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New York [US], April 5 (ANI): The <keyword id="10561122" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="bird-flu-pandemic" source="Orion">bird flu pandemic</keyword> with the potential to be "<keyword id="21202249" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="100-times-worse" source="Orion">100 times worse</keyword> than COVID" may be on the horizon after a rare human case was discovered in Texas, experts have warned, the New York Post reported on Thursday. The <keyword id="21202246" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="H5N1-avian-flu" source="keywords">H5N1 avian flu</keyword> has spread rapidly since a new strain was detected in 2020 affecting wild birds in every state, as well as in commercial poultry and backyard flocks. But the recent cases detected in mammals, with cattle herds across four states becoming infected and on Monday, federal health officials announced that a dairy worker in Texas caught the virus. "This virus [has been] on the top of the pandemic list for many, many years and probably decades," Suresh Kuchipudi, a <keyword id="95867" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="bird-flu" source="Orion">bird flu</keyword> researcher from Pittsburgh, said at a recent panel discussing the issue, the New York Post reported citing the Daily Mail. "And now we're getting dangerously close to this virus potentially causing a pandemic." He noted that the <keyword id="565908" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="H5N1-virus" source="Orion">H5N1 virus</keyword> has already been detected in species throughout the world and "has shown the ability to infect a range of mammalian hosts, including humans." "So therefore, in my view, I think this is a virus that has the greatest pandemic threat [that is] playing out in plain sight and globally present," Kuchipudi said. John Fulton, a pharmaceutical industry consultant for vaccines and the founder of Canada-based BioNiagara who organized the meeting, also expressed his concerns, the Mail reports, the New York Post reported. "This appears to be 100 times worse than COVID -- or it could be if it mutates and maintains its high case fatality rate," he said. "Once it's mutated to infect humans, we can only hope that the [fatality rate] drops." Around 52 per cent of humans who have contracted H5N1 since 2003 have died, according to the World Health Organization. For comparison, COVID currently kills less than 0.1% of those it infects -- though at the start of the pandemic, the fatality rate was around 20 per cent. Symptoms of the bird flu are similar to those of other flus, including cough, body aches and fever, the New York Post reported. Some people may not develop noticeable symptoms, but others can develop severe, life-threatening pneumonia. The dairy worker in Texas who was infected has reported "eye redness (consistent with conjunctivitis)" as their only symptom, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted. "The patient was told to isolate and is being treated with an antiviral drug for [the] flu," the CDC said. The agency and "the whole US government is taking this situation very seriously," CDC Director Mandy Cohen told the Washington Post. She maintained that the virus does not pose much of a risk to the general public, noting that the dairy worker was in direct contact with infected cattle, and the US Department of Agriculture has said there are currently no changes that would make it more transmissible to humans. "While cases among humans in direct contact with infected animals are possible, this indicates that the current risk to the public remains low," the department said in a statement over the weekend. But the fact that the virus has been found in cattle could mean it is starting to mutate, Cohen told the Washington Post. "We had not seen avian flu in cattle prior to last week. That is new," she said. "It is a reservoir for [the] virus to circulate and potentially change." If the virus does mutate enough to infect humans, it could spread rapidly, the European Food Safety Authority warned on Wednesday, according to Fox News. "If avian A [H5N1] influenza viruses acquire the ability to spread efficiently among humans, large-scale transmission could occur due to the lack of immune defences against H5 viruses in humans," the Food Safety Authority said. To prevent any potential spread, the US is already testing components used to create a vaccine for the virus, and two candidate vaccine viruses appear to be well-matched to protect against H5N1, the Washington Post reports. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also said the Biden administration is monitoring the threat. "We take the health and safety of the American people seriously," she said at her briefing on Wednesday. "It is very important to this president. Our top priority is to keep communities healthy, safe and informed."

Scientists warn of bird flu pandemic that could be '100 times worse' than COVID after rare human case found in US

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-avian-influenza-outbreak-us-h5n1-wiping-out-everything-2023-4">H5N1 avian influenza, also called bird flu</a>, is spreading through US chickens and now cattle.</li><li>The FDA discovered genetic material from the virus in grocery store milk.</li></ul><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/got-milk-gen-z-problem-realistically-unhealthy-2023-4">Milk</a> might contain remnants of the <keyword id="21348322" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="H5N1" source="keywords">H5N1</keyword> <keyword id="20396857" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="bird-flu" source="keywords">bird flu</keyword> virus that's raging through US chickens and cattle. The Food and Drug Administration <a target="_blank" href="https://www.fda.gov/food/alerts-advisories-safety-information/updates-highly-pathogenic-avian-influenza-hpai">announced</a> Tuesday that it had discovered virus particles in "some of the samples collected" throughout the milk supply chain, from the cow to the shelf. The agency did not indicate how many samples tested positive or from where, but said the detections "do not represent actual virus that may be a risk to consumers." However, the discovery suggests the virus has spread further through the <keyword id="21438910" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="US-cattle-population" source="Orion">US cattle population</keyword> than officials previously realized. Scientists are growing more concerned that this <keyword id="109029" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="avian-influenza" source="Orion">avian influenza</keyword> outbreak could make the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-cattle-outbreak-repeat-mistakes-former-surgeon-general-warning-2024-4">jump into human-to-human transmission</a>. So far, though, many public health experts don't think this rings alarm bells about the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-eggs-meat-milk-dairy-safety-during-outbreak-2024-4">safety of the food supply</a>. "I had eggs yesterday and I had milk last night, and I'll have a steak if someone gives me a steak," Dr. Jerome Adams, who was the surgeon general of the Trump administration and is now the director of health equity at Purdue University, told Business Insider on Wednesday. "I still believe that the way we process and cook foods is going to disable most bacteria and viruses, including this one," he said. <h2>Pasteurization should kill H5N1 in milk</h2> <div type="image" title="row of cows sticking their heads through metal bars to eat hay feed" height="1500" width="2250" msid="109605298" hostid="261"></div>The FDA oversees the nation's milk supply, and the US Department of Agriculture oversees dairy cows. Both say they believe the commercial milk supply is safe, due to the pasteurization process and the practice of disposing of milk from sick cows. Pasteurization heats milk at a high temperature for a brief period of time to kill microbes living inside it. Some states allow the sale of unpasteurized, aka "raw," milk or cheese, which the CDC recommends avoiding. Public-health experts told <a target="_blank" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/04/23/bird-flu-virus-milk/">The Washington Post</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/23/health/bird-flu-milk.html">The New York Times</a> on Tuesday that they, too, believe <keyword id="1476604" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="pasteurized-milk" source="Orion">pasteurized milk</keyword> to be safe, but that the federal government should still conduct tests to confirm that. The FDA says such tests are ongoing. <div type="image" title="cow udder rigged with machine and tubes for milking" height="1500" width="2250" msid="109605301" hostid="261"></div>"It's taking them too long to be able to reassure the public about the safety of milk," Adams said. Some studies have shown that pasteurization deactivates H5N1 in eggs, the FDA says, and that happens at a lower temperature than milk pasteurization. "To date, we have seen nothing that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe. Results from multiple studies will be made available in the next few days to weeks," the FDA statement said. <h2>To be extra safe, cook meat and eggs all the way</h2>There's probably no "significantly increased risk," Dr. Samuel Alcaine, an associate professor of food science at Cornell University, told Business Insider on April 6, but you can <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-eggs-meat-milk-dairy-safety-during-outbreak-2024-4">be extra safe by fully cooking your meat and eggs</a> (until the yolk is firm). <div type="image" title="Person using spatula to cook steak in frying pan" height="1808" width="3000" msid="109605302" hostid="261"></div>Adams says he doesn't normally eat rare steak or runny eggs anyway. "That has nothing to do with H5N1. That's just me being someone who's been in public health and food safety for a long time," he said. His wife does eat runny eggs and rare steak, though, he added, "and I'm not telling her to change what she does." He added that people should still follow basic food-safety practices: Wash your hands after handling raw meat or eggs, and before handling the food you'll eat. Prevent cross-contamination from raw meats or eggs and the utensils that have touched them. Always cook poultry to an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit. <h2>The biggest bird flu risk for humans isn't food</h2>The people who are really at risk for bird flu are those who work closely with chickens, cattle, or other livestock. The CDC <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/hpai/hpai-interim-recommendations.html">says</a> those workers should avoid unprotected, direct contact with sick animals, raw milk, animals' drinking water, animal carcasses, feces, litter, or other surfaces that could be contaminated with animals' saliva, blood, or other excretions. Workers should be provided with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/h5/worker-protection-ppe.htm">personal protective equipment</a> for those situations and trained to use it properly, the agency says. "It's spreading rapidly in these animals, and every time it spreads, it has a chance to mutate," Adams said.

Bird flu particles were found in pasteurized milk. A former surgeon general says he isn't changing what he eats.

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], June 12 (ANI): The World Health Organisation has confirmed the human case of <keyword id="3653784" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="bird-flu-in-india" source="Orion">bird flu in India</keyword>, after the <keyword id="15897682" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="H9N2-virus" source="Orion">H9N2 virus</keyword> was detected in a four-year child in West Bengal. Overall, this is the second <keyword id="21166335" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="human-infection" source="keywords">human infection</keyword> of <keyword id="2663051" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Avian-Influenza-A" source="Orion">avian influenza A</keyword> (H9N2) notified to WHO from India, with the first being done in 2019. The child has recovered and was discharged from the hospital. WHO received a notification from the International Health Regulations (IHR) National Focal Point (NFP) for India, regarding a human case of avian influenza A(H9N2) virus infection in West Bengal, the health body said in a press release. "The patient is a 4-year-old child residing in West Bengal state. The case, previously diagnosed with hyperreactive airway disease, initially presented to the paediatrician with fever and abdominal pain on 26 January 2024. He developed seizures on January 29 after which he was brought to the same paediatrician. The patient was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (ICU) of a local hospital due to the persistence of severe respiratory distress, recurrent high-grade fever and abdominal cramps. The patient tested positive for influenza B and adenovirus. He was discharged from the hospital on February 28 but with a recurrence of severe respiratory distress, he was referred to another government hospital and was admitted to the pediatric ICU and intubated on March 3. His nasopharyngeal swab was sent to the Kolkata Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory and tested positive for influenza A (not sub-typed) and rhinovirus. On April 26, the sample was sub-typed as influenza A(H9N2) through a real-time polymerase chain reaction. The patient was discharged from the hospital with oxygen support on May 1. WHO said that the infected patient had exposure to poultry at home and in the surroundings. It, however, also affirmed there were no known persons reporting symptoms of respiratory illness in the family, the neighbourhood, or among healthcare workers at health facilities attended by the case at the time of reporting. The health body further warned that sporadic human cases could occur in the future as this virus is "one of the most prevalent avian influenza viruses circulating in poultry in different regions." Animal influenza viruses normally circulate in animals but can also infect humans. Infections in humans have primarily been acquired through direct contact with infected animals or through indirect contact with contaminated environments. Depending on the original host, influenza A viruses can be classified as avian influenza, swine influenza, or other types of animal influenza viruses, the WHO stated in the release. The health body further said that it is providing continued support to the government of India through technical advice, updates on risk assessment and updating contingency plans- both in the human and animal sectors in line with the global guidance.

WHO confirms human case of bird flu in India! H9N2 virus detected in a four-year child in West Bengal

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The H5N1 <keyword id="753637" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="bird-flu-virus" source="Orion">bird flu virus</keyword> is spreading through US cattle herds for the first time.</li><li>The mammal-to-mammal transmission has scientists worried the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/woman-hiv-had-coronavirus-216-days-virus-mutated-2021-6">virus could mutate</a> to spread between humans.</li></ul><keyword id="95867" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="bird-flu" source="Orion">Bird flu</keyword> is flying wild. In recent months the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-avian-influenza-outbreak-us-h5n1-wiping-out-everything-2023-4">highly pathogenic H5N1 virus</a> has been spreading through US cattle herds for the first time ever. The cow-to-cow transmission is the latest escalation in a global <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/egg-prices-poised-to-spike-again-thanks-to-avian-flu-2023-12">outbreak</a> that began when the virus reemerged in Europe in 2020. It has since killed tens of millions of birds and more than 40,000 sea lions and seals in South America. World Health Organization chief scientist Jeremy Farrar <a target="_blank" href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/04/1148696">called</a> this an "<keyword id="20925201" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="animal-pandemic" source="Orion">animal pandemic</keyword>" on April 18. Genetic fragments of the virus, discovered in grocery store milk on Tuesday, suggest the <keyword id="21439799" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cattle-outbreak" source="Orion">cattle outbreak</keyword> is more widespread than officials believed, The Washington Post <a target="_blank" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/04/23/bird-flu-virus-milk/">reported</a>. Experts told the Post that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-eggs-meat-milk-dairy-safety-during-outbreak-2024-4">drinking pasteurized milk is probably still safe</a>. Pasteurization deactivates pathogens, probably including H5N1, according to the Food and Drug Administration. However, no studies have specifically tested whether pasteurizing milk deactivates H5N1. According to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/19/health/bird-flu-usda-cattle.html">the New York Times</a>, the FDA is testing that now. <div type="image" title="row of cows sticking their heads through metal bars to eat hay feed" height="1500" width="2250" msid="109603130" hostid="261"></div>One human in Texas has tested positive for the virus after exposure to dairy cattle. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2024/p0401-avian-flu.html">According</a> to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that person's only symptom was eye redness. There has been no known human-to-human transmission. Still, future mutation could allow the virus to spread more easily to and between humans — a possibility of "great concern" to Farrar. <div type="image" title="man with turkeys inside coop. sign outside reads 'biosecurity area - no admittance w/o owner permission" height="1400" width="2100" msid="109603131" hostid="261"></div>Dr. Jerome Adams, a former surgeon general and the director of health equity at Purdue University, is getting deja vu. "If it keeps spreading in animals, then it is eventually going to cause problems for humans, either because we don't have food because they've got to start exterminating flocks, or because it starts to make a jump in humans," Adams, <keyword id="6366244" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="who" source="Orion">who</keyword> served under former President Donald Trump and was on the administration's initial COVID-19 task force, told Business Insider. "The more it replicates, the more chances it has to mutate." Though he agrees with the CDC's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/inhumans.htm">assessment</a> that the current risk to humans is low, Adams fears the US is repeating many mistakes it made in the early days of COVID-19. <h2>Weak messaging with no clear leaders</h2>Who is in charge of an animal pandemic in the US? The CDC? The US Department of Agriculture? The FDA? The answer is, sort of, all of them. That decentralized responsibility could be behind the lack of widespread, clear public messaging so far. For example, Adams says he hasn't changed anything about his diet, since pasteurization and proper cooking procedures should kill any live virus present. But he isn't sure everyone is getting the message. He compared it to the development of COVID-19 vaccines, when people distrusted a process they didn't understand. <div type="image" title="person with ponytail green hoodie medical gloves inspects eggs in a grocery story" height="1500" width="2000" msid="109603133" hostid="261"></div>"The public needs good consistent communication from the White House, from the USDA, helping reassure them what the process is to keep them safe," Adams said. Rather than consumers, the people most at risk are agricultural workers or anyone with close or prolonged exposure to chickens or cattle. It's those groups who need strong, targeted guidance right now, Adams said. <h2>Only testing the sick</h2>So far, the USDA has only been testing <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/beef-prices-higher-drought-fewer-cattle-less-meat-2022-8">cattle herds</a> when an animal appears sick. That means asymptomatic spread could be flying under the radar. "An animal can't tell you, 'Hey, I feel a little under the weather today.' So they're literally waiting until an animal is collapsing or showing fatigue or showing severe symptoms," Adams said. "We need a testing strategy that is proactive and allows true surveillance, and not reactive." The USDA took a step forward on Wednesday, ordering that all lactating dairy cows must be tested for H5N1 before they're moved across state lines and that all positive test results must be reported. New York Times columnist Zeynep Tufekci <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/24/opinion/bird-flu-cow-outbreak.html">reported</a> that same day that, until now, the USDA has not been keeping track of positive test results in cattle. <h2>Election distraction</h2> <div type="image" title="donald trump" height="3333" width="5000" msid="109603134" hostid="261"></div>In late 2019 and early 2020, the big news story was the impeachment, and later acquittal, of President Trump. Now a different <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-hush-money-trial-kicks-off-fiery-da-openings-2024-4">Trump trial</a> is dominating the news. And, as in 2020, this is an election year. "The Biden administration, particularly the White House, has been incredibly quiet on this bird flu situation. Why? To me, it looks like they very much don't want to scare the public and spook the economy in an election year," Adams said. <h2>Business vs. public health</h2>Just like the lockdowns of COVID-19 were devastating for the restaurant and hospitality industries, a crackdown on avian flu can be devastating to the chicken industry. The treatment for a <keyword id="1433269" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="bird-flu-outbreak" source="Orion">bird flu outbreak</keyword> is to kill all the chickens. Even before that, just testing the flock can slow down production. "We're seeing the same tension between business interests and public health interests," Adams said. What's more, many of the workers who handle chickens and cattle are undocumented immigrants. That can make them and their bosses hesitant to call in authorities over diseased animals. Many vulnerable groups were hesitant to report illness in the early COVID days, too, including migrant workers and people who didn't have sick leave from work. "My concern is we keep making the same mistakes over and over again," Adams said. "Because we keep focusing on the wrong things instead of focusing on the root causes."

Bird flu could jump to humans any day. A former surgeon general says it feels like 2020 again.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A pig has tested positive for <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-avian-influenza-outbreak-us-h5n1-wiping-out-everything-2023-4">H5N1 bird flu</a> in a backyard farm in Oregon.</li><li>Pigs can host both bird and human flu viruses, which can make them a dangerous "mixing bowl."</li></ul>A bird flu virus has jumped one species <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/h5n1-bird-flu-virus-experts-concerned-human-outbreak-spread-possible-2024-6">closer to a human outbreak</a>.The H5N1 <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/avian-flu-has-made-organic-eggs-cheaper-than-conventional-ones-2022-12">bird flu</a> was detected in a pig in Oregon, the first instance of a swine infection in the US, officials announced on Wednesday.Pigs get both bird flu viruses and human flu viruses, making them a genetic mixing bowl where H5N1 could gain <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/woman-hiv-had-coronavirus-216-days-virus-mutated-2021-6">genetic mutations</a> that help it spread between humans.That's not inevitable, but "I would say the concern elevated slightly with this pig infection," Stacey Schultz-Cherry, a virus expert at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the deputy director of a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-says-millions-died-covid-pandemic-global-health-systems-2022-5">World Health Organization</a> center on animal and bird influenza, told Business Insider.<h2 id="d1cf7120-d282-47b7-81ca-5de40e2d7544">The 'animal pandemic' that could jump to humans</h2>This strain of bird flu has killed tens of millions of birds worldwide since 2020 and more than 40,000 sea lions and seals in South America. World Health Organization chief scientist Jeremy Farrar has called this an "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/3-viruses-scientists-are-watching-for-the-next-pandemic-2022-4">animal pandemic</a>."<div type="image" title="two people in white biohazard suits with masks and goggles handle a vial on a beach next to a dead porpoise" height="1500" width="2249" msid="114818661" hostid="261" sizebytes="166630"></div>Earlier this year, it made an unexpected <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-cattle-outbreak-repeat-mistakes-former-surgeon-general-warning-2024-4">jump into US cattle herds</a>.Since then, H5N1 has even <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-virus-h5n1-new-human-case-michigan-respiratory-symptoms-2024-6">infected a few humans</a> who work closely with livestock in the US. But there has been no sign of sustained human-to-human transmission. Pigs could change that.<h2 id="bc8980f4-6384-4658-be8f-7431e95db3eb">Meet the first infected pig</h2>The US Department of Agriculture <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/news/agency-announcements/federal-state-veterinary-agencies-share-update-hpai-detections-oregon">reported</a> that the infected pig was living in a "backyard farming operation" which is now quarantined.Two other pigs on the farm have tested negative for H5N1, while results are still pending for two others. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-chicken-anxiety-how-to-tell-poultry-is-cooked-2023-8">Poultry</a> there have also tested positive."There is no concern about the safety of the nation's pork supply as a result of this finding," the USDA reported, saying that the pigs at this farm were not intended for commercial <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-eggs-meat-milk-dairy-safety-during-outbreak-2024-4">food supplies</a>.Because of the backyard setting, this case doesn't pose the same major outbreak risk as an infection in a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-skyscraper-farm-slaughter-1-million-pigs-a-year-2022-11">commercial pig farm</a>."If it starts to spread from pigs to pigs, then it's much more of a problem," Florian Krammer, a flu virologist at Mount Sinai's Icahn School of Medicine in New York, told <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.statnews.com/2024/10/30/h5n1-bird-flu-found-in-oregon-pig-reassortment-threat-human-transmission/">STAT News</a>. "If it ends up in large pig populations in the US similar to cows, I think this would be a disaster."<h2 id="d7d01e9a-980c-4e8e-8e39-4d09d0ecc0cf">Why pig infection could be a tipping point</h2><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/super-pigs-bred-in-canada-escaped-captivity-now-invading-us-2023-4">Pigs</a> play host to both bird flu viruses and human flu viruses. That makes them a dangerous playground for the two to swap genes.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/past-noncompliance-barred-pig-transplant-patient-from-human-heart-2022-1">Inside a pig</a>, the H5N1 bird flu virus could pick up genetic mutations that help it adapt to better infect human bodies.<div type="image" title="h5n1 virus microscope image shows black and white long straight worm-shaped organism" height="1500" width="2250" msid="114818658" hostid="261" sizebytes="157400"></div>The more pigs are infected, the greater this risk is. However, Schultz-Cherry said, "we would not need to see pig-to-pig transmission to worry about this mixing vessel or this mixing bowl effect." There's no other animal "at the top of the list" with pigs, Richard Webby, a virologist at St. Jude and director of the WHO animal and bird flu center, told BI in June. That could just be due to gaps in our understanding of animal influenza. After all, he added, "a few months ago, I would have told you that cows don't get flu."<h2 id="7a4f46f3-5945-4643-8803-01a4a97b4066">Bad timing: Flu season is in full swing</h2>The timing of this development is "not ideal," Schultz-Cherry said, because it's the middle of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tell-which-virus-you-have-flu-covid-rsv-symptoms-2022-12">flu season</a>, and pigs can get the strains of flu that circulate among humans.If this season's flu strains were to overlap with a pig H5N1 infection, that would increase the risk of gene-swapping that helps the bird flu adapt to humans."Really it would just take one pig," Schultz-Cherry said.Getting your seasonal flu vaccine can help, though, especially if you're in contact with cows, pigs, or poultry. Schultz-Cherry said that's because vaccination reduces the amount of flu circulating through the population.<div type="image" title="Flu Vaccine" height="1220" width="1639" msid="114818656" hostid="261" sizebytes="95142"></div><h2 id="09d4fd9c-f4e2-4a2a-ad87-8f1c71a7d750">Genomic detective work</h2>Schultz-Cherry was surprised by the pig news but, she said, "I guess I shouldn't be."The <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-cows-milk-spread-study-suggests-how-to-stop-2024-6">virus is circulating in cattle</a>, chickens, wild birds, and cats all over the country. Mice have tested positive.Just sharing a drinking water source with these animals could put a pig at risk. The USDA reported that livestock and poultry on the Oregon farm shared water sources, shelter, and other equipment.Now that officials have samples of the virus that infected the pig, they can sequence its genome. That could hint at which animal it first came from.Scientists will likely look for mutations in the virus that could help it infect humans more easily, such as a tweak that makes it attach to more mammal-type receptors in a host animal's cells."It was one pig," Schultz-Cherry said. "But it is something that will lead to increased monitoring of the situation."

Bird flu was detected in a pig, and it could be a tipping point threatening more human transmission

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A girl has died in Cambodia from bird flu, health officials said.</li><li>The girl's dad is infected, but we don't know if he caught it from her.</li></ul>An 11-year-old girl has died in Cambodia from <a href="https://www.insider.com/why-experts-are-concerned-about-highly-pathogenic-bird-flu-2023-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bird flu</a>, health authorities in the country said.The girl initially fell ill with a high fever and cough on February 16 and later died in the National Children's Hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital city, on Wednesday, the authorities said, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/cambodia-reports-death-11-year-old-girl-bird-flu-2023-02-24/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">per Reuters.</a>The case comes amid an <a href="https://www.insider.com/an-expert-says-why-h5n1-bird-flu-is-here-to-stay-2023-2">outbreak of bird flu</a> that has lead to the deaths of more than 200 million birds worldwide since early 2022, either from disease or mass culls, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/bird-flu-alarm-drives-world-towards-once-shunned-vaccines-2023-02-17/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the World Organisation for Animal Health told Reuters.</a>The bird flu strain "H5 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A" or "H5N1" has infected 868 people since it was first detected in humans in 1997, and 457 of those confirmed cases died, <a href="https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/wpro---documents/emergency/surveillance/avian-influenza/ai_20230203.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to the World Health Organization.</a> Officials in Cambodia said that the girl was the first human case in a Southeast Asian country since 2014, per Reuters.Officials believe that the young girl caught the virus from dead wild birds or animals near her home in the Prey Veng province in south Cambodia, close to the border with Vietnam — 22 chickens and three ducks were found dead nearby, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/bird-flu-death-cambodian-child-sparks-global-alarm/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">per The Telegraph</a>.Officials have taken samples from those birds as well as at least 12 people who came into contact with the girl, according to Reuters. As of Friday, the girl's father had tested positive for the virus, but we don't know how he caught it. Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham, UK, <a href="https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-the-h5n1-situation-following-the-death-of-a-girl-in-cambodia/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told the Science Media Centre on Friday</a> that human infections are rare, and the likelihood of onward human to human transmission was "very low.""There is always a risk of human infection, particularly in people in close contact with poultry or wild birds, and this risk increases during times where circulation of avian influenza is particularly high, as it is now," he said.<h2>Humans don't usually catch bird flu, but it can be deadly</h2>H5N1 causes fever, cough, and then can rapidly progress to respiratory failure, acute respiratory distress syndrome — a life-threatening condition when fluid builds up in the tiny air sacs in the lungs — and multi-organ failure, <a href="https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/zoonotic-influenza/facts/factsheet-h5n1#:~:text=The%20overall%20case%E2%80%93fatality%20ratio,differ%20from%20country%20to%20country." target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.</a> It states that 50% of people who catch it die, but that figure can vary between countries.James Wood, head of the department of veterinary medicine at the University of Cambridge, UK, <a href="https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-the-h5n1-situation-following-the-death-of-a-girl-in-cambodia/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told the SMC</a> that many people will have been exposed to H5N1 in recent years, but only a few had caught it."This one case in itself does not signal the global situation has suddenly changed," he said. Ball said that the risk to humans is still "very low."Experts, including Ball and Wood, <a href="https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-the-h5n1-situation-following-the-death-of-a-girl-in-cambodia/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told the SMC</a> that H5N1 needs to be closely monitored, in part due to recent reports of it infecting mammals like <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2359206-researchers-cannot-rule-out-bird-flu-spreading-between-sea-lions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sea lions in Peru</a>."There are two ways H5N1 can change – the mutations it accumulates itself over a period of time, or the mutations it develops as it links with other species," David Heymann, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine,UK, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/bird-flu-death-cambodian-child-sparks-global-alarm/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told The Telegraph.</a>But he cautioned that "no one can say the risk is low, high or intermediate," because a mutation or "spillover" from another species was an unpredictable, "chance event.""By far the most likely scenario for H5N1 is that nothing happens right now," Francois Balloux, the director of the UCL Genetics Institute, UK, <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/BallouxFrancois/status/1629016129237655552" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweeted on Friday.</a>

What to know about H5N1 bird flu in humans as a girl dies in Cambodia and her father tests positive

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The bird flu, or avian influenza, is increasingly worrying public-health experts.</li><li>The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-avian-influenza-outbreak-us-h5n1-wiping-out-everything-2023-4">H5N1 bird flu virus</a> is changing, creeping closer to humans, and getting more opportunities to adapt.</li></ul><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-virus-h5n1-new-human-case-michigan-respiratory-symptoms-2024-6">Bird flu</a> is flying wild, and it has many infectious disease experts more worried now than ever.The H5N1 avian influenza virus has killed tens of millions of birds across the planet and more than 40,000 sea lions and seals. For animals, it's a pandemic.Still, the CDC says the risk to humans is low. Most people seem to have very little chance, if any, of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-eggs-meat-milk-dairy-safety-during-outbreak-2024-4">catching H5N1 avian influenza</a> right now.Only three people in the US have tested positive for the virus since its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-cattle-outbreak-repeat-mistakes-former-surgeon-general-warning-2024-4">surprising break into the cattle population</a>, and they all had direct contact with infected cows.<div type="image" title="farmer man in overalls blue and white button shirt and camo cap reaches over a wooden fence to scratch a cow wearing a bow inside an indoors stall full of hay" height="1500" width="2250" msid="110949087" hostid="261" sizebytes="321112"></div>But infectious disease experts are increasingly concerned that the H5N1 virus could <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/3-viruses-scientists-are-watching-for-the-next-pandemic-2022-4">make a sustained jump into humans</a> and start spreading among us. That's not inevitable, but several recent developments suggest it's a growing threat."There's a lot going on," Dr. Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine and associate chief of the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, told Business Insider. "I'm becoming more worried."You shouldn't panic, but you should probably know what's going on. This virus is a leading candidate for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-says-world-needs-billion-year-prevent-next-pandemic-2022-6">the next pandemic</a>, and four developments in the past month have experts worried.Here's what you need to know.<h2 id="a6efdbe9-4727-4b3a-b934-ceccc3f63ba8">Bird flu hospitalized a child in Australia</h2>On Friday the World Health Organization announced that a 2-year-old had become Australia's first human case of H5N1 in March.After returning from travel to Kolkata, India, the child's symptoms — loss of appetite, fever, coughing, vomiting, and irritability, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news/item/2024-DON519">according</a> to WHO — put them in the hospital for two and a half weeks, including admission to the intensive care unit.As human cases crop up in different parts of the world, epidemiologists like Christopher Dye become more concerned."There's such a vast amount of virus at the moment. And clearly it is changing, and it's doing new and unexpected things," Dye, a professor and senior research fellow at the University of Oxford, told BI.<div type="image" title="researcher in white lab coat blue medical gloves and protective goggles works with an ice bucket containing small samples of milk in a lab" height="1500" width="2250" msid="110949085" hostid="261" sizebytes="166070"></div>He recently co-authored a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bmj.com/content/385/bmj.q1199.full">paper</a>, published in the medical journal BMJ, arguing that the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-real-is-the-last-of-us-science-behind-fungus-pandemic-2023-1">risk of a major human outbreak</a> is "large, plausible, and imminent.""<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/influenza-more-worrisone-than-zika-ebola-2016-4">Influenza has always been a concern</a> for decades and decades, and this particular form of influenza for at least two decades," Dye said. "But now, it's risen to a level of concern, I think, which is greater than ever before."<h2 id="17691a35-dcc3-4171-8b3c-1c847c1e9bb6">Mice could bring bird flu into homes</h2>A total of 47 house mice have tested positive for H5N1 in New Mexico, the US Department of Agriculture reported on Tuesday."Mice are kind of everywhere," Gandhi said. "They're around other animals, they're around humans a lot. And it's a little worrisome."<div type="image" title="brown mouse with white belly sits eating small piece of something in the snow" height="1500" width="2250" msid="110949089" hostid="261" sizebytes="37666"></div>The samples were collected from the sick mice in early May. According to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/why-the-discovery-of-h5n1-bird-flu-in-mice-is-so-alarming/">The Telegraph</a>, scientists suspect that the mice, as well as some domestic cats, may have gotten the virus from <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-milk-food-safety-former-surgeon-general-doctor-2024-4">drinking raw milk from infected cows</a>. (Public health experts resoundingly advise that people should not drink unpasteurized, aka "raw," milk.)"This brings the virus closer to human homes," Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, told The Telegraph. "This is out of control," he added.Every new population of animals, and every new exposure to humans, is another opportunity for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/woman-hiv-had-coronavirus-216-days-virus-mutated-2021-6">the virus to mutate</a> and adapt.<h2 id="abc7e6b4-b179-449b-b66c-ad52a39458d8">One mutation suggests the virus has started adapting</h2><div type="image" title="h5n1 virus microscope image shows black and white long straight worm-shaped organism" height="1500" width="2250" msid="110949092" hostid="261" sizebytes="157400"></div>When the CDC analyzed a virus sample from the second US farmworker infected, they spotted a mutation in the virus's replication machinery — the way it gets inside its host's cells to make copies of itself.It's a change "associated with viral adaptation to mammalian hosts," the CDC said in a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/spotlights/2023-2024/h5n1-technical-update-may-24-2024.html">statement in May</a>. The statement also said that studies in mice indicate this type of genetic mutation in the virus is associated with more severe disease and enhanced viral replication.That doesn't make it a human virus yet, though.Other than this one change, H5N1 has mainly "avian virus properties and not human virus properties," Richard Webby, a virologist at St. Jude and director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds, told BI.That means the virus is better adapted to thrive and spread among birds, not humans.Still, that could change.<h2 id="ddfee4b3-1706-4652-9418-5ae34679d762">The latest US case had a troubling cough</h2>The first two farmworkers to test positive for H5N1 in the US had <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/health/treatments/pink-eye-treatment">pink eye</a>. But the third case, reported in Michigan in May, featured a cough and sore throat.That means H5N1 was in that worker's respiratory system, which is a scarier place to find a threatening virus than in our eyes.For one thing, it's easier to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-covid-positive-biden-statement-meadows-book-coughing-on-people-2021-12">spread a virus by coughing</a> or sneezing than by, well, sharing eye fluid.<div type="image" title="A man coughing" height="1439" width="2084" msid="110949086" hostid="261" sizebytes="169668"></div>The good news is that, as far as scientists can tell, H5N1 is still not adapted to humans enough to transmit between us. The CDC has reported no evidence that the coughing farmworker spread the virus to anyone else.But that doesn't mean H5N1 can't mutate to achieve human-to-human transmission — which brings us to the second unfortunate reality of this farmworker's respiratory infection. Compared to the eyes, human lungs are a more convenient place for an avian virus to get more mammalian, according to Webby. In the lungs, the virus is exposed to more of the cell receptors that a mammalian virus would bind to, giving H5N1 more opportunity to mutate and start grabbing onto those receptors — thereby becoming better adapted to infecting and spreading between humans.Many experts fear the USDA and CDC aren't monitoring cattle and farmworkers closely enough to catch concerning mutations early, and that other human cases may be going undetected.<div type="image" title="blue gloved hands in a white lab coat hold a large syringe and a lab tube of fluid" height="1500" width="2250" msid="110949093" hostid="261" sizebytes="47636"></div>"I think there's enough of a threat here to be very alert so that we have a surveillance system in place that, as soon as this happens, we can find it," Dye said.<h2 id="048d06aa-b91d-4421-b98b-5ae259b70f87">Vaccines are in the works</h2>The good news is that bird flu is <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/august-flu-vs-covid-infection-rate-2023-8">not COVID-19</a>. Scientists have been tracking this virus and its entire viral family tree, watching for any sign of a growing threat to humans, for decades.As a result, the key elements of a vaccine are already on standby. The US is beginning to manufacture millions of vaccines using "candidate vaccine viruses" — weakened influenza viruses — that the CDC has developed.<div type="image" title="how does the flu shot work" height="1414" width="2121" msid="110949090" hostid="261" sizebytes="78400"></div>Though the candidates are not necessarily perfect matches to H5N1, and the vaccines' use of eggs may be a manufacturing roadblock if bird flu is sweeping the chicken population, they may provide some immunity in the case of a human outbreak.Furthermore, scientists now have proven <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mrna-vaccine-pfizer-moderna-coronavirus-2020-12">mRNA vaccine technology</a> at the ready. Vaccines that use mRNA, of which the COVID-19 vaccines were the first approved for use, are more flexible and faster to develop than traditional vaccines — and they don't require eggs.<div type="image" title="white shiny eggs on a machine coming out of a pink glowing chamber" height="1500" width="2667" msid="110949091" hostid="261" sizebytes="187078"></div>Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have already <a target="_blank" href="https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-releases/2024/may/penn-researchers-develop-experimental-mrna-avian-flu-vaccine">developed</a> an experimental mRNA vaccine for H5N1, which they've successfully tested in mice and ferrets.If H5N1 becomes a problem in humans, a vaccine could be offered with the flu shot you get later this year.In the meantime, bird flu is a looming threat to keep an eye on."As far as I can see, this is not going to go away anytime soon," Dye said.

Why 4 new bird flu developments have experts worried about the virus

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The H5N1 bird-flu virus has infected a third person in the US, this time with respiratory symptoms.</li><li>The new patient's cough and sore throat could help the virus get better at infecting humans.</li></ul>The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-cattle-outbreak-repeat-mistakes-former-surgeon-general-warning-2024-4">H5N1 bird-flu virus</a> has once again infected a human. But this time, the unlucky patient had a cough and a sore throat, which is a new milestone for the virus's spread in the US.The H5N1 virus has become a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-avian-influenza-outbreak-us-h5n1-wiping-out-everything-2023-4">pandemic among animals</a>, raging through worldwide bird populations and now through US cattle herds.This latest human case, which the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed on Thursday, is the third known human case in the US, following one in Texas and another in Michigan.All three people are dairy-farm workers who were exposed to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-virus-chickens-cows-human-food-outbreaks-pandemic-2024-5">infected cows</a>, according to the CDC.The first two cases, however, involved only eye symptoms, including <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/health/treatments/pink-eye-treatment">conjunctivitis or pink eye</a>. That means the infection was probably limited to their eyes. Now, it has hit someone's lungs.The risk to the general public is still low, the CDC says, but these new symptoms suggest the virus may have entered a new phase of its flirtation with human infection.<h2 id="3e38b128-b335-4d91-85c2-ad38616292d6">Lungs give the virus more opportunity to adapt to humans</h2>The St. Jude virologist Richard Webby is a leading researcher on an H5 group of influenza viruses, which have been <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/egg-prices-poised-to-spike-again-thanks-to-avian-flu-2023-12">circulating in bird populations</a> for about 25 years.Since 2021, the H5N1 virus has branched out to new frontiers of sustained spread, infecting dolphins and porpoises, migrating to the Americas, culling sea lions and seals, and now spreading through <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/beef-prices-higher-drought-fewer-cattle-less-meat-2022-8">US cattle herds</a>.<div type="image" title="two people in white biohazard suits with masks and goggles handle a vial on a beach next to a dead porpoise" height="1500" width="2249" msid="110684142" hostid="261"></div>"This virus keeps on turning up surprises," Webby, who directs the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds, told Business Insider. "Had you asked me, beginning of the year, what the chances are of H5 turning up in cows, I would have said exceedingly low."Still, he said, H5N1 is still more of a bird virus than a mammalian virus. That's mainly because of the receptors it binds to in order to enter its hosts' cells and replicate itself."Avian viruses bind to one form of this receptor on the host cell. Mammalian viruses bind to a different form," Webby said.The mucus lining the human eye (where the first farmworker got conjunctivitis) is rich in the receptors that avian viruses grab, he said. There, the H5N1 virus can continue operating as an avian virus, grabbing avian receptors with no need to adapt to human receptors.But our respiratory tracts are full of both forms of this receptor — the form preferred by avian viruses and the one preferred by mammalian viruses. Therefore, being in the lungs gives H5N1 more exposure to the receptors that mammalian viruses use, Webby said.That gives H5N1 more opportunity to sustain a mutation that would allow it to bind to those mammalian receptors, adapting better to human bodies.That's the concern, but it's not clear whether that has actually happened inside this patient's lungs. For such a mutation to be significant, it would then have to spread to other people as well. So far, based on all known cases, the virus has been unable to spread from one person to another.<h2 id="151bdecc-20ab-4244-9dd5-9542f3aca984">Sequencing the virus tests for mutations</h2>In a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/02/opinion/bird-flu-case-respiratory.html">New York Times</a> opinion piece on Sunday, the virologist Rick Bright argued that the emergence of respiratory symptoms indicated "a dangerous inflection point" for the virus.After all, he wrote, "coughing can spread viruses more easily than eye irritation can."<div type="image" title="A man coughing" height="1439" width="2084" msid="110684144" hostid="261"></div>But for Webby, the Michigan patient's cough "doesn't change a whole lot."Two previous one-off human cases of H5N1 — one in Chile and one in Ecuador — featured respiratory symptoms.The virus didn't necessarily have to mutate to infect the Michigan farmworker's respiratory system, Webby said. The person could have simply encountered a large amount of virus, maybe an especially ill cow."That's me sort of looking at the crystal ball a little," he said, adding that it was "the most likely explanation for what we're seeing, rather than the other one, which is of course much more scary, that this virus has already changed."Either way, scientists won't know if any scary mutations have occurred until they can examine the virus's genomic RNA sequence from this new case. But Webby said the patient carried such small amounts of the virus that it was possible the CDC wouldn't have enough to get the sequence.Genome sequences are critical. By checking the virus's genes in each new human case, no matter how mild the symptoms, scientists can identify any fresh mutations that help it adapt to humans. If H5N1 becomes a bona fide mammalian virus, they could watch its transformation in real time.<div type="image" title="blue gloved hands in a white lab coat hold a large syringe and a lab tube of fluid" height="1500" width="2250" msid="110684146" hostid="261"></div>"The very first signals we're going to get that this virus is changing are probably going to come from human infections," Webby said.So far, though, the government's monitoring may not be robust enough to spot those mutations early.<h2 id="3c3ea6d6-9c14-4a0d-8a69-ffacd711d1be">Scientists call for more testing so they won't miss mutations</h2>The Food and Drug Administration has detected fragments of the virus in commercial milk and beef. Public-health experts have told BI that though it's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-milk-food-safety-former-surgeon-general-doctor-2024-4">unlikely food will infect you</a>, cautious people can cook their eggs and meats all the way. They said nobody should drink unpasteurized milk, aka raw milk.<div type="image" title="Cattle look at the camera in front of a hay feeder." height="1417" width="2117" msid="110684147" hostid="261"></div>The real risk is to people who work directly with sick animals, especially farmworkers such as the three who have been infected so far.The CDC's principal deputy director, Nirav Shah, told the press in a briefing on Thursday that the government was monitoring about 350 people nationwide who might have been exposed to H5N1, most of them in Michigan. But <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/30/health/bird-flu-infection-farmworker.html">The New York Times</a> reported that only about 40 farmworkers had been tested for the virus."We would like to be doing more testing," Shah said, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.statnews.com/2024/05/30/bird-flu-third-case-human-infection-caused-respiratory-symptoms/">STAT News</a>.Bright argues that the government's weak testing regime could be allowing farmworker infections to fly under the radar.<div type="image" title="man with turkeys inside coop. sign outside reads 'biosecurity area - no admittance w/o owner permission" height="1400" width="2100" msid="110684148" hostid="261"></div>But undetected cases aren't the same thing as undetected spread.Bright's essay rings alarm bells about unknown human-to-human transmission, but Webby finds that unlikely. Even with its current monitoring, the CDC would probably detect sustained human spread, he said.Rather, the problem with undetected cases is that nobody can sequence their samples. Those are windows into the virus's genome (and possible mutations) that nobody is peeking through.Webby and Bright agree that scientists need more sequences of the virus more quickly. For example, Bright said that despite the ongoing herd spread, the Department of Agriculture hadn't shared a new sequence from a cow infection sample in weeks."Bottom line is we need to have more information from exactly what this virus is doing," Webby said. "The more we can understand about it, I do believe we can properly control it, or at least control it way better than we are."Correction — June 4, 2024: An earlier version of this story misstated the nature of genomic sequencing of the H5N1 virus. They are RNA sequences, not DNA.

The 3rd human case of bird flu in the US has 2 new and troubling symptoms

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Unpasteurized milk may be <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-avian-influenza-outbreak-us-h5n1-wiping-out-everything-2023-4">spreading the H5N1 bird flu</a> between cows and to humans.</li><li>A new study showed the virus can survive in raw milk on milking equipment for over an hour.</li></ul>Contaminated milk may be spreading <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-cattle-outbreak-repeat-mistakes-former-surgeon-general-warning-2024-4">H5N1 bird flu</a> between dairy cattle, contributing to a major outbreak across 12 US states. It may also be how humans are getting infected.A new study shows the virus can survive for over an hour in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-milk-food-safety-former-surgeon-general-doctor-2024-4">raw (unpasteurized) milk</a> left on the surfaces of materials used in equipment for milking dairy cattle.That's a clue in the mystery of how the virus has spread so rapidly between US dairy cattle, infecting over 130 herds in Idaho, Michigan, Colorado, Texas, and more.The cattle outbreak has scientists increasingly worried that the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/h5n1-bird-flu-virus-experts-concerned-human-outbreak-spread-possible-2024-6">H5N1 virus could mutate</a> enough to cause an outbreak in humans. The more the virus spreads through cattle, the more opportunity it has to mutate.<div type="image" title="h5n1 virus microscope image shows black and white long straight worm-shaped organism" height="1500" width="2250" msid="111363768" hostid="261" sizebytes="157400"></div>Since April, three farmworkers have <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-virus-h5n1-new-human-case-michigan-respiratory-symptoms-2024-6">tested positive for the virus</a>, but experts have found no evidence of human-to-human spread.Understanding how the virus spreads between cattle is key to reigning in the outbreak and preventing further human infection."We need to know which dairy herds are infected, with what strains of virus, how infection is spread between farms, and how frequently dairy farm workers and other people are exposed," Christopher Dye, an infectious disease expert and professor at the University of Oxford, told Business Insider in an email.According to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.fda.gov/food/alerts-advisories-safety-information/updates-highly-pathogenic-avian-influenza-hpai#:~:text=In%20our%20May%2010%20update,on%20our%20retail%20sample%20survey.">FDA</a>, pasteurized milk purchased at the grocery store remains safe to drink. However, raw milk could be an agent of infection.<h2 id="717db34b-2baa-40b1-9ee3-63df82ce7055">How to help stop the spread of H5N1 bird flu</h2><div type="image" title="racecar driver wearing red firestone cap with wreath of flowers over shoulders chugs milk from a glass bottle" height="1500" width="2062" msid="111363772" hostid="261" sizebytes="148362"></div>Officials already knew that H5N1 was jumping farm-to-farm through the movement of cows, equipment, and people and that the virus concentrates in sick cows' udders and milk."That means even just a small splash of milk can spread the disease," Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack wrote in an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/21271-opinion-good-biosecurity-is-the-key-to-mitigating-the-spread-of-h5n1">op-ed</a> on June 21.Indeed, the new study found that H5N1 virus remained infectious in raw milk for over an hour on stainless steel and rubber inflation lining — material used in milking equipment.The research was <a target="_blank" href="https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/30/8/24-0775_article">published</a> in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases on Monday.Milk may not be the only transmission route. It's possible that cows infect each other by licking each other or shoving their heads into feed together, for example, according to Meghan Davis, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and former dairy veterinarian.However, the study suggests that cleaning milking equipment between cows and outfitting workers with protective gear could help prevent the spread."The workers are down in a, usually, recessed area and the udder is at face height," Davis told BI.That's for their comfort and ability to work at milking for long periods of time, but it puts them at risk of milk splashing into their faces.<div type="image" title="worker wearing a blue apron grey hoodie and baseball cap milks cows on a ledge putting the udders at eye level" height="1500" width="2250" msid="111363765" hostid="261" sizebytes="315378"></div>Goggles and face shields could help. For now, they are not common practice on the dairy floor.Other forms of protective gear, such as N95 masks, can be difficult to implement on dairy farm floors because of hot and humid conditions, Davis said. That can make heavy protective gear incredibly uncomfortable or even put workers at increased risk of heat-related illness.As for cleaning the milking equipment, she added, "there are processes for cleaning, but the level of disinfection that you need in order to inactivate virus is generally going to be beyond what might be normal practice."The ideal cleaning process may look different farm-to-farm depending on the transmission dynamics, the vulnerability of the different cows there, and how finicky the animals are.Long pauses for cleaning in between milkings can affect how much milk a cow produces and even be harmful to the animal, Davis said. It could also result in longer exposure periods for workers because it takes longer to milk a lineup of cows. On the consumer side of the dairy industry, the study is also further evidence that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-eggs-meat-milk-dairy-safety-during-outbreak-2024-4">nobody should drink raw (unpasteurized) milk</a>.

A new study suggests a culprit in bird flu's rapid spread through US cattle, and how to stop it

China has reported the first case of <keyword id="9496369" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="human-infection">human infection</keyword> with the <keyword id="11359120" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="H10N3-strain">H10N3 strain</keyword> of <keyword id="95867" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bird-flu">bird flu</keyword> from the country's eastern Jiangsu province, China's <keyword id="6407801" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="national-health-commission">National Health Commission</keyword> said on Tuesday. The patient, a 41-year-old man from Zhenjiang city, is currently in a stable condition and meets discharge standards, the state-run CGTN TV reported. Health authorities played down the outbreak, saying the case was a sporadic virus transmission from poultry to humans, and the risk of causing a pandemic was extremely low. The patient was diagnosed as having the H10N3 avian <keyword id="6388288" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="influenza">influenza</keyword> virus on May 28, National Health Commission said in a statement without elaborating on how the man had got infected with the virus. No other cases of human infection with H10N3 have previously been reported globally, it said. H10N3 is a low pathogenic or relatively less severe strain of the virus in poultry and the risk of it spreading on a large scale is very low. There are many different strains of avian influenza in China and some sporadically infect people, generally those working with poultry. <keyword id="2599676" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="H5N8">H5N8</keyword> is a subtype of the Influenza A virus (also known as the bird flu virus). While H5N8 only presents a low risk to humans, it is highly lethal to wild birds and poultry. In April, a highly pathogenic H5N6 avian flu was found in wild birds in northeast China's Shenyang city. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/google-photos-alternatives-are-hardly-any-good/articleshow/83138238.cms">Google Photos alternatives are hardly any good – here’s what made the Google service so good</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/economy/news/indias-gdp-has-contracted-five-times-since-1947-but-never-as-bad-as-7-3/articleshow/83135455.cms">India’s GDP has contracted five times since 1947, but never as bad as 7.3%</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/xiaomis-latest-wired-charging-tech-can-fully-charge-a-phone-in-just-8-minutes-and-wirelessly-in-15-minutes/articleshow/83136172.cms">Xiaomi’s latest wired charging tech can fully charge a phone in just 8 minutes and wirelessly in 15 minutes</a>

China reports first human infection with H10N3 strain of bird flu in the world

<ul><li>Researchers have found that H1N1 "<keyword id="43489" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Swine-flu">swine flu</keyword>" <keyword id="54639" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="vaccination">vaccination</keyword> given to pregnant women might be associated with an <keyword id="2508335" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="autism-spectrum">autism spectrum</keyword> disorder in the offspring.</li><li>Autism spectrum disorder is a severe neurodevelopmental childhood disorder characterised by impaired communication, lack of social skills and repetitive behaviour. </li><li>The disease has its onset in childhood.</li></ul> Researchers have found that H1N1 "swine flu" vaccination given to pregnant women might be associated with an autism spectrum disorder in the offspring. Autism spectrum disorder is a severe neurodevelopmental childhood disorder characterised by impaired communication, lack of social skills and repetitive behaviour. The disease has its onset in childhood. "Our null findings are important since some people have suspected that vaccinations could cause autism, and the anti-vaccine movement seems to be growing in the Western world," said study lead author Jonas F Ludvigsson from <keyword id="9779400" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="the-karolinska-institutet">the Karolinska Institutet</keyword> in Sweden. While some studies indicate that influenza vaccination during pregnancy protects against morbidity in both the woman and her offspring, the long-term risks of H1N1 vaccination during fetal life have not been examined in detail. However, two recent studies were unable to rule out that offspring to women undergoing influenza or H1N1 influenza vaccination during pregnancy, and especially during the first trimester, were at increased risk of autism spectrum disorder. Now, a large study by researchers, published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, refutes any such association.Researchers, linked vaccination data in pregnant women from seven Swedish healthcare regions in 2009-2010 to the Swedish Medical Birth Register and the Swedish National Patient Register to identify autism spectrum disorder in the offspring. Of the 39,726 vaccine-exposed children, 394 had a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder during the six-year follow-up compared with 330 among 29,293 unexposed children. The researchers adjusted their analyses for such confounders as maternal smoking, height-weight, maternal age and comorbidity in order to minimize the influence of other factors that might explain any association between vaccination and autism. Adjusting for potential confounders, H1N1 vaccine exposure during fetal life was not associated with a later childhood diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. Results were similar for vaccinations in the first pregnancy trimester. "H1N1 vaccination has previously been linked to an increased risk of narcolepsy in young people, but vaccinating pregnant women does not seem to influence the risk of autism spectrum disorder in the offspring," Ludvigsson said. "Vaccination research has never been more important. Anticipating a vaccine against COVID-19, millions of pregnant women are likely to be offered such a vaccination," he added. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/defense/news/military-level-talks-continue-for-second-day-even-as-china-points-the-finger-back-at-india/articleshow/77868378.cms">Military level talks continue for second day even as China points the finger back at India</a>

You Searched For "H5N1 avian flu" and got 11 results

Scientists warn of bird flu pandemic that could be '100 times worse' than COVID after rare human case found in US

ANI

Bird flu particles were found in pasteurized milk. A former surgeon general says he isn't changing what he eats.

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WHO confirms human case of bird flu in India! H9N2 virus detected in a four-year child in West Bengal

ANI

Bird flu could jump to humans any day. A former surgeon general says it feels like 2020 again.

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

Bird flu was detected in a pig, and it could be a tipping point threatening more human transmission

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

What to know about H5N1 bird flu in humans as a girl dies in Cambodia and her father tests positive

Catherine Schuster-Bruce

Why 4 new bird flu developments have experts worried about the virus

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The 3rd human case of bird flu in the US has 2 new and troubling symptoms

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A new study suggests a culprit in bird flu's rapid spread through US cattle, and how to stop it

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

China reports first human infection with H10N3 strain of bird flu in the world

PTI

Swine flu vaccination given to pregnant woman may not cause autism spectrum disorder in offspring, says study

IANS

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