Research have discovered fragments of fowl flu virus in about 20% of the milk provide. It isn’t anticipated to pose a menace to people, however might point out the outbreak is extra widespread than beforehand thought.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Dairy cows within the U.S. are coming down with fowl flu. Federal officers began investigating final month, they usually discovered contaminated cows in additional than 30 herds throughout eight states. And this week the FDA stated that fragments of the virus are exhibiting up within the milk provide. NPR’s Pien Huang is right here to elucidate. Hey, Pien.
PIEN HUANG, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
CHANG: OK. So will we should be freaking out proper now about fowl flu contained in the milk provide? Like, what does this imply?
HUANG: OK, Ailsa, no and sure. Let me clarify.
CHANG: OK.
HUANG: So this doesn’t imply that most of the people is in danger. Pasteurized milk on the grocery retailer is heated to kill germs. However what it does imply is that the outbreak of fowl flu in dairy cows is greater than officers had thought. So the Meals and Drug Administration has been testing milk from the grocery retailer, and yesterday they introduced that 20% of the samples they’ve examined thus far have some traces of the fowl flu virus. So discovering that a lot of the virus this extensively within the meals provide means that the H5N1 fowl flu virus is infecting much more dairy cows than officers knew.
CHANG: Wow. When did they first discover out that this was an issue?
HUANG: Nicely, even till final month, officers did not even know that cows might get and unfold the H5N1 fowl flu virus. However this specific pressure of fowl flu is one thing that virus researchers have tracked in different animals for fairly a while. It is thought of extremely pathogenic, very lethal to birds. And so far as researchers can inform, it first got here to North America in 2021. Since then, it has been hitting poultry farms very onerous. It has been spreading to different mammals as properly, to canines, cats, bears, skunks. Final 12 months it brought about a mass die-off of sea lions. However the truth that it is now infecting dairy cows and spreading between them raises new considerations for people.
CHANG: Proper. What about folks? Like, has somebody gotten sick from this already?
HUANG: Yeah. To date on this dairy cow outbreak, the CDC has confirmed one case of the fowl flu in a dairy employee in Texas. It was a gentle case. The employee bought conjunctivitis, and that appeared to be about it. However Mary-Margaret Fill with the Tennessee Well being Division says there are enormous gaps within the surveillance. And he or she’s heard about…
MARY-MARGARET FILL: Farmworkers with gentle sickness whereas they’re working with cattle which can be sick or will increase in conjunctivitis or gentle respiratory sickness. That could be seen in a few of these areas that we actually simply haven’t got visibility on.
HUANG: And Fill says that the official up to date steering for safeguarding farm employees, which the CDC up to date at this time, recommends issues like fit-tested respirator masks, which simply is not lifelike on lots of dairy farms. And officers additionally say that dairy farms have not been super-welcoming to their outreach.
CHANG: Oh, that is fascinating. OK. So what different measures is the federal government taking at this level?
HUANG: Nicely, the USDA has taken some actions. So beginning on Monday, dairy cows have to check damaging for H5N1 earlier than they will cross state traces. That is to restrict the unfold of the virus. However the larger concern, the pandemic concern, is whether or not the virus will flip into one thing that may simply infect people, unfold from individual to individual and make many individuals very sick.
CHANG: Precisely. So how is that concern being managed? Like, what’s being carried out proper now?
HUANG: Nicely, officers say that they have been stepping up their monitoring on cows and folks. They have been making an attempt to get extra cows examined. They’re taking a look at emergency room information for folks every single day. To date, they don’t seem to be seeing indicators of extra critical human circumstances. However pandemic specialists need to see extra urgency. You recognize, fowl flu variants brought about not less than three full-blown pandemics within the final century. And these specialists say that monitoring ought to actually be going past dairy cows proper now to beef cattle, pigs, different livestock and likewise wild animals as properly.
CHANG: That’s NPR’s Pien Huang. Thanks a lot, Pien.
HUANG: You are welcome.
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