Bird Flu Is Bad for Poultry and Dairy Cows. It’s Not a Dire Threat for Most of Us — Yet.

2024/05/03

Headlines are flying after the Department of Agriculture confirmed that the H5N1 bird flu virus has infected dairy cows around the country. Tests have detected the virus among cattle in nine states, mainly in Texas and New Mexico, and most recently in Colorado, said Nirav Shah, principal deputy director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at a May 1 event held by the Council on Foreign Relations.

A menagerie of other animals have been infected by H5N1, and at least one person in Texas. But what scientists fear most is if the virus were to spread efficiently from person to person. That hasn’t happened and might not. Shah said the CDC considers the H5N1 outbreak “a low risk to the general public at this time.”

Viruses evolve and outbreaks can shift quickly. “As with any major outbreak, this is moving at the speed of a bullet train,” Shah said. “What we’ll be talking about is a snapshot of that fast-moving train.” What he means is that what’s known about the H5N1 bird flu today will undoubtedly change.

With that in mind, KFF Health News explains what you need to know now.

Q: Who gets the bird flu?

Mainly birds. Over the past few years, however, the H5N1 bird flu virus has increasingly jumped from birds into mammals around the world. The growing list of more than 50 species includes seals, goats, skunks, cats, and wild bush dogs at a zoo in the United Kingdom. At least 24,000 sea lions died in outbreaks of H5N1 bird flu in South America last year.

What makes the current outbreak in cattle unusual is that it’s spreading rapidly from cow to cow, whereas the other cases — except for the sea lion infections — appear limited. Researchers know this because genetic sequences of the H5N1 viruses drawn from cattle this year were nearly identical to one another.

The cattle outbreak is also concerning because the country has been caught off guard. Researchers examining the virus’s genomes suggest it originally spilled over from birds into cows late last year in Texas, and has since spread among many more cows than have been tested. “Our analyses show this has been circulating in cows for four months or so, under our noses,” said Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Q: Is this the start of the next pandemic?

Not yet. But it’s a thought worth considering because a bird flu pandemic would be a nightmare. More than half of people infected by older strains of H5N1 bird flu viruses from 2003 to 2016 died. Even if death rates turn out to be less severe for the H5N1 strain currently circulating in cattle, repercussions could involve loads of sick people and hospitals too overwhelmed to handle other medical emergencies.

Although at least one person has been infected with H5N1 this year, the virus can’t lead to a pandemic in its current state. To achieve that horrible status, a pathogen needs to sicken many people on multiple continents. And to do that, the H5N1 virus would need to infect a ton of people. That won’t happen through occasional spillovers of the virus from farm animals into people. Rather, the virus must acquire mutations for it to spread from person to person, like the seasonal flu, as a respiratory infection transmitted largely through the air as people cough, sneeze, and breathe. As we learned in the depths of covid-19, airborne viruses are hard to stop.

That hasn’t happened yet. However, H5N1 viruses now have plenty of chances to evolve as they replicate within thousands of cows. Like all viruses, they mutate as they replicate, and mutations that improve the virus’s survival are passed to the next generation. And because cows are mammals, the viruses could be getting better at thriving within cells that are closer to ours than birds’.

The evolution of a pandemic-ready bird flu virus could be aided by a sort of superpower possessed by many viruses. Namely, they sometimes swap their genes with other strains in a process called reassortment. In a study published in 2009, Worobey and other researchers traced the origin of the H1N1 “swine flu” pandemic to events in which different viruses causing the swine flu, bird flu, and human flu mixed and matched their genes within pigs that they were simultaneously infecting. Pigs need not be involved this time around, Worobey warned.

Q: Will a pandemic start if a person drinks virus-contaminated milk?

Not yet. Cow’s milk, as well as powdered milk and infant formula, sold in stores is considered safe because the law requires all milk sold commercially to be pasteurized. That process of heating milk at high temperatures kills bacteria, viruses, and other teeny organisms. Tests have identified fragments of H5N1 viruses in milk from grocery stores but confirm that the virus bits are dead and, therefore, harmless.

Unpasteurized “raw” milk, however, has been shown to contain living H5N1 viruses, which is why the FDA and other health authorities strongly advise people not to drink it. Doing so could cause a person to become seriously ill or worse. But even then, a pandemic is unlikely to be sparked because the virus — in its current form — does not spread efficiently from person to person, as the seasonal flu does.

Q: What should be done?

A lot! Because of a lack of surveillance, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other agencies have allowed the H5N1 bird flu to spread under the radar in cattle. To get a handle on the situation, the USDA recently ordered all lactating dairy cattle to be tested before farmers move them to other states, and the outcomes of the tests to be reported.

But just as restricting covid tests to international travelers in early 2020 allowed the coronavirus to spread undetected, testing only cows that move across state lines would miss plenty of cases.

Such limited testing won’t reveal how the virus is spreading among cattle — information desperately needed so farmers can stop it. A leading hypothesis is that viruses are being transferred from one cow to the next through the machines used to milk them.

To boost testing, Fred Gingrich, executive director of a nonprofit organization for farm veterinarians, the American Association of Bovine Practitioners, said the government should offer funds to cattle farmers who report cases so that they have an incentive to test. Barring that, he said, reporting just adds reputational damage atop financial loss.

“These outbreaks have a significant economic impact,” Gingrich said. “Farmers lose about 20% of their milk production in an outbreak because animals quit eating, produce less milk, and some of that milk is abnormal and then can’t be sold.”

The government has made the H5N1 tests free for farmers, Gingrich added, but they haven’t budgeted money for veterinarians who must sample the cows, transport samples, and file paperwork. “Tests are the least expensive part,” he said.

If testing on farms remains elusive, evolutionary virologists can still learn a lot by analyzing genomic sequences from H5N1 viruses sampled from cattle. The differences between sequences tell a story about where and when the current outbreak began, the path it travels, and whether the viruses are acquiring mutations that pose a threat to people. Yet this vital research has been hampered by the USDA’s slow and incomplete posting of genetic data, Worobey said.

The government should also help poultry farmers prevent H5N1 outbreaks since those kill many birds and pose a constant threat of spillover, said Maurice Pitesky, an avian disease specialist at the University of California-Davis.

Waterfowl like ducks and geese are the usual sources of outbreaks on poultry farms, and researchers can detect their proximity using remote sensing and other technologies. By zeroing in on zones of potential spillover, farmers can target their attention. That can mean routine surveillance to detect early signs of infections in poultry, using water cannons to shoo away migrating flocks, relocating farm animals, or temporarily ushering them into barns. “We should be spending on prevention,” Pitesky said.

Q: OK it’s not a pandemic, but what could happen to people who get this year’s H5N1 bird flu?

No one really knows. Only one person in Texas has been diagnosed with the disease this year, in April. This person worked closely with dairy cows, and had a mild case with an eye infection. The CDC found out about them because of its surveillance process. Clinics are supposed to alert state health departments when they diagnose farmworkers with the flu, using tests that detect influenza viruses, broadly. State health departments then confirm the test, and if it’s positive, they send a person’s sample to a CDC laboratory, where it is checked for the H5N1 virus, specifically. “Thus far we have received 23,” Shah said. “All but one of those was negative.”

State health department officials are also monitoring around 150 people, he said, who have spent time around cattle. They’re checking in with these farmworkers via phone calls, text messages, or in-person visits to see if they develop symptoms. And if that happens, they’ll be tested.

Another way to assess farmworkers would be to check their blood for antibodies against the H5N1 bird flu virus; a positive result would indicate they might have been unknowingly infected. But Shah said health officials are not yet doing this work.

“The fact that we’re four months in and haven’t done this isn’t a good sign,” Worobey said. “I’m not super worried about a pandemic at the moment, but we should start acting like we don’t want it to happen.”

© Kaiser Health News

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

Catherine Schuster-Bruce
Fri, February 24, 2023 

A strain of bird flu, H5N1, can transmit between humans but it's rare.

Peter Garrard Beck/Getty Images

A girl has died in Cambodia from bird flu, health officials said.


The girl's dad is infected, but we don't know if he caught it from her.


Experts have said the risk of the virus spreading among people is low.

An 11-year-old girl has died in Cambodia from bird flu, 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, per Reuters.

The case comes amid an outbreak of bird flu that has lead to the deaths of more than 200 million birds worldwide since early 2022, either from disease or mass culls, the World Organisation for Animal Health told Reuters.

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, according to the World Health Organization. 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, per The Telegraph.

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, told the Science Media Centre on Friday 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.
Humans don't usually catch bird flu, but it can be deadly

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, according to the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. 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, told the SMC 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, told the SMC that H5N1 needs to be closely monitored, in part due to recent reports of it infecting mammals like sea lions in Peru.

"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, told The Telegraph.

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, tweeted on Friday.

What is bird flu? 11-year-old girl in Cambodia dies from virus

Health agencies are modelling potential human-transmission scenarios for the H5N1 virus based on the Covid pandemic and the 1918 influenza outbreak

Harriet Sinclair
·Trending News Reporter
Fri, February 24, 2023 

Bird flu has spread rapidly across Europe in the most recent outbreak among poultry. (Reuters)

An 11-year-old girl has died from bird flu in Cambodia, after contracting the first known human case of the H5N1 virus in the country since 2014.

The girl became ill on 16 February and died on Wednesday, according to the country's health ministry. Her father has since been confirmed to have contracted the virus and 11 other people who came into contact with the child are being tested.

The case has put other countries on high alert for human cases of the virus, which has resulted in the deaths or culling of more than 200 million birds around the world.

Although the virus has spread rapidly among the UK's avian population, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said there is "no evidence so far that the virus is getting better at infecting humans or other mammals".


Girl, 11, dies in Cambodia after catching bird flu, government says (The Independent, 2-min read)
What is bird flu?

Avian influenza, otherwise known as bird flu, is categorised as influenza A H5N1. The virus has spread widely in birds around the world since 2021 but has thus far resulted in very few infections in humans.

According to the European Centre of Disease Control the virus is a "highly pathogenic avian influenza virus", meaning it has a high mortality rate among infected poultry.

The 2021/2022 epidemic has been among the worst recorded in Europe, and the UKHSA is currently looking into potential response scenarios should the virus begin to transmit to humans more widely.

The agency is currently assessing whether the lateral flow devices used to detect COVID could be used to test for the H5N1 virus in humans, and has been monitoring people who have come into contact with infected birds.

Arturo Casadevall, the chair of the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Johns Hopkins University in the US, which supplied widely used coronavirus tracking data, said information on whether the 12 suspected new infections in Cambodia would be key.



The UKHSA is currently modelling several different potential scenarios of human transmission - one based on the recent coronavirus pandemic, and one based on the 1918 flu outbreak, whose fatality rate was higher.

In a potential scenario with a higher fatality rate, people could see "significant behavioural differences relative to the recent pandemic experience", UKHSA said.

Dr Meera Chand, incident director for avian influenza at UKHSA, said: "The latest evidence suggests that the avian influenza viruses we’re seeing circulating in birds do not currently spread easily to people.

"However, viruses constantly evolve, and we remain vigilant for any evidence of changing risk to the population, as well as working with partners to address gaps in the scientific evidence."

Bird flu: Health officials draw up COVID-style model looking at pandemic possibilities (Sky News, 3-min read)

Bird flu situation 'worrying'; WHO working with Cambodia


Fri, February 24, 2023
By Jennifer Rigby

LONDON (Reuters) -The World Health Organization is working with Cambodian authorities after two confirmed human cases of H5N1 bird flu were found among one family in the country.

Describing the situation as "worrying" due to the recent rise in cases in birds and mammals, Dr Sylvie Briand, the director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, told reporters in a virtual briefing that WHO was reviewing its global risk assessment in light of the recent developments.

The U.N. health agency last assessed the risk to humans from avian flu as low earlier this month.

Cambodian authorities on Thursday reported the death of an 11-year old girl due to H5N1, and began testing 12 of her contacts. Her father, who had been showing symptoms, has also tested positive for the virus.

"The global H5N1 situation is worrying given the wide spread of the virus in birds around the world and the increasing reports of cases in mammals including humans," Briand said. "WHO takes the risk from this virus seriously and urges heightened vigilance from all countries."

Briand said it was not yet clear whether there had been any human-to-human transmission, which was a key reason to focus on the cases in Cambodia, or if the two cases were due to the "same environmental conditions," likely close contact with infected birds or other animals.

A new strain of H5N1, clade 2.3.4.4b, emerged in 2020 and has been causing record numbers of deaths among wild birds and domestic poultry in recent months. It has also infected mammals, raising global concerns.

However, unlike earlier outbreaks of H5N1, which has been around for more than two decades, this subtype is not causing significant illness in people. So far, only about a half dozen cases have been reported to the WHO in people who had close contact with infected birds, and most of those have been mild. Experts have suggested that the virus might need to change in order for human transmission to occur.

However, WHO said it was stepping up preparedness efforts regardless, and noted that there were antivirals available, as well as 20 licensed pandemic vaccines if the situation changes, although they would have to be updated to more closely match the circulating strain of H5N1 if needed.

That could take four to five months, said Richard Webby, director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds at St. Jude Children's Hospital. However, some stockpiled vaccines would be available in the meantime.

WHO-affiliated labs already hold two flu virus strains that are closely related to the circulating H5N1 virus, which manufacturers can use to develop new shots if needed. A global meeting of flu experts this week suggested developing another strain that more closely matches H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b, Webby told the briefing.

(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby; editing by Jon Boyle, Jason Neely and Tomasz Janowski)

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for BIRD FLU 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for H5N1 

H5N1 ZOONOSIS

Bird flu pandemic in future? EU warns of potential spread to humans due to 'lack of immune defense’

Alert follows confirmation of rare human case in Texas

 By Melissa Rudy Fox News
Published April 3, 2024 

As avian influenza (bird flu) continues to spread among wild birds in the European Union, officials are warning of the potential for a future human pandemic.

On Wednesday, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) issued an alert noting that "transmission between bird and mammal species has been observed, particularly in fur animal farms, where outbreaks have been reported."

Although it is rare for infected birds to pass along the virus to humans, the agency warned that new strains could pose a danger in the future.

"These viruses continue to evolve globally, and with the migration of wild birds, new strains carrying potential mutations for mammalian adaptation could be selected," the alert stated.

"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 defenses against H5 viruses in humans."



As avian influenza (bird flu) continues to spread among wild birds in the European Union, officials are warning of the potential for a future human pandemic. (iStock)

In other words, humans don’t have immunity against bird flu — which means it could potentially spread quickly.

The flu has been found to spread between birds and mammals, the EFSA noted — "particularly in fur animal farms, where outbreaks have been reported."

To prevent the risk of a bird flu pandemic, the agency recommended taking steps to limit exposure and prevent the spread to mammals and humans.

"Key options for actions include enhancing surveillance targeting humans and animals, ensuring access to rapid diagnostics, promoting collaboration between animal and human sectors, and implementing preventive measures such as vaccination," the EFSA wrote.



"People with close or prolonged, unprotected exposures to infected birds or other animals (including livestock), or to environments contaminated by infected birds or other animals, are at greater risk of infection," the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. (iStock)

"Effective communication to different involved target audiences should be emphasized, as well as strengthening veterinary infrastructure, enforcing biosecurity measures at farms, and reducing wildlife contact with domestic animals."

The agency also called for "careful planning of poultry and fur animal farming," particularly in locations with large numbers of waterfowl (aquatic birds like ducks and geese).
Human cases in the U.S.

On Monday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that a person in Texas tested positive for H5N1 bird flu.

"This person had exposure to dairy cattle in Texas presumed to be infected with HPAI A(H5N1) viruses," the CDC’s statement said.

"The patient reported eye redness (consistent with conjunctivitis), as their only symptom, and is recovering. The patient was told to isolate and is being treated with an antiviral drug for flu."


The CDC said this is the second case of a human testing positive for H5N1 in the U.S., after a previous case was observed in Colorado in 2022.



"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 defenses against H5 viruses in humans," the European Food Safety Authority said. (iStock)

"This infection does not change the H5N1 bird flu human health risk assessment for the U.S. general public, which CDC considers to be low," it added.

"However, people with close or prolonged, unprotected exposures to infected birds or other animals (including livestock), or to environments contaminated by infected birds or other animals, are at greater risk of infection."


"At present, it does not transmit readily from person to person."

The CDC said it is "working with state health departments to continue to monitor workers who may have been in contact with infected or potentially infected birds/animals and test those people who develop symptoms."

Human symptoms can range from mild (e.g., eye infection, upper respiratory symptoms) to severe illness (e.g., pneumonia), according to the CDC.
Infectious diseases expert weighs in

Erica Susky, a Toronto-based medical microbiologist certified in infection control, said she believes there is generally "not a high risk" of human-to-human transmission, given that "the natural reservoir" of H5N1 and other strains of avian influenza is birds and not humans.

"Cases of H5N1 in humans usually occur in people who have had contact with birds (slaughter, de-feathering, butchering or preparing)," she told Fox News Digital.



The EU agency called for "careful planning of poultry and fur animal farming," particularly in locations with large numbers of waterfowl. (iStock)


While bird flu has a 60% fatality in humans, Susky noted, it rarely occurs.

"At present, it does not transmit readily from person to person," she said.

The primary concern involves the influenza virus, she said, which is "excellent at mutating and recombining."

"If there are repeated contacts between species that are the natural reservoir for one type of influenza viral strain — like birds and H5N1 — and humans, the chances of this novel strain adapting to spread in this different species increases," Susky told Fox News Digital.

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"As there are more cases of H5N1, there are more chances for a crossover event into humans."

Some of the biggest sources of spread, Susky said, are industrial agriculture and modern cities, where a virus like influenza can pass readily through human and bird populations.


"Currently, birds share influenza strains less often with humans, though that can change — it is how past influenza pandemics have arisen," she said.



The CDC on Monday announced that a person in Texas tested positive for H5N1 bird flu. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo)

To prevent spread, Susky recommended practicing proper infection prevention techniques, which is important not only for bird flu, but also for seasonal influenza.

Those techniques include following proper and frequent hand hygiene before preparing food, eating or touching one’s face, and after using the washroom or coming in contact with animals.

Other mitigation strategies include receiving the annual influenza vaccine for those who qualify, and not going out among other people while feeling ill.

"The best way to minimize one’s risk of coming in contact with novel influenza strains is to avoid contact with birds and wild animals, if possible," Susky added.

Fox News Digital's Greg Norman contributed to this report.

Is the apocalypse near? First death of Penguins in the Antarctic due to H5N1 bird flu makes experts raise alarm

First penguin death in the Antarctic from H5N1 bird flu raise concerns of an impending ecological disaster. Experts sound alarm

Written by Zerneela Mohammed Wakil

January 30, 2024 

King Penguin dies of H5N1 bird flu in the Antarctic (Photo: Pixabay/Representative Image)

The death of one king penguin is suspected to have been due to bird flu on South Georgia island in the Antarctic region, according to a report by the Guardian. This will be the first of the species to be killed by the highly contagious H5N1 virus in the wild if confirmed.

Concerns have been raised by experts about the impact of the potentially devastating disease on remote penguin populations. It has been highlighted that the current breeding season could enable a speedy spread of the virus leading to “one of the largest ecological disasters of modern times.”

The Antarctic was the sole major geographical region where high pathogenicity avian influenza virus had not been previously identified. Birds such as penguins, which had never encountered the virus before, lacked prior 

Among the affected penguins were king penguins, the world’s second-largest penguin species, standing about 3 feet tall and capable of living over 20 years in the wild. In addition to king penguins, a gentoo penguin succumbed to H5N1 at the same location, and another gentoo penguin was confirmed to have died from the virus on the Falkland Islands, situated 900 miles (1,500 km) west of South Georgia.

Previous outbreaks in South Africa, Chile, and Argentina demonstrated the high vulnerability of penguins to the disease, resulting in the death of over 500,000 seabirds, including penguins, pelicans, and boobies, in South America.

Ed Hutchinson, a molecular virologist at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, expressed concern about the introduction of the H5N1 virus into the Antarctic, emphasizing the risk it posed to the delicate ecosystem. While saddened by reports of penguin fatalities, he noted that it was sadly not unexpected.

Diana Bell, emeritus professor of conservation biology at the University of East Anglia, echoed these concerns, emphasizing the potential rapid spread of the virus within penguin colonies due to their colonial social organization.

The threat of avian flu compounds the existing challenges faced by pristine polar ecosystems. A 2018 study predicted that king penguins in Antarctica could face extinction by the end of the century.

Recently, a polar bear succumbed to H5N1, marking the first recorded case in this species. The bear was discovered in Utqiagvik, an area significantly affected by the ongoing global outbreak. Polar bears are classified as “vulnerable” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list due to declining sea ice.

The virus also poses a risk to humans, especially those in contact with poultry.

   Bird flu found in penguin species sparks fear of spread to Antarctica

By JAKE SPRING and GLORIA DICKIE, 

Reuters
Published January 31, 2024

Three gentoo penguins walk along Quentin Point, Anvers Island, Antarctica

REUTERS/ Ueslei Marcelino/ File photo

A deadly type of bird flu has been found in gentoo penguins for the first time, according to the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), stoking concern that the virus could spread to Antarctic penguin colonies.

Researchers found about 35 penguins dead in the Falkland Islands on Jan. 19. Samples taken from two of the dead penguins both came back positive for the H5N1 avian influenza virus, said Ralph Vanstreels, a veterinarian who works with SCAR.

The deaths confirm that gentoo penguins are susceptible to the highly lethal disease that has decimated bird populations across the world in recent months. However, gentoos rarely travel between the Falklands off the coast of Argentina and the Antarctic Peninsula, which lies some 1,300 kilometers (807 miles) to the south.

That means traveling penguins are unlikely to drive the spread to the southern continent, said Vanstreels, a researcher affiliated with University of California-Davis.

"The role that gentoo penguins could have, instead, is to serve as local reservoirs of infection," he said. "That is, maintain a pool of susceptible hosts that never leaves the islands."

Researchers also found in nearby South Georgia a suspected case of bird flu in king penguins. Scientists are still waiting for test results to confirm the presence of H5N1, Vanstreels said.

Hundreds of thousands of penguins gather in tightly packed colonies on the Antarctic continent, which could enable the deadly virus to easily jump between individuals.

While penguins may be charismatic, conservationists are more concerned about other species, Vanstreels said. Elephant seals and fur seals have died in larger numbers in South Georgia, following mass casualties in those species in South America.

"This is especially concerning because South Georgia is home to 95 percent of the world's population of Antarctic fur seals. If that population collapses, the species will be in a critical situation," he said. — Reuters

 

To prepare for next pandemic, Pitt researchers tackle bird flu

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

 

IMAGE: 

DOUG REED, PH.D.

view more 

CREDIT: DOUG REED

PITTSBURGH, September 29, 2023 – Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Vaccine Research Center have developed an improved way to test potential vaccines against bird flu. The report was published this week in the journal iScience.

Concerning reports about avian flu outbreaks at poultry facilities across the country and abroad highlight the increasingly urgent need for a safe and effective vaccine that could thwart a possible spread of the virus from human to human. To be ready to safely and efficiently test promising vaccine candidates, researchers developed an animal model that more closely mimics the typical symptoms of human infection than any such model so far. This proactive work minimizes the steps needed to quickly validate and deploy a new vaccine in a crisis.

“The COVID-19 pandemic got people to realize that it is not enough to respond to a pandemic when it happens. We really need to make sure that we are ready before it is here,” said co-senior author Doug Reed, Ph.D., associate professor of immunology at Pitt’s Center for Vaccine Research.

Bird flu, caused by H5N1 influenza virus, is primarily spread by migratory wild birds and can decimate poultry populations, including chickens and ducks. Although the virus has infected people, previous infections have not spread efficiently from human to human. However, there are documented cases of H5N1 spreading in mammalian populations, ranging from minks to sea lions and dolphins, raising concern about human-to-human spread.

People infected with H5N1 virus can develop acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS, manifesting in short and labored breathing. H5N1 kills more than half of those infected.

To ensure that a future vaccine will be protective, the researchers turned to macaques, which have close anatomy and physiology to humans, making them a choice model for the testing of life-saving medicines.

Reed and his coauthor, Simon Barratt-Boyes, Ph.D., professor of infectious diseases and microbiology at the Pitt School of Public Health, reasoned that delivering H5N1 virus by small particle aerosol would make it more likely to reach deep into the lung and mimic natural exposure. They first demonstrated this aerosolized infection model in research published in 2017. In the new paper, they refined their model and evaluated whether a seasonal flu vaccine, which protects against human influenza A and B viruses, when given three times with an experimental adjuvant could prevent ARDS upon exposure to aerosolized H5N1 virus.

All monkeys that received adjuvanted seasonal flu vaccine were protected from death, and there were low but measurable neutralizing antibodies against H5N1 in their blood samples, the quantity of which was inversely correlated with the severity of their symptoms.

While the researchers caution that their findings do not mean that a seasonal flu vaccine can efficiently protect against bird flu, they are optimistic that protective efficacy of future vaccines that target H5N1 can be tested using this model and deployed faster.

“The original idea behind this work was more than 20 years in the making,” said Reed. “Now there is a path forward to get people protected against this devastating disease.”

Masaru Kanekiyo, Ph.D., of the NIH Vaccine Research Center, also contributed to the study.

The University of Pittsburgh has received funding support as an agreement under NIH contract number HHSN261201500003I to Leidos Biomedical Research in Frederick, Maryland.

The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

---

JOURNAL

iScience

DOI

10.1016/j.isci.2023.107830 

ARTICLE TITLE

Refined semi-lethal aerosol H5N1 influenza model in cynomolgus macaques for evaluation of medical countermeasures

Scientists warn Canada 'way behind the virus' as bird flu explodes among U.S. dairy cattle

Story by Lauren Pelley • CBC

 

The CFIA says it has not detected this form of bird flu yet in dairy cattle — or any other livestock — in Canada. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)

While federal officials say there's still no sign of a dangerous form of bird flu in Canadian dairy cows, scientists warn limited surveillance means Canada might not be staying ahead of an explosive H5N1 outbreak among dairy cattle south of the border.

So far, dozens of herds across various U.S. states have been infected with this form of influenza A. While it appears to cause milder infections in cows, H5N1 has also been linked to stunning death rates of 50 per cent or more in other species, including various birds, cats and even humans, though more data and research is needed to fully understand the risks.

"I think we're way behind the virus," warned Matthew Miller, an immunologist and vaccine developer with McMaster University, who's among the Canadians working on H5N1 research.

Without a "robust national surveillance program, there's no way to know if there are infections here or not."

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) told CBC News on Monday it has not detected this form of bird flu yet in dairy cattle — or any other livestock — in Canada. (In birds, however, the disease is already widespreadacrossthe country, impacting an estimated 11 million farmed birds to date.)

The disease is federally reportable in any species, cattle included, the CFIA said. The agency requires dairy producers to monitor for signs of infection, follow biosecurity measures, and contact their local CFIA office if there is a "high degree of suspicion" of the disease.

It appears that cross-country trade is still allowed. Asked whether dairy cattle can currently be transported between the U.S. and Canada, the CFIA said the World Organisation of Animal Health "does not recommend restrictions on the movement of healthy cattle and their products at this time."

As well, following a U.S. federal order last Wednesday requiring H5N1 testing for many dairy cattle moving between states, "Canada will also require testing for [avian flu] on imported lactating dairy cattle from the U.S.," the CFIA said. 

When asked about testing milk samples, the agency said if H5N1 is detected in Canadian cattle, it will help provide testing support.

(The agency was more clear in an earlier statement on social media, saying it is "not currently testing raw or pasteurized milk," adding that the virus isn't a food safety concern.) 

Multiple Canadian scientists, however, stress that widespread testing and surveillance efforts should already be underway rather than set to ramp up after a first detection.

Canada needs 'active surveillance'

Canada should "absolutely be doing active surveillance for H5N1 in cattle," other animals and humans who are in close contact with them, said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases expert with the University Health Network in Toronto, in correspondence with CBC News.

He said those efforts could include a range of approaches such as wastewater surveillance, blood sample studies and nasal swabs.

The goal should be going "all-in on prevention," Miller said, adding "pandemics always have the highest risk of happening when we have a virus in animals that humans are heavily exposed to."

Given H5N1's unprecedented leap into cattle, followed by explosive cow-to-cow spread across the U.S. in mere weeks, the potential for human-to-human transmission seems more likely as the virus adapts to more mammals, he warned. 

"If we see more human infections, cat's out of the bag, it's way too late," Miller said. "We need to be sparing no amount of effort, and no amount of expense, in doing absolutely everything to prevent even those initial infections in humans — because the stakes are just too high."

The U.S. has reported one human infection linked to the cattle outbreaks so far, in an individual whose only symptom was eye inflammation. However, some scientists have warned there are likely more that aren't being detected, amid growing calls for mass testing on farms.

"Since the issue in the [U.S.] seems to be bigger than we thought and was brewing before it was recognized, and since we have a plausible route for exposure here, we should be proactive," said Dr. Scott Weese, a professor at the Ontario Veterinary College and director of the University of Guelph's Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses.

At a minimum, he added, that would involve milk surveillance. It may not be particularly sensitive — the milk supply is diluted because it comes from so many farms, Weese said. 

"But if there are positives, we know we have it and then need to look more aggressively at the farm level."

Despite sick cows being pulled from production lines, U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials said its recent nationwide survey of milk sold on store shelves found viral remnants of H5N1 in one in five samples. (More reassuringly, federal tests suggest pasteurization — a heating process meant to neutralize harmful pathogens — does ensure milk is safe to drink.)  

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) also announced there will be testing of ground beef in states with bird flu outbreaks, and recently warned the virus may be passing back and forth between cattle and poultry farms. 

Outbreak officially spread to 34 herds, 9 states

The first known cattle infected with H5N1 were reported in late March. Since then, at least 34 herds across nine U.S. states have been impacted, and scientists suspect the outbreak is already far bigger than official figures suggest.

Newly released research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also showed profound impacts on farm cats — with a death rate of around 50 per cent among those fed raw milk products from infected cows. 

The study raises "new concerns regarding the potential for virus spread within mammal populations," the team continued.

On Monday, other U.S. researchers shared a preprint — research not yet formally published or peer-reviewed — outlining efforts to monitor influenza A at dozens of wastewater sites this spring.

The team tested samples from three plants where spring rises in influenza A were observed, and found a marker for the H5 gene at all three facilities. Those plants were also located in an unnamed state with confirmed H5N1 outbreaks among dairy cattle, and two of the facilities discharged animal waste and milk byproducts into sewers, the researchers noted.

It all paints a picture of a fast-spreading outbreak that's impacting new species, appearing in new areas, and is likely past the point of containing, several outside scientists agreed.

Funding, support for testing needed

Here in Canada, funding and support for veterinarians and farmers to test needs to be clear, stressed Weese.

"If farmers have to pay for sampling and testing, and don't know what will happen if there's a positive, and have no direct personal gain from it, why would they do it voluntarily?" he questioned. "We need a clear program that supports good testing and supports farms."

Toronto-based infectious diseases specialist Dr. Allison McGeer, from Sinai Health System, said she's "personally hoping we are not going to get caught off guard" here in Canada.

What's reassuring, McGeer added, is that Canada does have robust human testing in place to catch severe flu infections. Typically, she says, Canadian hospitals use combined viral testing — for COVID, influenza and RSV — which can pick up a certain protein that is stable across all strains of influenza A.

If a human infection of avian flu showed up in a hospital, the test would label it along the lines of "influenza A, subtype not detected," she explained. And, if the patient had also been in contact with poultry or wildlife, that combination of factors could trigger extra lab work to pinpoint the specific type of influenza — including H5N1.

But that's only if someone is sick enough to visit a healthcare facility. 

"It's not a perfect system," McGeer acknowledged, "but it's [a sensitive system] for detecting severe disease from H5N1."

Bird flu kills 11-year-old girl in Cambodia, officials say

An 11-year-old girl in Cambodia has died from bird flu in the country's first known human H5N1 infection since 2014, health officials said, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023. 






Ducks swim in a pond in a Snoa village farm outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. 

(AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

SOPHENG CHEANG
Thu, February 23, 2023

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — An 11-year-old girl in Cambodia has died from bird flu in the country's first known human H5N1 infection since 2014, health officials said.

Bird flu, also known as avian influenza, normally spreads in poultry and wasn’t deemed a threat to people until a 1997 outbreak among visitors to live poultry markets in Hong Kong. Most human cases worldwide have involved direct contact with infected poultry, but concerns have arisen recently about infections in a variety of mammals and the possibility the virus could evolve to spread more easily between people.

The girl from the rural southeastern province of Prey Veng became ill Feb. 16 and was sent to be treated at hospital in the capital, Phnom Penh. She was diagnosed Wednesday after suffering a fever up to 39 Celsius (102 Fahrenheit) with coughing and throat pain and died shortly afterward, the Health Ministry said in a statement Wednesday night.

Health officials have taken samples from a dead wild bird at a conservation area near the girl's home, the ministry said in another statement Thursday. It said teams in the area would also warn residents about touching dead and sick birds.

Cambodian Health Minister Mam Bunheng warned that bird flu poses an especially high risk to children who may be feeding or collecting eggs from domesticated poultry, playing with the birds or cleaning their cages.

Symptoms of H5N1 infection are similar to that of other flus, including cough, aches and fever, and in serious cases, patients can develop life-threatening pneumonia.

Cambodia had 56 human cases of H5N1 from 2003 through 2014 and 37 of them were fatal, according to the World Health Organization.

Globally, about 870 human infections and 457 deaths have been reported to the WHO in 21 countries. But the pace has slowed, and there have been about 170 infections and 50 deaths in the last seven years.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus earlier this month expressed concern about avian influenza infections in mammals including minks, otters, foxes and sea lions.

“H5N1 has spread widely in wild birds and poultry for 25 years, but the recent spillover to mammals needs to be monitored closely,” he warned.

In January, a 9-year-old girl in Ecuador became the first reported case of human infection in Latin America and the Caribbean. She was treated with antiviral medicine.

Tedros said earlier this month that the WHO still assesses the risk from bird flu to humans as low.

“But we cannot assume that will remain the case, and we must prepare for any change in the status quo,” he said. He advised for people not to touch dead or sick wild animals and for countries to strengthen their surveillance of settings where people and animals interact.

WAIT, WHAT?!

Analysis-Why public health officials are not panicked about bird flu


 New bird flu wave in France raises fears deadly virus here to stay

Thu, February 23, 2023 
By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A new strain of bird flu that transmits easily among wild birds has triggered an explosive spread into new corners of the globe, infecting and killing a variety of mammals species and raising fears of a pandemic more lethal than COVID-19.

But the very changes that have allowed the virus to infect wild birds so efficiently likely made it harder to infect human cells, leading disease experts told Reuters. Their views underpin global health officials' assessments that the current outbreak of H5N1 poses low risk to people.

The new strain, called H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b, emerged in 2020 and has spread to many parts of Africa, Asia and Europe as well as North and South America, causing unprecedented numbers of deaths among wild birds and domestic poultry.

The virus has also infected mammals ranging from foxes and grizzly bears to seals and sea lions, likely from feeding on diseased birds.

Unlike earlier outbreaks, this subtype of H5N1 is not causing significant disease in people. So far, only about a half dozen cases have been reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) in people who had close contact with infected birds, and most of those have been mild.

"We think the risk to the public is low," Dr. Timothy Uyeki, chief medical officer of the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Influenza Division, said in an interview. The WHO expressed a similar view in an assessment earlier this month.

The way this virus enters and infects cells is one reason for the muted concern, flu experts told Reuters. They say the attributes that have made this virus thrive in wild birds likely make it less infectious to people.

"It's clear that this is a very, very successful virus for birds, and that almost excludes it from being a very, very successful virus in mammals," said Richard Webby, director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds at St. Jude Children's Hospital.

Experts see the spillover into mammals as an early warning sign to step up virus surveillance rather than a signal of a new pandemic.

"Everybody take a breath," Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota who has tracked H5N1 since it first emerged in 1997, said of those sounding alarm bells.

WHAT ABOUT THE MINKS?

What raised concern among virologists was a study published in January in the medical journal Eurosurveillance showing potential mammal-to-mammal transmission of the virus on a mink farm in Spain.

"It is highly plausible that a virus capable of mink-to-mink transmission is capable of human-to-human transmission," Michelle Wille, an expert in the dynamics of wild bird viruses at the University of Sydney, said in an email.

That is a scenario that disease experts have been warning about for decades. Mink share many attributes with ferrets, an animal often used in flu experiments because of their similarity to humans.

Although the exact changes required for a bird flu virus to become easily transmissible in people are not known, a pair of landmark studies done a decade ago offer some clues.

Using so-called gain of function experiments, scientists intentionally altered the H5N1 virus to make it transmissible in ferrets and found that as few as five highly specific mutations were required.

Most of the mammalian cases so far have had only one of these mutations - in a gene called PB2 - which was present in the mink. Webby said the virus can make that change easily.

What has not changed, even in mink, is that the virus still prefers to bind to avian-type receptors to enter and infect cells. Mink have both avian and human-type receptors, but avian receptors are scarce in humans and located deep in the lungs.

Human flu viruses typically bind to receptors found in the upper respiratory tract.

"We know that avian viruses can occasionally affect people, but it takes what appears to be lots and lots of contact with birds," said James Lowe, a professor of veterinary clinical medicine at the University of Illinois.

According to the CDC's Uyeki, studies of the H5N1 genetic sequences in the mink outbreak "do not indicate any changes that suggest increased ability to infect the upper respiratory tract of humans."

That change is a must if a bird flu virus is to spread easily in people.

"The saving grace for humans right now is it seems that it's really, really difficult for this virus to switch receptor preference," Webby said.

None of the experts discounted the possibility that H5N1 or another avian flu virus could mutate and spark a pandemic, and many believe the world has not seen its last flu pandemic.

"Should we keep an eyeball out for this? Yes," Lowe said. "Should we lose our mind over it? Probably not."

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Bill Berkrot)