When it comes to food safety risks with H5N1 influenza, we know it’s a problem with raw (unpasteurized) milk from cattle, so I often get asked if it’s a concern with milk from other animals, such as goat’s milk. It’s a good question. My typical response has been that we really don’t know. There haven’t
I think it’s fair to say H5N1 becoming seemingly endemic in US dairy cattle in the past year caught us off guard. The virus has spread widely within and between US dairy herds, has caused mild infections in a number of people in close contact with infected cows, has killed a lot of cats on
My post earlier this week about culling considerations for control of disease outbreaks in animals generated some good discussion and ideas (and a surprisingly small number of “you’re an idiot” emails). Although that post was focused primarily on culling in response to influenza outbreaks, we can also think about it little more broadly
The recent situation has raised more discussion about the role of mass culling in response to H5N1 influenza infection in domestic / captive birds. After H5N1 flu was identified on an ostrich farm in British Columbia, the CFIA ordered all 400 birds to be culled, but the owner is trying to find options to preserve
This week US officials reported a case of H5N1 influenza in a pig in the Oregon. While it’s certainly a noteworthy finding, as is unfortunately now typical, a lot of the social media buzz is overblown. This is a concerning situation that we need to watch, and yet another indicator that we need to continue
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a big problem with a crappy marketing plan. It’s been termed a “silent pandemic,” and it has huge health and financial impacts that are only going to get worse if we don’t act. Unfortunately, even though we’ve been battling this issue for decades, the average person doesn’t know about it, or
Bats are getting a lot of attention around here following the recent death of a person in Ontario from rabies. The infection was “suspected to have been acquired from direct contact with a bat…” Most rabies deaths that occur in North America nowadays are due to transmission from bats, but all too often
I know seals are mammals.
I know rabies virus can infect all mammals.
I’m pretty tuned into rabies and rabies prevention.
Yet, I’m not sure how quickly I’d clue in to any rabies risk from a seal bite. (I’d hopefully get there eventually, but I doubt it would jump to mind like it would with
There’s a great new early-release paper in Emerging Infectious Diseases (Oguzie et al. 2024) about the emerging situation with H5N1 influenza in dairy cattle. It provides some important new information, and more details that somewhat challenge the early narrative.
The authors explain some of the limitations of the study to keep in
