The United States has not seen a case of human birds for 3 months. Experts wonder why

Health officials launch a renewed call for vigilance against avian flu, but some experts are confusing on the reasons why reports of new human cases have ceased.

Has the search for cases been weakened by government cuts? Are immigrant agricultural workers, who have taken many American cases into account, more afraid of manifesting themselves for tests in the middle of the Trump administration deportation? Is it just a natural flow in infections?

“We just don’t know why there was no case,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University. “I think we have to assume that there are infections that occur among agricultural workers who are simply not detected.”

The H5N1 bird flu has spread largely among wild birds, poultry and other animals from around the world for several years, and start at the beginning of last year

In the past 14 months, infections have been reported in 70 people in the United States – most of the dairy and poultry workers. One person died, but most infected people have had light diseases.

The most recent infections confirmed by the centers for Disease Control and Prevention took place in early February in Nevada, Ohio and Wyoming.

California had been a hotspot, with three quarters of nation’s infections in dairy cattle. But the tests and cases between people fell. At least 50 people were tested each month at the end of 2024, but only three people were tested in March, one in April and none to so far, according to state files. Overall, the state has confirmed H5N1 infections in 38 people, none after January 14.

The cases of the possible natural bird flu are broken down

During a call with us, American doctors, a CDC official noted that there was a seasonality of the bird flu: cases peak in the fall and early winter, perhaps because of the models of migration of wild birds which are primary spreaders of the virus.

This could mean that the United States has a natural line – perhaps temporary – in cases.

It is unlikely that a severe human infection, requiring hospitalization, goes unnoticed, said Michael Osterholm, an expert from the University of Minnesota on infectious diseases.

In addition, a patchwork system that monitors viruses in wastewater and wastewater recently suggested a limited activity.

New infections are still detected in birds and cattle, but not as often as several months ago.

“Since the number of animal detections has dropped according to USDA data, it is not surprising that human cases have also decreased,” the CDC said in a statement.

Do government cuts affect the surveillance of the bird flu?

Dr. Gregory Gray said he was not concerned that the CDC has not identified new cases for months.

“I don’t think anyone hides anything,” said Gray, an infectious disease specialist in the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

But Osterholm and some other experts think that it is likely that at least some lighter infections are not detected. And they fear that the effort to find them was eroded.

Resignations to the American Department of Agriculture and at the Food and Drug Administration Veterinary Medicine could slow the surveillance of the government on bird flu, said Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

Three of the 14 experts have accepted delayed resignation offers to the National Animal Health Laboratory Network, which responds to disease epidemics with crucial diagnostic information, he said. They are part of more than 15,000 USDA employees to accept the offers, said a spokesperson for the agency.

And dozens of staff members have been dismissed on the FDA veterinary laboratory investigation and intervention network, which is investigating animal diseases caused by problems with contaminated pet food. Cats from several states have been skipped and died after eating vintage pet food containing poultry infected by H5N1.

Angela Rasmussen, virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, said that “targeted surveillance has really dropped in a hurry since Trump took office.”

She wonders if immigrant agricultural workers are too afraid of manifesting themselves.

“I cannot contest with anyone who could be shipped in a Salvadoral Gulag to report exposure or a test request,” she said.

The CDC says that the risk for the general public remains low

The CDC characterizes the risk for the general public as weak, although it is higher for people who work with cattle and poultry or who are in contact with wild birds.

Earlier this month, an assessment of agencies said that there was a “moderate risk” that the bird flu stumps which are currently circulating could cause a future pandemic, but the CDC stressed that other emerging forms of flu birds have been labeled in a similar way in the past.

However, research continues.

Scientists at Texas A&M University have taken blood samples from dairy people in several states to test the signs of the exposure prior to H5N1, said David Douphrate, a health and safety expert in the workplace carrying out the project. The one -year study is funded by a subsidy of nearly $ 4 million from the CDC and is expected to end in July.

Douphrate said that he had exploited two decades of relations with producers and dairy workers to access farms.

“We had a very good participation,” said Douphrate. “They were very ready.”

Similar surveillance is “necessary for emergency” in domestic cats, said Kristen Coleman, researcher at the University of Maryland at College Park who studies emerging animal diseases. She recently published a document Revised La Ronfluise Birds in cat infections between 2004 and 2024.

Grange cats deceased after drinking raw milk were one of the first signs that dairy cows were infected with bird flu in 2024. Since then, the agricultural department has confirmed more than 120 domestic cats infected by the virus across the United States

Infections were mainly found in deceased cats. We know less about softer infections, if cats can recover from the bird flu – or if the virus can spread in people.

Coleman has taken samples of blood from the United States to see if they have evidence of an exposure prior to the virus. But the process is slow and the financing of research is uncertain.

“It is easy to minimize something because that is generally what humans do,” she said. “But what we really have to do is progress.”

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