By The Associated Press’s Jonel Aleccia
According to Agriculture Department authorities on Wednesday, dairy cattle in Nevada have contracted a new strain of avian flu that differs from the one that has been circulating in American herds since last year.
The finding suggests that at least two instances of different strains of the virus, known as Type A H5N1, have spread from wild birds to cattle. According to experts, it brings up new issues regarding the difficulties of controlling illnesses in animals and those who interact closely with them, as well as their wider spread.
I’ve always believed that a single bird-to-cow transfer is quite uncommon. Richard Webby, an influenza specialist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, stated that it appears that might not be the case.
After being introduced to cattle in late 2023, a strain of the H5N1 avian flu virus known as B3.13 was confirmed in March, according to scientists. In 16 states, it has infected over 950 herds. According to USDA, the new version, called D1.1, was verified in Nevada livestock on Friday. It was found in milk that was gathered as part of a surveillance initiative that was started in December.
According to Angela Rasmussen, a virus specialist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada who assisted in identifying the initial spillover, “we now understand why it’s really important to test and continue testing.”
The viral type that caused the first bird flu-related death in the United States and a serious sickness in Canada was D1.1. In January, a person in Louisiana passed away after experiencing severe respiratory symptoms after coming into contact with backyard and wild birds.A virus linked to poultry kept a teenage girl in British Columbia in the hospital for months.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 67 Americans have contracted bird flu, primarily from those who had close contact with dairy or cattle.
Later this week, USDA officials promised to upload DNA sequences and other details about the novel viral strain to a public repository. According to scientists, that would be crucial to determining whether the virus has been circulating, maybe extensively, for a longer period of time or whether the overflow was a recent occurrence.
According to Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona who has researched the H5N1 virus in cattle, “two months is a long time not to detect it if this turns out to have been something that crossed into cattle a couple months ago.”
He went on to say that government officials should communicate information about a virus that could cause a pandemic as soon as possible since it could make COVID seem easy.
According to Worobey, it is an essential component of both national and international security as well as the welfare of Americans, animals, and businesses.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Science and Educational Media Group of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute provide support to the Associated Press Health and Science Department. All content is entirely the AP’s responsibility.
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