive for H5N1 avian flu, the first known case linked to sick dairy cows and the nation’s second since the virus began circulating in wild bird and poultry in 2022.

Today’s case announcement underscores new interim guidance that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released over the weekend on preventing, detecting, and responding to avian flu infections in humans, which are very rare and mainly pose a threat to people who are exposed to sick animals or contaminated environments.

Continue readingAvian flu infects person exposed to sick cows in Texas
Comments closed