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Third person infected in U.S. bird flu outbreak — but with a new symptom
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Bird flu is still spreading in dairy cattle — scientists are concerned
MAY 28, 20243:50 AM ET
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Bird flu is still spreading in dairy cattle. Scientists say the recent news of a second human case, detected in Michigan, underscores the need to stay vigilant.
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A MARTÍNEZ, BYLINE: Bird flu is still here, spreading in dairy cattle. And scientists say that recent news of a second human case underscores the need to stay vigilant. That was detected last week in Michigan. The person has since recovered. So where do things stand at this point in the outbreak? NPR’s Will Stone joins us now to bring us up to date. Will, this human case – anything new there?
WILL STONE, BYLINE: It’s a similar situation as in that first human case, which was found in early April in Texas. Like that one, the infection turned up in a dairy worker, this time in Michigan. That makes sense, because these workers do have the highest risk of exposure given their close contact with dairy cattle. The person’s only symptom was conjunctivitis, also known as pink eye. Interestingly, they had to swab the person’s eye to get a positive sample. It did not come up positive when they did their nose.
MARTÍNEZ: OK, so how concerned should we all be?
STONE: This wasn’t all that big a surprise. As scientists I’ve spoken with have said, they suspected there are other human cases flying under the radar because these tend to be mild. Still, I would say it’s a wake-up call. The outbreak in cattle has not just fizzled out yet. The CDC stressed that it found this human case because they’ve ramped up their surveillance. Dr. Diego Diel is a virologist at Cornell. He says it’s quite possible this worker got infected from being splashed or somehow exposed to infected milk. But the truth is, A, there are still many unknowns, including exactly how this is spreading between cows. The theory has been it’s mostly occurring during the milking process, and new research also shows that raw milk can infect mice in the lab. Here’s Diel on the situation.
DIEGO DIEL: I think we are in the middle of a black box, to be honest with you. I don’t think we know the real dimension of the infection, how widespread it is. I suspect that we are not testing enough to really assess what the real scenario is.
STONE: Federal agencies have poured a bunch of money into trying to get more buy-in from dairy farms, so there can be more testing and studies on the ground. So far, though, it seems like that is still pretty challenging. Not that many humans have been tested, and officials with the CDC have said they’d like to be doing more, but cooperation has been, quote, “variable.”
MARTÍNEZ: All right. So what are scientists focusing on, then?
STONE: They’re paying attention to whether any known or troubling mutations have popped up. Scientists have a sense of what some of the alarming ones would be, for example, changes that would indicate the virus is getting better at binding to receptors in our upper airways. We have not seen that yet. Troy Sutton at Penn State University is studying how bird flu is spreading among mammals. He recently published findings showing there was a low level of airborne transmission between ferrets in the lab. But this was an older form of the virus, the one that was spreading in Europe at a mink farm, and that was before the virus came to North America and underwent some changes. So while that was not the same virus, Sutton says it is still notable because they had not really seen this before with this particular version.
TROY SUTTON: These viruses seem to be getting better at infecting mammals. Does that mean they’re getting better at infecting humans? We can’t make that statement. But, you know, definitely the more a virus seems to be able to infect mammals and cross the species barrier, the more concerned we should be.
STONE: Sutton says the fact is, scientists don’t fully understand all the implications of the changes in this virus. But to be clear, the CDC says right now the risk to the general public is still low.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. Good to know. That’s NPR’s Will Stone. Will, thanks.
STONE: Thank you.
First Bird Flu Detected in Beef; Human Anti-Pandemic Vaccines in Development
May 27, 2024
USDA inspections of 96 culled dairy cows turned up one positive sample; the beef would not have been allowed into the food supply.
There were two updates on avian influenza over the long weekend. USDA detected bird flu in beef for the first time, but the meat was not allowed to enter the nation’s food supply. And media reports said U.S and European officials were stepping up development of vaccines that could prevent avian influenza from becoming a pandemic.
USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), which has been monitoring beef tissue from 96 culled and condemned dairy cows, said “viral particles were detected in tissue samples, including muscle, from one cow.
“Meat from condemned cows [presumably ones that show signs of any disease] is prohibited from entering the food supply … No meat from these dairy cattle entered the food supply.”
The 96 dairy cows were diverted from the supply because federal inspectors noticed signs of illness during routine inspections of carcasses at meat processing plants. Bird flu was found in only one of those cows.
The agency also has been testing ground beef for bird flu at retail stores, but it has yet to find any sign of the virus. Even if it were to get through, the Agriculture Dept. says cooking beef to an internal temperature of 165 degrees will kill it just as cooking kills E. coli and other viruses.
Back to the vaccine: Reuters reported U.S officials were “moving bulk vaccine from CSL Seqirus that closely matches the current virus into finished shots that could provide 4.8 million doses of vaccine.”
European health officials told Reuters they also were in talks to acquire CSL’s prepandemic vaccine. Canadian health officials said they have met with GSK, maker of Canada’s seasonal flu shots, to discuss acquiring and manufacturing a prepandemic bird flu vaccine once its seasonal flu production capacity is freed up. Other countries, including the UK, are discussing how to proceed on prepandemic vaccines.
Missouri wants to increase its permit prices for hunting – fishing – and trapping
Steve Scott1 day ago
The Missouri Conservation Commission has given initial approval to a proposal that would slightly boost permit prices for hunting, fishing, and trapping.
The Department of Conservation says to keep pace with continually rising costs, the agency is proposing to focus on the prices of nonresident permits.
Under the plan, permits for migratory bird hunting, trout fishing, and daily fishing would rise slightly for residents and nonresidents.
The department’s online public comment period about the price adjustments will be from July 2 to August 1.
The state Conservation Commission plans to give final consideration to the proposed price changes during its September meeting.
If approved, the changes would begin next January.
Missouri issues nearly 2.6 million hunting, fishing, and trapping permits each year.
US Has Worst Bird Flu Outbreak in Two Years at Iowa Egg Farm
Michael Hirtzer
Tue, May 28, 2024, 3:18 PM PDT1 min read
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-records-worst-bird-flu-211402973.html
(Bloomberg) — Deadly bird flu was detected in an egg-laying chicken flock in Iowa, affecting 4.2 million birds in the biggest US outbreak since 2022.
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The detection is the first since December in Iowa, which is the top US egg producer with nearly 12% of the country’s layer hens, according to US Department of Agriculture data. The findings come as the virus has been infecting dairy cows across the US.
Read More: Bird Flu More Widespread in Sewage Than Tests From Farms Show
The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship said the site is in Sioux County, according to a statement Tuesday.
It’s the worst outbreak since more than 5 million birds were affected at a farm in Iowa’s Osceola County in March 2022, when the virus was first spreading in the country. Prices for eggs surged to a record as tens of millions of birds were killed to slow the spread.
Alpacas test positive for H5N1 bird flu for the first time
By Brenda Goodman, CNN
1 minute read
Published 4:10 PM EDT, Tue May 28, 2024
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/28/health/alpacas-h5n1-bird-flu/index.html
Scientists have closely watched the H5N1 virus for roughly two decades. CDC/NIAIDCNN —
Highly pathogenic avian influenza, sometimes called bird flu, has been confirmed in alpacas for the first time, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories.
The animals that tested positive were on a farm in Idaho where poultry had tested positive for the virus and were culled in May. The alpacas tested positive May 16, the USDA said in a news release.
The USDA noted that the finding of other infected animals on the same farm as the infected birds wasn’t necessarily a surprise.
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The gene sequence of viruses isolated from the alpacas shows that it is closely related to the H5N1 viruses that are currently circulating in dairy cattle.
There are more than 264,000 alpacas registered in the US, according to the Alpaca Owners Association.
Scientists have closely watched the H5N1 virus for roughly two decades. For most of that time, it has primarily affected birds. In the past two years, however, the virus has been infecting a wider variety of wild and farmed mammals, raising concern that it could be moving closer to becoming a pathogen that can transmit easily between people.
Human cases have been reported sporadically around the globe over the years, including three in the US, but no person-to-person transmission has been reported in the ongoing US cattle outbreak.
