Bird Flu Spreads to Dairy Cows

A extremely deadly type of avian influenza, or chicken flu, has been confirmed in U.S. cattle in Texas and Kansas, the Department of Agriculture introduced on Monday.

It is the primary time that cows contaminated with the virus have been recognized.

The cows seem to have been contaminated by wild birds, and useless birds had been reported on some farms, the company stated. The outcomes had been introduced after a number of federal and state businesses started investigating studies of sick cows in Texas, Kansas and New Mexico.

In a number of circumstances, the virus was detected in unpasteurized samples of milk collected from sick cows. Pasteurization ought to inactivate the flu virus, consultants stated, and officers pressured that the milk provide was secure.

“At this stage, there is no concern about the safety of the commercial milk supply or that this circumstance poses a risk to consumer health,” the company stated in a press release.

Outside consultants agreed. “It has only been found in milk that is grossly abnormal,” stated Dr. Jim Lowe, a veterinarian and influenza researcher on the College of Veterinary Medicine on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

In these circumstances, the milk was described as thick and syrupy, he stated, and was discarded. The company stated that dairies are required to divert or destroy milk from sick animals.

The cattle infections come on the heels of the nation’s first detection of extremely pathogenic chicken flu in goats, which was introduced by Minnesota officers final week.

So far, the flu samples from sick cows haven’t contained genetic mutations which are recognized to make the virus extra prone to infect people, the agriculture company stated, including that the danger to most of the people remained low.

“There’s still no cause to panic,” stated Stacey L. Schultz-Cherry, a virologist and influenza knowledgeable at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. “It just looks like it’s another spillover event due to contact with diseased wild birds.”

Still, she famous, cows weren’t considered among the many species that had been notably prone to avian influenza, and the circumstances had been one other worrisome flip in a world chicken flu outbreak that has devastated wild chicken populations over the previous couple of years.

The outbreak has been brought on by a brand new type of chicken flu virus, generally known as H5N1, that emerged in Europe in 2020. Wild birds can unfold the virus, by way of their feces and oral secretions, to farmed poultry and different animals. Outbreaks usually flare up within the spring and summer season, when migrating birds are on the transfer.

Although avian influenza viruses are tailored to unfold primarily amongst birds, the brand new model of H5N1 has develop into so widespread in wild birds that it has additionally repeatedly unfold to mammals, particularly scavenging species, resembling foxes, that may feed on contaminated birds.

Infections of mammals, which give the virus new alternatives to evolve, are at all times a supply of some concern, Andrew Bowman, a molecular epidemiologist and influenza knowledgeable at Ohio State University, stated. Scientists have lengthy been involved {that a} chicken flu virus that advanced to unfold extra effectively amongst mammals, together with people, might set off the following pandemic.

At this level, Dr. Bowman stated, it stays unclear whether or not the contaminated cows have all picked up the virus immediately from birds or whether or not the virus can be spreading from cow to cow.

“That’s a question that’s going to have to get resolved quickly,” he stated. “If we have transmission cattle to cattle, that’s a different story. That certainly makes me a little more nervous.”

Additional testing and evaluation are underway. “This is a rapidly evolving situation, and U.S.D.A. and federal and state partners will continue to share additional updates as soon as information becomes available,” the company stated.