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

[sharon sanders]

Bird flu snapshot: A pathologist sees familiar echoes in U.S. response to the outbreak

​​​​​​​
By Helen Branswell July 1, 2024
​

When pathologist Thijs Kuiken looks at what’s happening in the U.S. response to the H5N1 bird flu outbreak in dairy cows, he’s reminded of a difficult period in the Netherlands, where he lives, back in the late aughts.

Large goat and sheep farms in the country were hit with outbreaks of what is known as Q fever every year from 2007 to 2010. The disease, caused by the bacterium Coxiella burnetii, primarily affects ruminants — sheep, goats, and cows. But people can contract it too. Some don’t get sick. Some have flu-like illness and recover. But some develop chronic Q fever syndrome, a debilitating condition. Hundreds of people in the Netherlands still suffer from the condition as a consequence of the 2007-2010 epidemics.

H5N1 is a virus that scientists fear might one day trigger a pandemic; Q fever is a bacterial disease that when present in an environment can lead to significant numbers of infections in people. But the similarity Kuiken sees is how, in both cases, the initial inclination is to treat these events in animals as an economic problem for the agricultural sector, rather than as an agricultural problem that could have large human health consequences as well.
​
more....

https://www.statnews.com/2024/07/01/h5n1-bird-flu-snapshot-q-fever/

 

[Commonground]

[Out of Kansas]
As bird flu spreads on dairy farms, an ‘abysmal’ few workers are tested

​ Dairy workers are in rural areas, often with little access to transportation and no sick leave

BY: NADA HASSANEIN - JULY 2, 2024

Excerpts:

"“The reason public health authorities are and should be on high alert is because this is a potential high-consequence pathogen,” said Meghan Davis, an epidemiologist and microbiologist at Johns Hopkins University.​"


...Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, emphasized that the current bird flu strain isn’t a pandemic threat to humans. That’s why, he said, this is the perfect time to get the right testing and surveillance measures in place.

“If you can’t get it right with something that’s as forgiving as this virus has been, in terms of its inefficiency in infecting humans, it really doesn’t bode well for when the stakes are higher,” Adalja said.
​-

...Natasha Bagdasarian, Michigan’s chief medical executive, said the state is working with community health clinics and local health departments to reach farmworkers.

“They not only know the farms in their counties, but they also know many of the farmworker organizations,” she said.

Dairy farmworkers, who are often immigrants, can’t afford to miss a day of work, and can be reluctant to reach out to request testing or say they feel sick, advocates say.

​... Immigrants make up 51% of daily labor at dairy farms, and farms that employ immigrants produce 79% of the nation’s milk supply, according to the National Milk Producers Federation.​

....“I think it is definitely more widespread than is currently reported,” said Shira Doron, chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine. “The barriers between the agencies are really hampering our efforts right now.”

The CDC has offered a $75 payment to any farmworker who agrees to be tested and provide blood and nasal swab samples to the agency. But Doris Garcia-Ruiz, who directs farmworker outreach at Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, said that won’t make up for days of lost income.
​
...Dairy work is very wet, very hands-on,” said Christine Sauvé, who leads community engagement at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center. “While some industries are very familiar with PPE … the full recommendation from CDC is new and different. And so that really needs the full promotion from the employer, and then also from the state agencies.”

Sauvé worries that Michigan is prioritizing farmers’ losses, rather than farmworkers’ health, in its response. While the risk to the public is low, she and other experts say the population of farmworkers shouldn’t be forgotten.

Bethany Alcauter of the National Center for Farmworker Health described bird flu threat as “kind of a ticking time bomb.”

“Maybe it hasn’t fully gone off yet. But if we don’t manage it well, it could,” Alcauter said.
​
https://kansasreflector.com/2024/07...airy-farms-an-abysmal-few-workers-are-tested/

​

 

[Treyfish]

Feds prepare for bird flu jump to people with vaccines, tests

BY: JARED STRONG - JULY 2, 2024 4:19 PM

Federal health officials have commissioned Moderna to develop a vaccine to protect people from an avian influenza that has been circulating in dairy cattle in recent months.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials said Tuesday the agency would devote about $176 million to the effort, with the hope that final clinical trials might commence next year.

That schedule could be accelerated if “we’re starting to get extraordinarily concerned about additional human cases, severity of human cases, human-to-human transmission,” said Dawn O’Connell, the department’s assistant secretary for preparedness and response.

It’s unclear whether that will happen.....

It’s not yet clear how to feasibly prevent the spread of the virus within herds, said Eric Deeble, acting senior advisor for H5N1 response for the department. H5N1 is the flu subtype that is currently circulating in birds and cattle.

“There are a variety of USDA and other researchers that are currently working on that problem,” he said in a Tuesday call with reporters.

Deeble said a vaccine for cattle could be effective at halting the virus but that one wouldn’t be available soon.

Meantime, federal officials have monitored nearly 800 workers at infected dairy herds for illness and have tested more than 50 of them for bird flu. They have advised dairies to shield their workers with masks and other protective clothing and offered to pay for it.....

:tiphat:
https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/202...ird-flu-jump-to-people-with-vaccines-tests/​​

 

[sharon sanders]

Please see:

Colorado dairy worker tests positive for bird flu, becoming fourth case tied to dairy cattle in the US - July 3, 2024

US - H5N1 Human Case List​

​

 

[Pathfinder]

Influenza A Virus Wastewater Data

Updated July 3, 2024
...
Main Findings from Wastewater Surveillance

During the two most recent weeks, (June 16, 2024–June 29, 2024), a total of 332 of 749 sites reported data meeting criteria for analysis for influenza A virus for both weeks or for either week, and 2 (<1%) sites from 2 states were at a high level (>80th percentile compared to levels recorded at that site between October 1, 2023 and March 2, 2024).
...
Data Table
...
Id:482 7 Illinois Rock Island Above Average 64.29 Two-Week Maximum 30,000 2022-10-10
Id:137 8 California Plumas Above Average 75.0 Two-Week Maximum <10,000 2023-01-03
Id:1729 9 Oregon Jackson High 80.0 Two-Week Maximum 20,000 2021-09-27
Id:154 9 California San Francisco High 87.72 Two-Week Maximum <10,0
...

https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/wastewater-surveillance/Flu-A-data.html

 

[Pathfinder]

Raw milk is risky, but airborne transmission of H5N1 from cow’s milk is inefficient in mammals.

July 8, 2024 By Will Cushman For news media

While H5N1 avian influenza virus taken from infected cow’s milk makes mice and ferrets sick when dripped into their noses, airborne transmission of the virus between ferrets — a common model for human transmission — appears to be limited.

These and other new findings about the strain of H5N1 circulating among North American dairy cattle this year come from a set of laboratory experiments led by University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers, reported today in the journal Nature. Together, they suggest that exposure to raw milk infected with the currently circulating virus poses a real risk of infecting humans, but that the virus may not spread very far or quickly to others.

“This relatively low risk is good news, since it means the virus is unlikely to easily infect others who aren’t exposed to raw infected milk,” says Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a UW–Madison professor of pathobiological sciences who led the study alongside Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, and with collaborators at Texas A&M University, Japan’s University of Shizuoka and elsewhere.

Kawaoka cautioned, however, that the findings represent the behavior of the virus in mice and ferrets and may not account for the infection and evolution process in humans.

In their experiments, the UW–Madison team found that mice can become ill with influenza after drinking even relatively small quantities of raw milk taken from an infected cow in New Mexico.

Kawaoka and his colleagues also tested the bovine H5N1 virus’s ability to spread through the air by placing ferrets infected with the virus near but out of physical contact with uninfected ferrets. Ferrets are a common model for understanding how influenza viruses might spread among humans because the small mammals exhibit respiratory symptoms similar to humans who are sick with the flu, including congestion, sneezing and fever. Efficient airborne transmission would signal a serious escalation in the virus’s potential to spark a human pandemic.

None of the four exposed ferrets became ill, and no virus was recovered from them throughout the course of the study. However upon further testing, the researchers found that one exposed ferret had produced antibodies to the H5N1 virus.

“That suggests that the exposed ferret was infected, indicating some level of airborne transmissibility but not a substantial level,” Kawaoka says.

Separately, the team mixed the bovine H5N1 virus with receptors — molecules the virus binds to in order to enter cells — that are typically recognized by avian or human influenza viruses. They found that bovine H5N1 bound to both types of molecules, representing one more line of evidence of its adaptability to human hosts.

While that adaptability has so far resulted in a limited number of human H5N1 cases, previous influenza viruses that caused human pandemics in 1957 and 1968 did so after developing the ability to bind to receptors bound by human influenza viruses.

Finally, the UW–Madison team found that the virus spread to the mammary glands and muscles of mice infected with H5N1 virus and that the virus spread from mothers to their pups, likely via infected milk. These findings underscore the potential risks of consuming unpasteurized milk and possibly undercooked beef derived from infected cattle if the virus spreads widely among beef cattle, according to Kawaoka.

“The H5N1 virus currently circulating in cattle has limited capacity to transmit in mammals,” he says. “But we need to monitor and contain this virus to prevent its evolution to one that transmits well in humans.”
​

https://news.wisc.edu/raw-milk-is-r...5n1-from-cows-milk-is-inefficient-in-mammals/

-------------------------------

See also:

https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum...vine-h5n1-influenza-virus-nature-july-08-2024

 

[Commonground]

Bird flu response in Michigan sparks COVID-era worry on farms

​July 11, 20244:12 AM ED
MARTIN, Michigan, July 10 (Reuters) - Some dairy farmers are resisting Michigan's nation-leading efforts to stop the spread of bird flu for fear their incomes will suffer from added costs and hurt rural America.

The government's restrictions, which include tracking who comes and goes from farms, are rekindling unwanted memories of COVID-19 in Martin and other small towns in central Michigan.
-snip-

The state last reported an infected dairy herd on July 9, its 26th to test positive. Five other states have also confirmed cases in the past month, and about 140 herds have been infected nationally since March, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.
-snop-

Michigan has plans to test dairy workers for signs of prior infections with first-in-the-nation blood testing.
The state has already monitored thousands of people for bird flu symptoms using a complex contact tracing system that texts them three times daily, said Chad Shaw, health officer for the Ionia County Health Department.​
-snip-
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/bird-flu-response-michigan-sparks-covid-era-worry-farms-2024-07-10/

 

[Pathfinder]

WastewaterSCAN Dashboard
H5, Colorado

​
https://data.wastewaterscan.org/tra...BX0g1eDSKAQY4ZjhiMTY=&selectedChartId=8f8b16​

 

[Pathfinder]

Using the link above, with the exception of California, all H5 detections in wastewater are located in states with infected herds:

California
Colorado
Idaho
Iowa
Michigan
Minnesota
South Dakota
Texas

 

[Commonground]

12 July 2024​

Bird flu could become a human pandemic. How are countries preparing?


As cases of avian influenza continue to rise in cattle in the United States, countries are preparing for the possibility that the virus could start spreading in people. Many nations are ramping up surveillance, as well as purchasing vaccines or developing new ones.

“This virus in its current state does not look like it has the characteristics of causing a pandemic. But with influenza viruses, that equation could entirely change with a single mutation,” says Scott Hensley, an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

The highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 has so far been detected in 145 cattle herds and 4 farm workers in a dozen states across the United States. Researchers say many more cases in cows and people have probably gone undetected. The chances of quashing the outbreak get “more slim by the day”, says Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada.
​
continued: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02237-4
​

 

[Commonground]

Weld County Colorado. Some thoughts...


Colorado has declared a disaster emergency following a significant bird flu outbreak in Weld County, impacting nearly 1.8 million chickens.

7/9:

This action marks the state's largest outbreak since 2022 and prompts severe measures to manage the situation.
​https://wisconsinagconnection.com/news/massive-bird-flu-cull-at-colorado-farm

We know the latest person to become infected was from the Northwest part of the State.
7/3:

This case is an employee at a dairy farm in northeast Colorado​...
https://cdphe.colorado.gov/press-re...-officials-identify-a-human-case-of-avian-flu

7/9.

Weld County, where the farm is located, has also been heavily affected by H5N1 outbreaks in dairy herds.
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-in...iry-herd-michigan-large-poultry-farm-colorado

A little bit about the location and Economy of Weld County:

It is the third-largest county in Colorado by area....Weld County lies within the relatively flat eastern portion of Colorado; the northeastern portions of the county contain the extensive Pawnee National Grassland and the Pawnee Buttes​...Weld County is Colorado's leading producer of cattle, grain and sugar beets, and is the richest agricultural county in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, and the fourth richest overall nationally. It is also becoming more important as a milk producing county, with close to half of the state's cattle...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weld_County,_Colorado#Economy

We know today that in one week, ending 7/5 - 7/12 we have increased the herd count by 10.

Between the poultry outbreak and the herd increase, I certainly hope they are not both in Weld County, but I would bet on it....

 

[Commonground]

DMN reports that milk production is seasonally declining week to week in the US

Lee Mielke, Farmers' Advance
July 12, 2024

The Agriculture Department lowered its 2024 and 2025 milk production forecasts in Friday’s World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates report, based on slower growth in milk per cow more than offsetting higher cow numbers.​
2024 production and marketings were projected at 226.9 and 225.9 billion pounds respectively, down 400 million pounds on both from last month’s estimate.​
-snip-
StoneX stated in its July 10 Early Morning Update, “The market is looking for reasons to be bullish and, finding none other than the bird flu. That is the biggest uncertainty. So far it has not appeared to make a significant impact on the supply side. California and Pennsylvania had lower than expected milk production in the last report so that could be a sign of spreading, but that’s just a guess.”​
-snip-
toneX summed things up well stating; “Between some tough on-farm financial times over the past year, lack of replacements, and Avian Flu, dairy producers have their hands full with issues that can limit their ability to make more milk.​
-snip-
Back on the farm, Dairy Market News reports that milk production is seasonally declining week to week in the U.S. The West and Midwest have had more pronounced decreases. The East is seeing lighter milk output with small pockets of steady production. The southern half of the U.S. and the West are experiencing the heat of the summer, while the upper Midwest and East are wading through wet conditions affecting production and availability.

--- https://www.farmersadvance.com/stor...declining-week-to-week-in-the-us/74383726007/
​

 

[Treyfish]

:tiphat: because Colorado is hot..

Colorado state health officials identify possible cases of avian flu in Colorado poultry workers

​
The risk to the public remains low; all cases had direct contact with infected animals

Denver (July 12, 2024) — The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, in coordination with the Colorado Department of Agriculture and State Emergency Operations Center, has identified three presumptive positive cases of avian influenza in workers responding to the avian flu outbreak at a commercial egg layer operation. CDPHE’s State Public Health Laboratory sent the specimens generating the preliminary results to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for confirmatory testing. The workers were culling poultry at a farm in northeast Colorado and exhibited mild symptoms, including conjunctivitis (pink eye) and common respiratory infection symptoms. None of the individuals were hospitalized.

State public health officials have collected additional samples from symptomatic workers, which will be tested this weekend. State epidemiologists suspect the poultry workers’ cases are a result of working directly with infected poultry. The investigation is ongoing with support from CDC. On July 3, CDPHE identified a case of avian flu in a Colorado dairy worker.

It is safe to eat properly handled and cooked poultry products. The proper handling and cooking of poultry, meat, and eggs kills bacteria and viruses, including avian flu viruses.

If you work with dairy cows or poultry that may have avian flu and you start to feel sick, seek medical care or call CDPHE at 303-692-2700(after normal business hours: 303-370-9395). The Department can help you get a flu test and medicine if needed. More information about avian flu in humans is available at cdphe.colorado.gov/animal-related-diseases/hpai-h5n1.
:tiphat:

https://cdphe.colorado.gov/press-re...ntify-possible-cases-of-avian-flu-in-colorado
​

 

[sharon sanders]

Again, I am so disappointed in how the H5N1 situation has been handled. It is just unreal. Oklahoma identified with an H5N1 herd situation months after a sample was taken.

The current human debacle....defying protocols. All humans in contact with infected herds should be ROUTINELY isolated and tested IMMEDIATELY. This is a known protocol throughout the world. I could go on and on.......

Mind-blowing.

 

[Commonground]

From X:


Love thy neighbor: wear an N95
@CCSDMaskUp

Fantastic timing … the day before the kickoff of the Weld County Fair, 1 week before the main event, likely the largest gathering of the Wld County community and Agriculture Workers and animals in the county.​
https://www.weldcountyfair.com/Schedule

 

[Commonground]

Again, I am so disappointed in how the H5N1 situation has been handled. It is just unreal. Oklahoma identified with an H5N1 herd situation months after a sample was taken.

The current human debacle....defying protocols. All humans in contact with infected herds should be ROUTINELY isolated and tested IMMEDIATELY. This is a known protocol throughout the world. I could go on and on.......

Mind-blowing.

If you look at Colorado's Public Health and Environmental Health Plan for 2024, this does not surprise me. Reading the Message from the Director, as well as Colorado's 2024 Public Health Priorities, in the month of July, I can understand how it all just got shoved under the rug.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/148dJjwRi1rLz-S6UkhP9BbQd1K-j2_vx/view

 

[Commonground]

#298
Today, 02:50 PM
From X:
Love thy neighbor: wear an N95
@CCSDMaskUp

Fantastic timing … the day before the kickoff of the Weld County Fair, 1 week before the main event, likely the largest gathering of the Wld County community and Agriculture Workers and animals in the county.​​

X:
DMT_persists
@DPersists
{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","src":"https:\/\/abs-0.twimg.com\/emoji\/v2\/svg\/26a0.svg"}[/IMG2]
Please cancel/restrict upcoming Weld County Fair events
@GovofCO Polis State of Emergency
1.8M 2 egg layer cull
#H5N1 3 workers
Positive dairy herds
County Fair mixing vessel of swine sheep poultry cattle horses
Extreme heat

@CDPHE @coagriculture1 @COEmergency @RickABright​

 

[Chicagogal]

Can we interpret 8 states with positive cows, and the same 8 states with wastewater positives as limited human transmission?

Or are we still thinking this could be farm runoff?

 

[Mary Wilson]

3 Colorado poultry workers identified as potential bird flu cases after outbreak at commercial egg facility

Posted: 7:47 PM, Jul 12, 2024
Updated: 2:10 PM, Jul 13, 2024
By: Óscar Contreras​​

DENVER — Three Colorado poultry workers at a commercial egg-laying facility in northeast Colorado have tested presumptive positive for bird flu, state health officials said Friday, underscoring the need to get a virus that’s already killed more than 6 million birds and which is now infecting dairy cattle across the state under control.

The three additional cases — which have yet to be confirmed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — would mean Colorado isn’t just leading the nation in the number of bird flu outbreaks among dairy cattle, but more importantly, in the number of people infected by the H5N1 virus.

If confirmed by the CDC, the three additional cases would mean Colorado has now detected five cases of H5N1 among poultry and dairy workers since the outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza was first detected in the state in March of 2022.

In a statement early Friday evening, a spokesperson with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) said the workers were culling poultry at a farm in northeast Colorado and exhibited mild symptoms, including conjunctivitis, or pink eye, as well as “common respiratory infection symptoms.” The statement from the CDPHE did not expand on what those respiratory symptoms were and did not say whether antiviral treatment had been given to the workers who tested presumptive positive for the virus. Denver7 was not able to reach anyone from the department by phone or email Friday evening to answer those questions. ...

https://www.denver7.com/news/state-...ses-after-outbreak-at-commercial-egg-facility
​
​

 

[Pathfinder]

He reported a possible H5N1 outbreak in dairy cows. It took officials weeks to respond

By Susanne Rust
Staff Writer
July 12, 2024 Updated 1:47 PM PT
...
The outbreak claim comes from Mark McAfee, owner of Raw Farms, a raw milk dairy producer with herds in Fresno and Hanford. On June 17, McAfee — who is also the president of the Raw Milk Institute, an advocacy group — emailed the FDA’s acting director, Donald Prater, to say that he’d been told a raw milk dairy herd had been infected and that people had probably consumed the contaminated milk.

According to McAfee’s email, which was shared with The Times, a subset of a farmer’s cows were suffering yellowish, runny diarrhea; low milk production; thick, yellowish colostrum; and general weakness. The farmer told McAfee he had separated the sick cows — about 10% of his herd — and discontinued milking them.

“The farmer reported that for certain, humans had consumed the raw milk at some level,” McAfee wrote to Prater, adding that the farmer’s veterinarian “told the farmer to not report anything to anyone” because the virus would pass and “he did not want the FDA to swoop in and cause a media frenzy.”
...
Within 90 minutes of sending the email, Prater responded that he appreciated the time McAfee had taken to write the note and “for sharing these perspectives.” He then added that he and his agency would “take note of the points you raised and come back to you if we have any questions.”

According to McAfee, the FDA did not follow up with him. The state of New Mexico, where McAfee says the herd was infected, was made aware of the tip only last week, after the Times inquired.
...

https://www.latimes.com/environment...ged-h5n1-outbreak-in-cow-herd-but-was-ignored