Discussion thread: H5N1 avian flu in US dairy cows including human cases (poultry, dairy workers) - March 24, 2024 +

[Pathfinder]

Ag commissioner says chickens destroyed to prevent bird flu spread being replaced

BY ERIN DAVIS TEXAS
UPDATED 10:48 AM CT APR. 11, 2024 PUBLISHED 10:13 AM CT APR. 11, 2024

TEXAS —
...
The disease struck about 40% of dairy cows in the Panhandle, where 82% of the state’s milk is produced. Infected cows have stopped producing milk.

“The trick is, how do we return them back to their previous state of milk production?” said Darren Turley with the Association of Dairymen.

He says infected cows receive probiotics and electrolytes, but once a cow is no longer infected, it doesn’t always immediately resume milk production.

“If we have a cow that's not pregnant, and not giving any milk, it's very, very hard for us to make that work to keep that animal to pay for that animal,” Turley said.
...

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-texas-el-paso/news/2024/04/11/texas-bird-flu-outbreak

[sharon sanders]

Now 8 in states which is 16% of the states. When will it be mandatory for all states to randomly check some of their cow herds? At 50%? At 75%?

When?

[Treyfish]

Here’s what worries scientists about bird flu’s spread among cattle


The unlikely spread among cattle and one dairy worker has scientists looking through the data to better understand this spillover. They say the risk to humans hinges on whether the virus can evolve in key ways to better infect mammals. WILL STONE, NPR | Posted OnApril 11, 2024, 8:46 AM

he outbreak of bird flu in dairy cattle is still unfolding.

On Wednesday, North Carolina became the seventh state to detect the virus in a dairy herd.

The unlikely spread among cattle and one dairy worker has scientists looking through the data to better understand this spillover. They say the risk to humans hinges on whether the virus can evolve in key ways to better infect mammals.

So far, there’s some reassuring news: At a recent meeting, scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture said the virus is not presenting like a respiratory illness in cattle – meaning the animals don’t appear to be shedding large amounts of virus from their nose or mouths.

Instead, federal health officials investigating the outbreak suspect some form of “mechanical transmission” is responsible for spreading the virus within the herd. This may be happening during the process of milking the cows, a theory supported by the fact that high concentrations of virus are being found in the milk.

“I want to emphasize really how unusual this is,” says Thijs Kuiken, a professor of comparative pathology at Erasmus University Medical Center. “In other mammalian species with influenza viruses, it’s primarily a respiratory disease, which doesn’t seem to be the case in these cattle.”....

This is a clue that the virus is evolving to better replicate inside a mammal, but it’s not sufficient to make the virus transmit more easily between humans, says Nichola Hill, a disease ecologist at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

“It needs a handful [of markers] coordinated across multiple different gene segments for it to really be this breakthrough and the next pandemic,” she says.

And it would need to become better at transmitting through the air, like the seasonal influenza viruses that humans tend to catch. Currently most cases of bird flu in people are linked to direct contact with an infected animal, oftentime when a chicken is being slaughtered, says David Swayne, a poultry veterinarian who used to work for the USDA.

“It takes a very, very high dose,” he says, “It’s probably not just exposure to infected poultry – it’s exposure to processes that aerosolized the virus.”

But the fear is that could change as the virus spends more time in mammals:
.....

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/energy-environment/animals/2024/04/11/483296/heres-what-worries-scientists-about-bird-flus-spread-among-cattle/

[Treyfish]

RESEARCHERS CONTINUE TO TRACK INFLUENZA VIRUS IN CATTLE

April 11, 2024 By Meghan Grebner
Researchers continue to investigate the transmission source of the influenza virus (highly pathogenic avian influenza in cattle) that has been found in dairy herds in multiple states.

Drew Magstadt is a clinical associate professor at Iowa State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “The main finding is the is the amount of virus and the reliability with which we detected in the milk,” he says. “It’s not really been something that’s been discovered before. That’s kind of the novel part of this virus.”

He tells Brownfield sequencing of the virus continues to show that it is being contracted from wild birds. “There are no mammalian markers that may imply some adaptability that may make it more transmissible between two mammals or between mammals,” he says. “There aren’t any of those markers showing up in these particular viruses.”
.....
“In many of these affected dairies, the number of affected animals grows exponentially,” he says. “We’re seeing in the first three to four days of an outbreak of this syndrome that many, many animals can be affected very quickly.”
https://www.brownfieldagnews.com/new...rus-in-cattle/

[Treyfish]

Idaho dairy officials report avian flu affected cows are recovering

Boise State Public Radio News | By Rachel Cohen
Published April 10, 2024 at 5:08 AM MDT
It’s been two weeks since the initial detection of a strain of bird flu in dairy cows. As of Tuesday, 20 herds had been infected across six states, including one in Idaho.

About eight cows on a Cassia County dairy farm got sick after the farm imported cattle from a Texas operation, where animals later tested positive for bird flu.

The sick cows were eating less and producing less milk; and the milk they did produce appeared thicker than usual.

The animals were isolated, but are improving, said Rick Naerebout, the CEO of the Idaho Dairymen's Association.

"They seem to be on the upswing," he said. "They are nearly a week now without symptomatic cattle and their feed intake and milk production has bounced back to normal, and so it appears everything is headed in the right direction."

While one Texas worker contracted the virus, there have been no confirmed cases among humans since . No workers on the Idaho farm have shown symptoms, Naerebout said.

.....


https://www.boisestatepublicradio.or...6b6JiUvyvI_kxG

[Treyfish]

Reporters and Editors - Please check your copy BEFORE you click the publish button. Thanks.


SOUTH DAKOTA DAIRY WORKER IS SECOND HUMAN INFECTED WITH AVIAN FLU
Apr. 12, 2024

by Rachel Schutte, Content Producer, Feedstuffs

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports a person in Texas tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu, after exposure to dairy cattle presumed to be infected with HPAI.

The National Veterinary Service Lab confirmed the H5N1 strain of Influenza A caused recent outbreaks of avian influenza in dairy cattle across at least five U.S. states. This is the same strain contracted by the patient in Texas.

The patient describes eye redness as their only symptom and is recovering. The individual is being treated with an antiviral drug for flu while they isolate.

This is the second person with a confirmed HPAI case in the U.S. A previous human case occurred in Colorado in 2022 when an inmate contracted the virus during a work assignment with poultry. Human infections with avian flu are uncommon but have occurred sporadically worldwide.

Texas issued a public health alert Monday asking health care providers in the state to be on the lookout for people with symptoms of avian influenza who may have been exposed to an infected person or animal.....

AgriMarketing.com
https://www.agrimarketing.com/s/149202

[sharon sanders]

Another bad news report typo. Obviously has the wrong state.

[Treyfish]

HPAI in Dairy Cows Hits Two More States

Dairy Farms Infected in North Carolina and South Dakota as HPAI Virus Spreads


4/12/2024 | 9:06 AM CDT

By Chris Clayton , DTN Ag Policy Editor

...SOME STATES SAY LINKED TO TEXAS

Following a question from DTN, a spokeswoman for the North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services stated the infected herd is linked back to a Texas dairy herd that also was infected with H5N1. State officials in Idaho, Michigan and Ohio also noted infected herds in their states had recently received dairy cattle from Texas dairy farms.

A spokesman for the New Mexico Department of Agriculture told DTN, "Our infections did not come from sick cattle being shipped in from Texas."

The virus was first detected in the Texas Panhandle. The impacted herds in New Mexico are located fairly close to the Texas-New Mexico state line, said Shelton Dodson, director of public affairs for the New Mexico Department of Agriculture.

Kansas has reported infected herds, but officials have not confirmed how its cattle became infected.
....Texas officials initially reported the cows showing symptoms "were primarily older dairy cows," but North Carolina officials stated the cows that tested positive there were younger cows...

In response to some questions from DTN, The Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) on Friday responded that 11 dairy herds in the Texas Panhandle have confirmed cases of HPAI. The total number of cattle infected "is still being characterized as the epidemiologic assessment unfolds."

The TAHC added, "Additionally, the TAHC cannot provide information related to results on individual dairies, to protect the privacy of the owners and their business."

...USDA officials, as of Thursday afternoon, confirmed the infection of the North Carolina and South Dakota herds by updating a map. USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service website has not updated the number of confirmed herds with HPAI infections in individual states since April 4. USDA also is not listing the number of cattle confirmed as ill.....

https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/we...north-carolina

[sharon sanders]

FluTrackers.com
@FluTrackers
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Remember this post? Well...


Quote

FluTrackers.com
@FluTrackers
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Dec 15, 2023
There is so much H5N1 avian flu spreading globally in birds right now that we are having a hard time keeping up with the OIE reports.

Pay attention to your agricultural officials & employ personal protection methods as a precaution.

h/t Pathfinder, Shiloh, Lance, @Fla_Medic


2.9K

[Pathfinder]

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-poultry-disease/avian/avian-influenza/hpai-detections/wild-birds

[sharon sanders]

This site is not going to use any other name for H5N1 avian flu - even if the strain appears in a non-avian animal, like a cow, for instance.

[sharon sanders]

Also - A chicken is a chicken and not a wild bird. Domestic ducks are not wild birds either.

[Pathfinder]

WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH DAIRY COWS AND BIRD FLU?
...
By Bloomberg School of Public Health staff report / Published 2 hours ago

In this Q&A, adapted from the April 8 episode of Public Health On Call, Stephanie Desmon speaks with Meghan Davis, associate professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, and Andrew Pekosz, professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, about H5N1's jump between species, what that means for the virus's pandemic potential, and what the appearance of the virus in dairy means for consumers.
...
Can we expect to see more cases in humans?

Pekosz: I expect that over the next few weeks,we're going to be seeing more cases in cows and humans, because humans are in close contact with cows during many dairy processes. Hopefully, this will not be a large outbreak, but we certainly expect to see more cases.
...
Were you surprised by this H5N1 outbreak?
'
Davis: I am surprised that it's in dairy cows, because when we think about animal models for influenza, we think about mustelids, like ferrets or mink. We have also seen a number of sick farm cats that tested positive. What is most interesting about seeing [H5N1] in dairy is that researchers haven't been focusing on biosecurity and biocontainment for things like avian influenza—which is typically transmitted from a bird reservoir. Dairy farms are often quite open to the air—birds might spend time in areas where the cows eat, for example.

One of the other things we are seeing is some symptoms of disease in the cows. I've not heard of high mortality yet, but they have been showing fairly nonspecific signs, like not eating or milking well. Most of these tend to be somewhat older cows because adult cows who are lactating are in a different category of susceptibility than young calves. What we don't know yet is if perhaps the virus is in all the populations within the farm, and only some of them are showing symptoms.
...
What can the surveillance data from infected cows tell us?

Pekosz: Two things are really important. One is: The virus has gone from the respiratory tract through lots of different organs, through the blood, and made it all the way to the milk. In humans, the influenza virus stays within the respiratory tract. We have seen H5N1 move out of the respiratory tract in other animals, but usually that's associated with a really fast mortality. As soon as the virus leaves the lungs, the animals are so sick that they die. We're seeing a case here where the animals don't seem to be really sick, but the virus is making it to other parts of the animal. That's going to tell us something perhaps unique about the H5N1 virus compared to seasonal human viruses.

The second critical thing is: If there is spread of this virus from cow to cow, is the virus changing and getting better adapted to replicating or spreading in cows? Bird flu jumping to mammals is important because anything that allows the virus to adapt to a mammal has the potential for making it better able to infect humans. Understanding what happens now with the spread of the virus and how the sequence of the virus changes is going to be critically important. The first sequences [from cows] look like the virus is almost identical to the bird virus. But we haven't really sampled animals that presumably acquired the infection from other cows.
...
Davis: ...
Something I'm very interested in is: Where were each of these cows exposed? To what degree was this one event that is now spreading through these networks of sale and trade and movement of dairy cows? Or is this multiple events in which you've had an introduction [of the virus] from birds? Because that also changes the dynamics as we think about genetics and the potential for evolution.
...

https://hub.jhu.edu/2024/04/15/qa-avian-flu-in-cows/

[sharon sanders]

This site is not going to use any other name for H5N1 avian flu - even if the strain appears in a non-avian animal, like a cow, for instance.

A great explainer on this issue by @thijskuiken :

(my bolding in item #19)

Post


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Thijs Kuiken
@thijskuiken
1/n Changing the name of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 into ‘bovine influenza A virus’ implies it has become endemic in cattle, a worst-case scenario! But how are influenza viruses actually classified? A thread: #vogelgriep

bovinevetonline.com
AABP Decides to Reference Cattle Disease as Bovine Influenza A Virus (BIAV)
11:29 AM · Apr 16, 2024
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Thijs Kuiken
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2/n When we write ‘bird flu virus’ or ‘avian influenza virus’ in the context of the currently ongoing global outbreak, we really mean highly pathogenic avian influenza A virus H5N1. (This virus was first detected in a commercial goose farm in Guangdong province China, in 1996.
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3/n It there belongs to the so-called A/goose/Guangdong/1/96 lineage.) I will take its name apart and discuss the separate pieces: i. influenza A virus (rather than B, C, or D) ii. avian (rather than human, swine, equine, or bat) iii. H5 (rather than H1 to H18)
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4/n iv. N1 (rather than N1 to N11) v. highly pathogenic (rather than low pathogenic)
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5/n Let’s start: i. Influenza viruses can be divided into four major types: A (mainly in birds, swine, horses, humans, and bats), B (in humans and seals), C (in swine and humans), and D (in cattle). We are here dealing with an influenza A virus.
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6/n ii. Most influenza A viruses (except bat influenza A viruses) are considered to originate from wild aquatic birds, particularly species of dabbling ducks and gulls, in which they are endemic.
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7/n (Endemic means that the virus persists at a consistent level within a population with fairly predictable rates of infection and spread.)
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8/n However, they can spill over into chickens and other poultry species kept in farms and, if not dealt with appropriately, become endemic in poultry populations. The influenza A viruses that are endemic in birds, either wild or domestic, are called avian influenza A viruses.
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9/n From birds, avian influenza A viruses can spill over into mammals. Usually, there is no or only limited mammal-to-mammal transmission. On rare occasions, however, avian influenza A viruses persist in mammalian populations and become genetically adapted to them.
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10/n In that case, they are given the name of the species to which they have adapted: human influenza A viruses in people, swine influenza A viruses in pigs, and equine influenza A viruses in horses.
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11/n iii. Influenza A viruses have two kinds of proteins projecting from their surface. One is labelled H (for hemagglutinin), and there are 16 different H subtypes, H1 to H16. (In addition, bat influenza A viruses have H17 and H18.) We are here dealing with H5.
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Thijs Kuiken
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11/n iii. Influenza A viruses have two kinds of proteins projecting from their surface. One is labelled H (for hemagglutinin), and there are 16 different H subtypes, H1 to H16. (In addition, bat influenza A viruses have H17 and H18.) We are here dealing with H5.
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12/n iv. The other surface protein is labelled N (for neuraminidase), and there are 9 different N subtypes, N1 to N9. (In addition, bat influenza A viruses have N10 and N11.) We are here dealing with N1, but the virus has switched to other N subtypes in past, e.g. H5N8 and H5N6.
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13/n v. There is a special classification of avian influenza A viruses into low pathogenic or highly pathogenic. This classification refers only to the pathogenicity (that is, ability to cause disease) of these viruses in chickens, not in other species of birds, not in mammals.
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14/n Historically, the vast majority of avian influenza A viruses detected in wild aquatic birds were low pathogenic (but see below).
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15/n In poultry, however, and particularly in intensive poultry production systems, low pathogenic avian influenza A viruses of the subtypes H5 and H7 can mutate into highly pathogenic avian influenza A viruses. We are here dealing with a highly pathogenic form.
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16/n So, to put the name of the virus we are dealing with in the currently ongoing global outbreak together again, it is highly pathogenic avian influenza A virus H5N1.
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17/n Besides being endemic in poultry populations in some countries, it has spilled over into wild aquatic birds and appears to have become endemic in them also. This means that we nowadays can detect both low and highly pathogenic avian influenza A viruses in wild birds.
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18/n Besides spilling over into wild aquatic birds, it has spilled over into many other species of birds (>300 bird species in total). It also has spilled over into many species of mammals (>50 in total), including, since March 2024, in cattle in the USA.
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19/n However, because the virus has *not* become endemic in any of the mammal species (including cattle) so far and has not shown clear genetic adaptation to those species, the appropriate name remains highly pathogenic avian influenza A virus H5N1.
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20/n Webster et al. 1992: Evolution and ecology of influenza A viruses (DOI: 10.1128/mr.56.1.152-179.1992).
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21/n Xu et al. 1999: Genetic characterization of the pathogenic influenza A/Goose/Guangdong/1/96 (H5N1) virus: similarity of its hemagglutinin gene to those of H5N1 viruses from the 1997 outbreaks in Hong Kong (doi: 10.1006/viro.1999.9820).
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22/n Olsen et al. 2006: Global patterns of influenza A virus in wild birds (doi: 10.1126/science.1122438). Brunotte et al. 2016: Chiropteran influenza viruses: flu from bats or a relic from the past? (doi: 10.1016/j.coviro.2016.02.003).
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23/n Dhingra et al. 2018: Geographical and historical patterns in the emergences of novel highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5 and H7 viruses in poultry (doi: 10.3389/fvets.2018.00084).
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24/n Pohlmann et al. 2022: Has epizootic become enzootic? Evidence for a fundamental change in the infection dynamics of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Europe, 2021 (doi: 10.1128/mbio.00609-22).
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25/n Klaassen & Wille 2023: The plight and role of wild birds in the current bird flu panzootic (doi: 10.1038/s41559-023-02182-x). European Food Safety Authority et al. 2023: Avian influenza overview September-December 2023 (doi: 10.2903/j.efsa.2023.8539).
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26/n Kuiken et al. 2006: Host species barriers to influenza virus infections (doi: 10.1126/science.1122818).
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[Treyfish]

Agricultural and health officials monitor Bird flu's spread to Michigan dairy herds.

WKAR Public Media | By Wali Khan
Published April 16, 2024 at 3:54 PM EDT

State agriculture officials say experts across the nation are assessing the avian influenza outbreak among dairy herds.

The virus has been reported in herds in Ionia, Isabella, Ottawa, and Montcalm counties. Each herd is estimated to be more than 500 animals. The first infection was traced to Texas, where the virus is also being detected in herds.

The flu virus is being monitored on the “federal, state and local” level, according to State Veterinarian Nora Wineland. “We've identified additional suspected cases and those were reported to and are by local veterinarians, and producers and samples were submitted to the Michigan State University Veterinary Diagnostic Lab for testing."

Wineland said the pattern of reporting and testing is expected to continue, “leading to the potential for more cases to be identified in the future.”...

https://www.wkar.org/wkar-news/2024-04-16/agricultural-and-health-officials-monitor-bird-flus-spread-to-michigan-dairy-herds

[Pathfinder]

bioRxiv

Posted April 16, 2024.

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A (H5N1) clade 2.3.4.4b Virus detected in dairy cattle

Xiao Hu, Anugrah Saxena, Drew R. Magstadt, Phillip C. Gauger, Eric Burrough, Jianqiang Zhang, Chris Siepker, Marta Mainenti, Patrick Gorden, Paul Plummer, Ganwu Li
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.04.16.588916

This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review [what does this mean?].

Abstract

The global emergence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A (H5N1) clade 2.3.4.4b viruses poses a significant global public health threat. Until March 2024, no outbreaks of this virus clade had occurred in domestic cattle. We genetically characterize HPAI viruses from dairy cattle showing an abrupt drop in milk production. They share nearly identical genome sequences, forming a new genotype B3.13 within the 2.3.4.4b clade. B3.13 viruses underwent two reassortment events since 2023 and exhibit critical mutations in HA, M1, and NS genes but lack critical mutations in PB2 and PB1 genes, which enhance virulence or adaptation to mammals. The PB2 E627K mutation in a human case underscores the potential for rapid evolution post-infection, highlighting the need for continued surveillance to monitor public health threats.
...

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.16.588916v1

[Pathfinder]

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

Detection of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1) in
Dairy Herds: Frequently Asked Questions

Updated April 16, 2024
...

What is the appropriate nomenclature for this virus,
now that it has appeared in dairy cows?

From USDA’s perspective, highly pathogenic avian
influenza or H5N1 are the most scientifically accurate
terms to describe this virus. This is also consistent with
what the scientific community has continued to call the
virus after it has affected other mammals. As a
reminder, genomic sequencing of viruses isolated from
cattle indicates there is no change to this virus that
would make it more transmissible to or between
humans, and the CDC considers risk to the public to be
low at this time. However, people with more exposure
to infected animals do have a greater risk of infection.
Since the virus is not highly pathogenic in mammals,
H5N1 is the most fitting of the two scientifically correct
options. It is important to note that “highly pathogenic”
refers to severe impact in birds, not necessarily in
humans or cattle.
...

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/hpai-dairy-faqs.pdf