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Here’s the latest news on a global outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza that began in 2020 and has recently spread among livestock in U.S. states and marine mammals around the world. Health officials are monitoring it closely and experts fear the virus could mutate and possibly spread. humans, where it has been found to be rare but deadly.
A sign warns of a bird flu epidemic.
Chronology
In Colorado, some 70 people are being monitored for bird flu due to potential exposure, and will be tested for the virus if they show symptoms, the Colorado Department of Public Health told Forbes. exposed.
The Agriculture Department said it tested 30 grocery store ground beef products for bird flu and all came back negative, reaffirming that the meat supply is safe.
The Food and Drug Administration has confirmed that dairy products are still safe for consumption, announcing that it has tested grocery store samples of products like infant formula, infant milk, sour cream and cottage cheese , and that no living traces of the bird flu virus have been found, although some dead remains have been found in some foods, but none in baby products.
Wenqing Zhang, head of the World Health Organization’s global influenza program, told a news conference “there is a risk of cows in other countries being infected” by the avian flu virus, because it is generally spread during the movements of migratory birds. .
The Agriculture Department told Forbes it will begin testing samples of ground beef from grocery stores in states with cow outbreaks, and test ground beef cooked at different temperatures and infected with the virus to determine if it is safe to eat.
The USDA said cow-to-cow transmission could occur due to cows’ contact with raw milk and warned against humans and other animals, including pets, consuming untreated milk. pasteurized to prevent potential infection.
Jeremy Farrar, chief scientist at the World Health Organization, told a news conference that the threat of bird flu spreading between humans was a “great concern” because it had evolved and infected more plus mammals (on land and at sea), meaning it could potentially spread to humans.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the second human case of bird flu in the United States in a Texas dairy farmer who became infected after contracting the virus from infected dairy cows, but said the person was already in convalescence.
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Can bird flu spread between humans?
Avian flu is “not easily transmitted from person to person,” according to the World Health Organization. Avian flu rarely affects humans and most previous cases came from close contact with infected poultry, according to the CDC. Since human-to-human spread of avian influenza has “pandemic potential”, each human case is investigated to rule out this type of infection. Although none have been confirmed, there are a few global cases – none in the United States – where human-to-human transmission of bird flu was considered “probable,” including in China, Thailand, Indonesia and Pakistan.
Is bird flu fatal to humans?
It’s very deadly. Between January 2003 and March 28, 2024, 888 human cases of avian flu infection were recorded, according to a report by the World Health Organization. Of these 888 cases, 463 (52%) died. To date, only two people in the United States have contracted H5N1 bird flu, and both were infected after contact with sick animals. The most recent case is that of a dairy worker in Texas who became ill in March after interacting with sick dairy cows, although he only had pink eye. The first incident occurred in 2022 when a person in Colorado contracted the disease from infected poultry and made a full recovery.
Is it safe to drink milk infected with bird flu?
Raw, unpasteurized milk is unsafe to drink, but pasteurized milk is OK, according to the FDA. Avian flu has been detected in both unpasteurized and pasteurized milk, but the FDA recommends that manufacturers not make and sell unpasteurized milk because consuming it may cause avian flu infection. However, any leftover viruses present in pasteurized milk have been deactivated by heat during the pasteurization process, so this type of milk is still considered safe to consume.
Is it safe to eat meat infected with bird flu?
The CDC warns against eating raw meat or eggs infected with avian flu due to the possibility of transmission. However, no human has ever been infected with bird flu from eating properly prepared and cooked meat, according to the agency. The chance of infected meat entering the food supply is “extremely low” due to rigorous inspection, so properly handled and cooked meat is safe to eat, according to the USDA. To know when meat is properly cooked, whole cuts of beef should be cooked to an internal temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit, ground meat should be cooked to 160 degrees, and poultry should be cooked to 165 degrees. Rare and medium-rare steaks fall below this temperature. According to the CDC, properly cooked eggs with an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit kill bacteria and viruses, including bird flu. “It doesn’t matter whether they have (bird) flu or not… runny eggs and rare cuts of meat” are never recommended, Francisco Diez-Gonzalez, director and professor of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia,” Forbes said. To “play it safe”, consumers should only eat fully cooked eggs and ensure “the yolks are firm with no runny parts”, said Daisy May, a veterinarian with British company Medivet.
What are the symptoms of bird flu in humans?
Symptoms of bird flu include fever, cough, headache, chills, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, runny nose, congestion, sore throat, nausea or vomiting, diarrhea, pink eyes, muscle pain and headaches. However, the CDC states that it cannot be diagnosed based on symptoms alone and that laboratory tests are necessary. This usually includes a swab of the nose or throat (the upper respiratory tract) or the lower respiratory tract for seriously ill patients.
How does bird flu affect egg prices?
This year’s egg prices rose as production declined due to outbreaks of avian flu among poultry, according to the USDA. In the United States, a dozen large Grade A eggs cost about $2.99 in March, up almost a dollar from the fall. However, this price is down from the record high of $4.82 reached in January 2023, which was also increased by bird flu outbreaks. Earlier this month, Cal-Maine Foods, the nation’s largest egg producer, temporarily halted egg production after more than 1 million laying hens and chickens were killed after becoming infected by avian flu.
Why do poultry farmers kill chickens with bird flu?
Once chickens become infected with bird flu, farmers quickly kill them to help control the spread of the virus, because bird flu is highly contagious and deadly in poultry. The USDA pays farmers for all birds and eggs that must be killed because of bird flu, as an incentive for them to responsibly try to curb the spread of the disease. The USDA has spent more than $1 billion on bird flu compensation to farmers since 2022, according to the nonprofit Food & Environment Reporting Network.
Is there a vaccine against avian flu (h5n1)?
The FDA has approved a few bird flu vaccines for humans. The United States has a stockpile of H5N1 avian flu vaccines, but it would not be enough to vaccinate all Americans if an outbreak occurs in humans. If a human outbreak occurs, the government plans to mass produce vaccines, which could take at least six months to produce enough for the entire population. Sequirs, the maker of one of the approved vaccines, hopes to have 150 million vaccines ready within six months of the announcement of a human avian flu pandemic. While there are approved vaccines for other variants designed for birds, there are none for the circulating H5N1 variant. However, the USDA began testing animal-specific vaccines against the H5N1 virus in 2023.
Key context
As of April 30, more than 90 million poultry (mostly chickens) in 48 states have been euthanized due to avian flu since 2022, and 36 dairy cow herds in nine states have tested positive, according to CDC data ( unlike chickens, cows). appear to be recovering from the virus). The USDA believes wild migratory birds are causing outbreaks in cows, which has recently raised experts’ fears that they could mutate and spread more easily in humans, although the CDC has said that the risk to the public remains low. Farrar called bovine infections in the United States “a great concern,” urging public health officials to continue to closely monitor the situation “as it could evolve into transmission in a number of ways.” The increasing number of avian flu infections in mammals since 2022 “could indicate that the virus is searching for new hosts and, of course, moving closer to humans,” Andrea Garcia, vice president of science, medicine and of Public Health of the American Medical Association, says. More than 10 human cases of bird flu have been reported to the World Health Organization in 2023, and all but one survived. Avian flu has devastated bird populations, and 67 countries reported the deaths of 131 million poultry in 2022 alone. Although avian flu typically infects wild birds and poultry, it has spread to other animals during the epidemic, and at least 10 countries have reported outbreaks in mammals since 2022. Around 17,400 baby elephant seals died from bird flu in Argentina in 2023, and at least 24,000 sea lions are died in South America the same year. In addition to cattle, avian flu has been detected in more than 200 other mammals, such as…
News Source : www.forbes.com
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