EGN NEWS DESK
A extremely deadly type of avian influenza, or hen 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 dead birds have been reported on some farms, the company mentioned. The outcomes have been introduced after a number of federal and state businesses started investigating stories 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. Because pasteurization kills viruses, officers emphasised that there was little danger to the nation’s milk provide.
“At this stage, there isn’t any concern concerning the security of the industrial milk provide or that this circumstance poses a danger to client well being,” the company mentioned in a press release.
Outside consultants agreed. “It has solely been present in milk that’s grossly irregular,” mentioned 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 mentioned, and was discarded. The company mentioned 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 hen 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 might be identified to make the virus extra prone to infect people, the agriculture company mentioned, including that the danger to most of the people remained low.
“There’s nonetheless no trigger to panic,” mentioned Stacey L. Schultz-Cherry, a virologist and influenza knowledgeable at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. “It simply appears to be like prefer it’s one other spillover occasion as a consequence of contact with diseased wild birds.”
Still, she famous, cows weren’t regarded as among the many species that have been notably inclined to avian influenza, and the circumstances have been one other worrisome flip in a world hen flu outbreak that has devastated wild hen populations over the previous few years.
The outbreak has been attributable to a brand new type of hen flu virus, often known as H5N1, that emerged in Europe in 2020. Wild birds can unfold the virus, by their feces and oral secretions, to farmed poultry and different animals. Outbreaks usually flare up within the spring and summer time, 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, similar to foxes, which may feed on contaminated birds.
Infections of mammals, which give the virus new alternatives to evolve, are all the time a supply of some concern, Andrew Bowman, a molecular epidemiologist and influenza knowledgeable at Ohio State University, mentioned. Scientists have lengthy been involved {that a} hen flu virus that developed to unfold extra effectively amongst mammals, together with people, may set off the following pandemic.
At this level, Dr. Bowman mentioned, it stays unclear whether or not the contaminated cows have all picked up the virus instantly from birds or whether or not the virus can be spreading from cow to cow.
“That’s a query that’s going to need to get resolved rapidly,” he mentioned. “If we now have transmission cattle to cattle, that’s a special story. That definitely makes me a little bit extra nervous.”
Additional testing and evaluation are underway. “This is a quickly evolving state of affairs, and U.S.D.A. and federal and state companions will proceed to share extra updates as quickly as info turns into obtainable,” the company mentioned.
