DAILY TRIFECTA: Avian Flu Is Becoming A Human Flu
Mother Nature is milking it
TITLE: ‘More serious than we had hoped’: Bird flu deaths mount among California dairy cows
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-10-04/bird-flu-deaths-increasing-among-california-dairy-cows
EXCERPT: As California struggles to contain an increasing number of H5N1 bird flu outbreaks at Central Valley dairy farms, veterinary experts and industry observers are voicing concern that the number of cattle deaths is far higher than anticipated.
Although dairy operators had been told to expect a mortality rate of less than 2%, preliminary reports suggest that between 10% and 15% of infected cattle are dying, according to veterinarians and dairy farmers.
“I was shocked the first time I encountered it in one of my herds,” said Maxwell Beal, a Central Valley-based veterinarian who has been treating infected herds in California since late August. “It was just like, wow. Production-wise, this is a lot more serious than than we had hoped. And health-wise, it’s a lot more serious than we had been led to believe.”
A total of 56 California dairy farms have reported bird flu outbreaks. At the same time, state health officials have reported two suspected cases of H5N1 infections among dairy workers in Tulare County, the largest dairy-producing county in the nation. With more than 600,000 dairy cows, the county accounts for roughly 30% of the state’s milk production.
While early reports had suggested the virus seemed mild and lasted only about a week or two, others are seeing it last several weeks. According to the industry newsletter, at one dairy, cows were shedding virus 14 days before they showed clinical signs of illness. It then took another three weeks for the cows to get rid of the virus.
They’re also noticing the virus is affecting larger percentages of herds — in some cases 50%-60% of the animals. This is much more than the 10% that had been previously reported.
Some say the actual rate may be even higher.
“I would speculate infection is even higher; 50-60% are showing clinical signs due to heat stress or better herd monitoring earlier in infection. Unfortunately, few or no herds have been assessed retrospectively through serology testing to determine actual infection rates,” said John Korslund, a retired U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarian epidemiologist.
Cows are also not returning to 100% production after they’ve cleared the virus, said Beal. Instead, he and others say it’s closer to 60%-70%.
Beal said his firsthand observations have really challenged his notions about the disease, which has so often been described as mild and insignificant.
“Once I saw it myself, I said, this is something I need to communicate with my clients about ... this is not something that is just a joke at the dinner table,” he said. “I didn’t want people to not take it seriously, because I see what it is doing to the animals, and it is rough to see — as an animal caretaker, as a veterinarian like myself — it’s just not something that’s enjoyable. It’s more serious than we had been led to believe.”
Others are not surprised H5N1 is becoming more severe in cows.
“As I’ve said since we first learned of the outbreak in dairy cows, nothing we’ve learned about this virus is new or unexpected,” said Rick Bright, a virologist and former head of the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. “It’s behaving exactly as we’ve come to know of this virus over the past 25 years. It’s spreading very efficiently now among mammals, and it’s mutating and adapting to mammals as it does.”
TITLE: California dairy workers infected with bird flu worked on Tulare County dairy farms
https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article293483569.html
EXCERPT: Local health officials have confirmed that two dairy workers infected with the avian bird flu got sick while working in the Tulare County dairy industry.
The workers are employed at separate Tulare County dairy farms. They have developed mild symptoms and are being treated with antiviral medications, according to an update Friday from the Tulare County Health & Human Services Agency.
They are also being isolated at home for at least 10 days.
Tulare County’s cases of H5N1, or highly pathogenic avian influenza, are the 15th and 16th among dairy workers in the United States. The California cases were confirmed Thursday by the California Department of Public Health.
TITLE: Is bird flu spreading in people? Without blood test results, officials can't say
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/bird-flu-spreading-people-blood-test-results-officials-cant-say-rcna173309
EXCERPT: A total of seven people who were in close contact with a bird flu patient in Missouri developed symptoms, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday, but it remains unclear whether these represent cases of human-to-human spread of the virus.
Antibody blood test results, which will come back later this month, officials said, are needed to answer that question. Since most of the seven people weren’t tested for bird flu, it’s not yet known whether any of them were infected with the virus or another pathogen.
The Missouri patient, who didn’t have known contact with poultry or dairy cows, was hospitalized in August with underlying medical conditions.
On a call with reporters Friday, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said officials were able to retroactively track the patient’s movements during their time in the hospital in August and identify health care workers who were exposed and potentially at risk.
After the patient was hospitalized, Daskalaskis said, doctors tested the individual for influenza, a result that came back positive, and gave the patient Tamiflu. After the positive flu result, health care workers started using more personal protective gear around the patient.
Separately, as part of routine flu surveillance and not because doctors suspected anything unusual in the patient’s case, the hospital sent the patient’s flu sample to be tested for H5, which is the bird flu virus strain.
The positive H5 result triggered the investigation. Officials found that during the patient’s time at the hospital, 112 health care workers had interacted with them. Six developed respiratory symptoms. The other close contact who developed symptoms was a household contact. All have recovered.
Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore, said that while the investigation’s findings shed more light on the patient’s interactions with health care workers, there are still unanswered questions about those who became ill.
For example, it remains unclear whether the health care workers became sick on the same day they met the patient, the following day or several days later.
After exposure to the bird flu virus, people typically develop symptoms within 3 to 5 days. Depending on the timing of symptom onset, it’s possible that the workers could have been sick with a different virus, such as Covid.
“Timing would be helpful,” Rivers said. “If the dates were very commensurate with transmission then that would raise concern.”
All of that additional information on the health workers will be secondary to the blood tests results, Rivers said, and whether they show signs of a previous infection.
“It would be notable, because the Missouri bird patient didn’t have any known exposures, and so already there is a mysterious circumstance that could be concerning,” she said. “If human to human transmission were confirmed that would be the first instance in the United States. H5 has been circulating for a long time in wild animals.”
SEE ALSO:
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https://www.oregonlive.com/environment/2024/09/tens-of-thousands-of-birds-die-at-wildlife-refuges-in-southern-oregon-the-largest-die-off-to-date.html
Global bird flu outbreak poses a new threat to Australian wildlife
https://www.nationaltribune.com.au/global-bird-flu-outbreak-poses-a-new-threat-to-australian-wildlife/
Australia's bird flu outbreak has claimed the lives of 2 million chickens, but experts fear the worst is yet to come
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-01/bird-flu-h5n1-australia-chicken-native-birds-egg-farmers-csiro/104413006
Dozens of tigers dead after bird flu hits Vietnam zoos
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crm2x40k82lo