We know a lot more about the situation with H5N1 influenza in dairy cattle than we did a couple of weeks ago, thanks to ongoing research and (more importantly) better disclosure of information that has been held pretty tight up until now.
Current situation with infected dairy herds in the US
Rather than focus
Dairy cows produce a lot of milk. That’s great when you’re producing it for sale. It’s not great when you have to get rid of it.
It’s clear that this H5N1 flu virus has an affinity for the udder, and a lot of virus is shed in the milk of infected dairy cattle. It
As H5N1 avian flu continues to infect dairy cattle in the US, and because we still don’t really understand some important aspects of how it’s being spread on and between dairy farms, questions keep coming up about the risk of transmission of this strain of the virus from milk.
While details about the ongoing H5N1 influenza outbreak in dairy cattle in the US have been really sparse, a new pre-print about the early H5N1 cases in Texas dairy herds posted on bioRxiv earlier this week (Hu et al. 2024) has provided some important information.
This is less of a content update and more of a “here’s what I really want to know,” but it’s still an update, I guess. It’s a bit hard to say where we currently stand with this problem, at least in terms of the most important aspects. That’s not uncommon with emerging diseases, but we’re
There’s not a lot new to report since last week about the finding of H5N1 influenza in dairy herds in multiple US states (see map below). That’s often a good sign.
As with any emerging disease, we have more questions than answers, but we can make some interim assessments based on general principles of infection control, and what we’ve learned over the past couple years about this particular H5N1 influenza A virus that’s been circulating in wild birds all over the world, and spilling over into
There’s been a lot of concern about the recent identification of H5N1 avian flu in cattle in the US, along with a single human infection in a person working with infected cattle. Some of the concern is warranted, but some is overblown. We need to balance awareness versus paranoia, and try to better understand
H5N1 avian influenza has been found in cats on a dairy farm in New Mexico where cattle were infected with the same virus. As part of the farm investigation, some (number not reported) sick (type of illness not reported) cats were tested, and three were positive. There’s no way to know for sure, but I’d
Following the recent report of H5N1 avian influenza in cattle in the US, the CDC has now reported H5N1 infection in a person from Texas who was exposed to infected dairy cattle. This is bound to get a lot of attention. To a large degree, it’s warranted, but it’s probably going to get
