Bird flu has been detected in dairy cows for the primary time, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has introduced. A farm employee has additionally change into infected.
Milk samples from cows on farms in Texas and Kansas examined optimistic for the H5N1 pressure of the virus. The samples had been collected for testing after farmers reported that some cows had change into unwell. They additionally reported that they’d discovered lifeless wild birds on their properties.
The H5N1 pressure is lethal for birds, however not one of the cows have died to this point. They are the latest in various mammal species to have change into contaminated as avian flu rages around the globe.
How are cows affected
The USDA has mentioned that the cows appear to have caught the virus from wild birds, however it isn’t clear how transmission occurred. Contamination of water or meals on the farms by chicken faeces or saliva is one possibility. The USDA is conducting additional checks.
The contaminated cows have displayed flu-like symptoms. These embrace fever and thick and discolored milk, in addition to a drop in how a lot milk they might produce. Any contaminated milk can be destroyed, whereas pasteurization would kill any virus that managed to enter the meals chain.
“Unlike affected poultry, I foresee there will be no need to depopulate dairy herds,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said in a statement. “Cattle are expected to fully recover.”
The dairy employee who caught the virus has displayed gentle signs, primarily conjunctivitis. They are being handled with antiviral treatment, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS). They are solely the second person within the US to ever catch chicken flu.
Transmission between species
Bird flu has affected thousands and thousands of birds and jumped to 48 mammal species. Infected mammals, which embrace sea lions, foxes, otters, and bears, are more than likely to have caught it from consuming lifeless and contaminated birds.
The virus has reached even remote areas. In late 2023, penguins within the Antarctic examined optimistic for H5N1. Though they weren’t displaying signs and are still healthy, consultants have warned they might unfold the illness to different species on the continent.
The danger of people catching chicken flu is low since there is no such thing as a proof of human-to-human transmission. The fundamental route for an infection being shut contact with contaminated birds. Globally, a number of individuals, together with staff on rooster farms, have contracted varied strains of chicken flu. Some have died because of this. Infectious ailments consultants warn that each transmission to mammals offers the virus an opportunity to mutate right into a pressure that would extra simply leap to people.
Wild birds to not blame
While wild birds have helped to transmit the virus across the globe as they migrate huge distances, they aren’t responsible for its lethalness.
The H5N1 pressure is “highly pathogenic” – that means, lethal – in comparison with low pathogenic strains that naturally and largely harmlessly flow into in wild chicken populations. H5N1 was first detected on a goose farm in China in 1996 and reappeared on poultry farms in Hong Kong in 1997. Experts believe that the expansion of intensive poultry farming have helped to H5N1 and different chicken flu strains spillover to wild birds.
Since chicken flu started surging globally in 2021, tons of of thousands and thousands of farmed birds have been culled in a bid to include the virus. The culling course of itself might be extraordinarily merciless; within the US, an more and more frequent methodology is ventilation shutdown. This suffocates and basically roasts the animals to demise. Millions of untamed birds have died horrible deaths from the virus, which can cause respiratory difficulties, diarrhea, and swelling within the head.
