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Discussion thread: H5N1 avian flu in US Dairy Cows - March 24+ - 13 total human cases (poultry & dairy workers) in 2024
There hasn't been a new #H5N1#birdflu infected dairy herd
confirmed by @USDA this week. Only 2 last week. Does this
mean the outbreak is coming under control? Colorado &
Michigan's numbers are probably solid. Elsewhere refusal to test
means we don't know what we're not seeing.
During the two most recent weeks, (August 4, 2024–August 17, 2024), a total of 316 of 858 sites reported data meeting criteria for analysis for influenza A virus for both weeks or for either week, and 1 (<1%) site from 1 state was at a high level (>80th percentile compared to levels recorded at that site between October 1, 2023 and March 2, 2024).
... Data Table
...
Id:477 8 Illinois Peoria Above Average 70.0 Two-Week Maximum 130,000 2022-10-10
Id:1888 8 Texas Harris Above Average 76.19 Two-Week Maximum 100,000 2022-09-05
Id:1723 9 Oregon Deschutes High 85.71 Two-Week Maximum 90,000 2021-09-26
...
With Only Gloves To Protect Them, Farmworkers Say They Tend Sick Cows Amid Bird Flu
AUGUST 27, 2024 GREELEY, Colo. — In early August, farmworkers gathered under a pavilion at a park here for a picnic to celebrate Farmworker Appreciation Day. One sign that this year was different from the others was the menu: Beef fajitas, tortillas, pico de gallo, chips, beans — but no chicken.
Farms in Colorado had culled millions of chickens in recent months to stem the transmission of bird flu. Organizers filled out the spread with hot dogs.
No matter the menu, some dairy workers at the event said they don’t exactly feel appreciated. They said they haven’t received any personal protective equipment beyond gloves to guard against the virus, even as they or colleagues have come down with conjunctivitis and flu-like symptoms that they fear to be bird flu.
“They should give us something more,” one dairy worker from Larimer County said in Spanish. He spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear he’d lose his job for speaking out. “What if something happens to us? They act as if nothing is wrong.”
-snip-
One dairy worker in Weld County, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job, said his employer has not offered any protective equipment beyond gloves, even though he works with sick cows and raw milk.
His bosses asked the workers to separate sick cows from the others after some cows produced less milk, lost weight, and showed signs of weakness, he said. But the employer didn’t say anything about the bird flu, he said, or suggest they take any precautions for their own safety.
He said he bought protective goggles for himself at Walmart when his eyes became itchy and red earlier this summer. He recalled experiencing dizziness, headaches, and low appetite around the same time. But he self-medicated and pushed through, without missing work or going to a doctor.
continued: https://kffhealthnews.org/news/artic...-chickens-ppe/
Vilsack authorizes first field trial for H5N1 cattle vaccine
Center of Veterinary Biologics accepting submissions for field studies.
Krissa Welshans, Livestock Editor
August 28, 2024
The next step regarding the potential development of an H5N1 virus vaccine for cattle is taking place, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Wednesday during his address at the 2024 Farm Progress Show.
...
“We have a number of companies that have been working on vaccines, and one company has now presented sufficient information to the USDA to allow me to authorize, as I did this week, the first field trial of a vaccine for cattle H5N1 for safety purposes,” he told attendees.
It’s the next step in the development of a vaccine, “which hopefully we’ll be able to develop in the near term with the information we get from this trial.”
The trial, he said, will allow USDA to determine whether it can proceed to the next steps necessary “to ensure safe and effective use of the vaccine.”
USDA’s Center of Veterinary Biologics, which is overseeing these efforts, published a notice Wednesday that it is now accepting field trial applications for H5N1 vaccines that may be conducted outside of containment without terminal disposal of milk and other commodities.
...
USDA Announces 1st Field Trial Of An H5N1 Vaccine For Cattle (https://afludiary.blogspot.com/2024/08/usda-announces-1st-field-trial-of-h5n1.html)
(https://www.aphis.usda.gov/news/program-update/cvb-notice-24-13-field-studies-nonviable-non-replicating-veterinary-vaccines)
#18,267
Yesterday, USDA Secretary Vilsack
New federal report on Colorado bird flu cases urges health agencies to prepare for more infections among farm workers
Saturday, Aug 31, 2024
A new report on July's cluster of human H5 avian flu cases in Colorado urges U.S. public health agencies to be ready to respond to cases in agricultural workers who often have limited access to health care.
About a month ago, health agencies reported nine cases of the virus in infected farm workers in northeast Colorado, where they were euthanizing millions of infected birds on two poultry farms to prevent further spread. Six of the cases came from one operation, three were from another. That was on top of an additional case detected in a dairy worker earlier in July.
The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is widely read in the public health world, focused on that group of farm workers. It was the first known cluster of human influenza A, also known as H5, cases in the U.S. associated with exposure at a poultry operation.
Public health workers with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment screened 663 workers who were culling the birds. Of that, 109 reported mild symptoms like conjunctivitis – commonly known as pink eye. Nine tested positive for the H5 avian flu and 19 tested positive for COVID-19. Those who tested positive for the H5 avian flu were treated with oseltamivir, a medication used to treat flu-like symptoms.
[see additional Tweet at bottom. bolding is mine] Avian flu in cows and poultry continues to fly high in the U.S.
Published: 48 mins ago
Few states or nations put on a dairy cattle show like the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, where 50,000 visitors and vendors from nearly 100 countries will see 1,800 owners exhibiting 2,500 or so of the best dairy cattle in the galaxy.
Organizers of this year’s Expo, however, are working overtime to keep one party crasher out — highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu. New rules, new testing and new paperwork for the Oct. 1-4 gathering are all aimed to keep it bird flu-free.
“(However,) in the unfortunate event of a positive Influenza A individual cow test,” explained Expo organizers Aug. 21, “we have been informed by the (state of) Wisconsin … that all cattle on site … will be temporarily quarantined.”
Moreover, if deemed necessary, “additional quarantine measures could be added.” Once the animals are allowed to leave the state for home, further quarantine may be required by other U.S. states and Canadian provinces.
-snip-
The U.S. Department of Agriculture does offer voluntary testing of milk to determine the presence of bird flu in any dairy herd. So far, though, “of the roughly 24,000 farms that sell milk,” reported the New York Times recently, “only 30 are participating.”
Food Fix updated those low numbers in late August to note that now USDA “only shows 26 herds are participating,” or 0.1 percent of all herds nationwide. USDA, however, told the Times that the poor turnout shows “the system is working as designed.”
Indeed, for 26 herds, which only leaves 23,974 or so herds where it’s not working.
I worry that one day we could wake up and have everyone look at
the U.S. and say, "If you thought that they had a poor response in
Wuhan with COVID, look at what you guys did with H5N1." And
they would be right.
Why won’t California name 3 Central Valley dairies with avian flu? They blame ‘lookie-loos’
BY ROBERT RODRIGUEZ
UPDATED SEPTEMBER 06, 2024 5:22 AM
Federal and state officials are keeping tight-lipped about the location of three Central Valley dairies that have tested positive for the highly pathogenic avian influenza.
And Michael Payne, a food animal veterinarian with the UC Davis Western Institute for Food Safety and Security, fully supports the practice.
Payne said revealing the counties or the name of the infected dairies increases the risk for potentially spreading the virus.
...
“When you are talking about biosecurity, what you don’t want is a bunch of lookie-loos, industry people and non-industry people coming and going from the dairy,”
...
Read more at: https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local...#storylink=cpy
The USDA avian influenza reports for poultry, backyard birds, wild birds, and mammals list the counties affected by avian influenza. Although the livestock reports do not mention the counties, they are nevertheless included in the WOAH reports.
September 06, 2024
Human H5 bird flu case confirmed in Missouri
Media Contact:
Lisa Cox (https://health.mo.gov/about/press-inquiry.php)
Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services
JEFFERSON CITY, MO — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed a human case of avian influenza A (H5) (“H5 bird
‘This is how pandemics start’: H5 bird flu in Missouri patient with no known link to sick animals
...
Maeve Cullinan,
GLOBAL HEALTH SECURITY REPORTER
9 September 2024 • 5:41pm
...
The case was detected through the state’s seasonal flu surveillance system, indicating there could be more flying under the radar.
...
The main worry among experts is that an unexplained H5 infection raises the possibility of person-to-person transmission, something which the World Health Organization (WHO) warned would be of “enormous concern” due to its potential to trigger a global pandemic.
“This is how pandemics start,” Kruitka Kuppali, a spokesperson for the Infectious Disease Society of America and former WHO medical officer, told The Telegraph. “We need to scale up preparedness and response efforts.”
...
The 2009 swine flu pandemic was first detected in a similar way when two children in California with no known contact with pigs or each other were diagnosed with an H1N1 flu infection, previously circulating in swine.
Another theory is that the person consumed raw milk infected with H5N1, which has killed several barnyard cats who are thought to have consumed the liquid off farm floors in the US this year.
...
Lisa Cox, a spokesperson for the Missouri Health Department, said that the patient had not reported consuming raw milk. ...
...
Yet another person got bird flu. Now should I freak out?
...
by Keren Landman, MD
Sep 10, 2024, 12:31 PM CST
... What experts are worrying about
The Missouri patient was sick enough to be hospitalized
...
The Missouri health department noted the adult patient “has underlying medical conditions,” but we don’t know their age or other risk factors.
...
It’s a promising sign that since the Missouri patient was hospitalized, there has not been a big bloom of flu-like illness in the state. “I don’t think there’s a whole iceberg out there that we don’t see,” says Nuzzo, but more details about the case would put her and other experts at ease.
...
Two weeks elapsed between the patient’s hospitalization and public health authorities’ announcements about the case
That long delay, says Nuzzo, suggests the US hasn’t switched on its sensitive flu surveillance system that would more rapidly identify bird flu infections in people with fever, cough, muscle aches, and other flu-like symptoms.
... There’s very little transparency about how much infection is taking place on US dairy farms
... Although bird flu has been reported in Missouri only in poultry farms and not on dairy farms, that doesn’t mean it isn’t there, said Nuzzo. It just means farmers may not be testing their workers or cows for the virus, or they aren’t reporting it.
...
Unprecedented Bird Flu Levels Detected in Texas Wastewater: 'Concerning'
Published Sep 13, 2024 at 1:22 PM EDT
By Pandora Dewan
Senior Science Reporter
Unprecedented levels of the bird flu virus have been detected in wastewater samples from across Texas, raising alarms that the disease is adapting to infect a new host.
Before March 2024, wastewater samples from across the state had tested negative for the virus. However, between March and July, 10 out of the 10 cities tested—at 22 of 23 wastewater test sites—tested positive for the virus.
"These results need to be taken very seriously, especially given the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic we all just went through," Anthony W. Maresso, the Joseph L. Melnick Chair of Virology at Baylor College of Medicine, told Newsweek.
"We don't want to create unnecessary concern, but it would be a mistake to dismiss the fact that avian flu is now in mammals at a level that we have not before observed.This means the virus is learning to adapt to this new host and that can mean a greater chance of it adapting to humans to transmit better and possibly cause disease or another flu pandemic.
...
While symptoms have so far been relatively mild, it is vital that we continue to monitor the situation. For this reason, Maresso and colleagues used state-of-the-art viral DNA detection to monitor wastewater levels of the virus across Texas. Their findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
------------------------------ Hat Tip to Tetano Sequencing-Based Detection of Avian Influenza A(H5N1) Virus in Wastewater in Ten Cities
Published September 11, 2024
... The widespread detection of influenza A(H5N1) virus in wastewater from 10 U.S. cities is troubling. Although the exact origin of the signal is currently unknown, the lack of clinical burden along with genomic informationsuggests multiple animal sources. Wastewater monitoring should be considered as a sentinel surveillance tool that augments our detection of evolutionary adaptations of concern. To aid efforts to identify the source and promote efforts to mitigate the next flu pandemic, we suggest expanded, agnostic sequencing of wastewater, livestock and their products, exposed agricultural workers (including fecal and urine samples), and migrating birds along major flyways.
...
N Engl J Med
. 2024 Sep 11.
doi: 10.1056/NEJMc2405937. Online ahead of print. Sequencing-Based Detection of Avian Influenza A(H5N1) Virus in Wastewater in Ten Cities
Michael J Tisza (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Tisza+MJ&cauthor_id=39259887) 1 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39259887/#full-view-affiliation
On 9/13 CDC post explained finally the symptoms. "They presented with chest pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and weakness...one household contact became ill with similar symptoms"
From CDC Webpage:
The reported signs and symptoms of bird flu virus infections in humans have ranged from no symptoms or mild to severe.
Signs and symptoms may include:
eye redness (conjunctivitis)
mild flu-like upper respiratory symptoms
pneumonia requiring hospitalization
fever (temperature of 100ºF [37.8ºC] or greater) or feeling feverish*,
cough
sore throat
runny or stuff nose
muscle or body aches
headaches
fatigue
shortness of breath or difficulty breathing.
I'm not seeing nausea, diarrhea or vomiting on that list.
I am wondering if they ate something that was infected and didn't disclose it to public health. The household contact could have also eaten it at the same time, that might also explain the high cycle threshold if the infection was mostly in the gut. This is pure speculation, of course.
h/t @lisaschnirring
CDC A(H5N1) Bird Flu Response Update September 13, 2024
At a glance
CDC provides an update on its response activities related to the multistate outbreak of avian influenza A(H5N1) virus, or "H5N1 bird flu," in dairy cows and other animals in the United States.
What to Know
In this week's
Excerpt:
Missouri continues to lead the investigation into the H5 case reported last week with technical assistance from CDC in Atlanta. The case was in a person who was hospitalized as a result of significant underlying medical conditions. They presented with chest pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and weakness. The person was not severely ill, nor were they in the intensive care unit. They were treated with influenza antiviral medications, subsequently discharged, and have since recovered. One household contact of the patient became ill with similar symptoms on the same day as the case, was not tested, and has since recovered. The simultaneous development of symptoms does not support person-to-person spread but suggests a common exposure. Also shared by Missouri, subsequently, a second close contact of the case – a health care worker – developed mild symptoms and tested negative for flu.
On 9/13 CDC post explained finally the symptoms. "They presented with chest pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and weakness...one household contact became ill with similar symptoms"
From CDC Webpage:
The reported signs and symptoms of bird flu virus infections in humans have ranged from no symptoms or mild to severe.
I'm not seeing nausea, diarrhea or vomiting on that list.
In the September 12 HHS media briefing the confirmed Missouri case was described with chest pain, diarrhea, weakness, vomiting symptoms. This person has multiple co-morbidites so their symptoms may vary from the official document. i.e If this person has a heart condition this might explain the chest pain when ill with H5N1. Don't know. Just guessing.
September 06, 2024
Human H5 bird flu case confirmed in Missouri
Media Contact:
Lisa Cox (https://health.mo.gov/about/press-inquiry.php)
Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services
JEFFERSON CITY, MO — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed a human case of avian influenza A (H5) (“H5 bird
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