Alarming evolution of the virus – Scientists identify first-ever case of avian flu between mammals and humans

The Texas Tech University Biological Threat Research Laboratory (BTRL) was instrumental in identifying the first case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A (H5N1) transmitted from a mammal (dairy cow) to a human.

The case was made public in an article published in the New England Journal of Medicinee. Steve Presley, director of the Institute for Environmental and Human Health (TIEHH) and BTRL, and Cynthia Reinoso Webb, biological threats coordinator at TIEHH, were co-authors of the journal publication.

The newspaper article explains that in March, a farm worker who reported no contact with sick or dead birds, but who had contact with dairy cattle, began showing symptoms in his eyes and samples were taken by the regional health service to test for possible influenza A. .

Initial testing of samples was conducted at BTRL, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Biological Response Network (LRN-B) located at TIEHH.

Importance of the case

“It’s a huge thing that the

” data-gt-translate-attributes=”({“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”})” tabindex=”0″ role=”link”>virus went from birds to mammals, to dairy cows in this case, and then to humans,” Presley said. “This is why this document in the New England Journal of Medicine is very significant. This will lay the foundation, I believe, for much future research into the evolution of the virus.

The involvement of Texas Tech’s BTRL is a continuation of the partnership between regional, state and federal public health partners.

“Being part of the CDC LRN-B, we have the ongoing capacity to test for many biological threats and some that are considered emerging,” Reinoso Webb explained.

The laboratory’s standby status allowed Reinoso Webb and the Texas Tech BTRL team to quickly respond to the regional public health authority’s needs. Knowing the potential dangers of the virus, Reinoso Webb pushed testing into the safest lab available and the team got to work.

After receiving the samples in the early evening, the results were reported to the regional, state and federal levels within hours. The next day, the samples were on their way to the CDC for further testing and confirmation.

“We were on the phone with the CDC until about midnight discussing different scenarios and tracking requirements,” Reinoso Webb said. “There are a lot of federal reports. It was a very complicated case, even though it involved two samples and one patient.

“But we had this wonderful communication with the CDC and made sure we did everything according to the rules. This is how everything was structured and this is how communication was supposed to happen.

Reference: “Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5N1) Virus Infection in a Dairy Farm Worker” by Timothy M. Uyeki, Scott Milton, Cherissa Abdul Hamid, Cynthia Reinoso Webb, Steven M. Presley, Varun Shetty , Susan N. Rollo, Diana L. Martinez, Saroj Rai, Emilio R. Gonzales, Krista L. Kniss, Yunho Jang, Julia C. Frederick, Juan A. De La Cruz, Jimma Liddell, Han Di, Marie K. Kirby, John R. Barnes and C. Todd Davis, May 2, 2024, New England Journal of Medicine.
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc2405371