Researchers Growing Worried as H5N1 Spreads in US Dairy Cows
Beth Mole, April 22, 2024, 10:24 pm UTC
As the highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) continues to spread in US dairy cows, researchers around the world are growing increasingly concerned about the potential for the virus to evolve and infect humans. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has tallied 32 affected herds in eight states, and the virus has been found to be contagious between cows, raising questions about how it is spreading and whether it could potentially jump to other animals or humans.
The USDA has not publicly clarified if all the herds are linked in a single outbreak chain or if there is evidence that the virus has spilled over to cows multiple times. The agency has only shared a few genetic sequences in an international database of viral genome sequences (GISAID), leading some experts to fault the USDA for not sharing more information from its investigation.
Last Thursday, Stat reported that international experts have faulted the USDA for not sharing more genetic data from its investigation, among other information. Until this weekend, the agency had only shared a few genetic sequences in an international database of viral genome sequences (GISAID). “A country with capacity like the United States should be able to generate this information within days,” Marion Koopmans, head of the department of viroscience at Erasmus Medical Center in the Dutch city of Rotterdam told Stat last week. “I would expect very fast, very transparent updates, and it’s somewhat amazing not to see that happening.”
On Sunday, facing mounting criticism, the USDA announced the release of 239 genetic sequences to GISAID. It noted it is also adding raw data to a US federal database “in the interest of public transparency and ensuring the scientific community has access to this information as quickly as possible.” The agency said it will continue to make such data available on a rolling basis.
Dr. Rosemary Sifford, the USDA’s chief veterinarian, told The New York Times, “Please recall that we’ve been engaged in this for less than a month. We are working very hard to generate more information,” she said.
Overall, the USDA and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continue to consider the risk to the public to be low. Farmworkers and others who have direct contact with infected animals are encouraged to take precautions, however. While deadly to birds, H5N1 in cows is relatively mild, rarely if ever causing deaths. Milk from sick animals contains high levels of virus, but it is being destroyed. Even if some infected milk makes its way into the milk supply, the Food and Drug Administration is confident that the virus would be killed in the pasteurization process. “Pasteurization has continually proven to inactivate bacteria and viruses, like influenza, in milk,” the agency said in an FAQ Friday. Some experts have called for data confirming this, though.
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