Risk of Bird Flu Outbreak spreading to cows outside US, says WHO

World Health Organization (WHO) said there was a risk of H5N1 bird flu virus outbreak spreading to cows in other countries beyond the United States through migratory birds. United States officials are seeking to verify the safety of milk and meat after confirming the H5N1 virus in 34 dairy cattle herds in nine states, and in one person in Texas. With the virus carried around the world by migratory birds, certainly there is a risk for cows in other countries to be getting infected.

The United Nations (UN) agency deems the overall public health risk posed by the virus to be low but urged vigilance. The UN had received regular updates and praised the United States transparency on the outbreak so far to share the bird flu virus genetic sequence early. The collaboration with United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the information the UN has received so far enables the UN to monitor the situation and to update the preparedness measures.

On March 16th 2024, cows on a Texas dairy farm began showing symptoms of a mysterious illness now known to be H5N1 bird flu. Their symptoms were nondescript, but their milk production dramatically dropped and turned thick and creamy yellow. The next day, cats on the farm that had consumed some of the raw milk from the sick cows also became ill. While the cows would go on to largely recover, the cats were not so lucky.

The cats developed depressed mental states, stiff body movements, loss of coordination, circling, copious discharge from their eyes and noses, and blindness.

By March 20th 2024, over half of the farm’s 24 or so cats died from the bird flu. Researchers in Iowa, Texas, and Kansas found that the cats had H5N1 not just in their lungs but also in their brains, hearts, and eyes. The findings are similar to those seen in cats that were experimentally infected with H5N1, aka highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAI).

But, on the Texas dairy farm, they present an ominous warning of the potential for transmission of this dangerous and evolving virus. The contaminated milk was the most likely source of the cat’s fatal infections. Although it can not be entirely ruled out that the cats got sick from eating infected wild birds, the milk they drank from the sick cows was brimming with virus particles, and genetic data shows almost exact matches between the cows, their milk, and the cats.

Therefore, the findings suggest cross-species mammal-to-mammal transmission of HPAI H5N1 bird flu virus and raise new concerns regarding the potential for virus spread within mammal populations. The early outbreak data from the Texas farm suggests the bird flu virus is getting better and better at jumping to mammals, and data from elsewhere shows the virus is spreading widely in its newest host. On March 25th 2024, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed the presence of H5N1 in a dairy herd in Texas, marking the first time H5N1 had ever been known to cross over to cows.

Since then, the USDA has tallied infections in at least 34 herds in nine states: Texas, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, Idaho, Ohio, South Dakota, North Carolina, and Colorado.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), meanwhile, has detected genetic traces of H5N1 bird flu in roughly 20 percent of commercial milk samples. While commercial milk is still considered safe—pasteurization is expected to destroy the virus and early testing by the FDA and other federal scientists confirms that expectation, the finding suggests yet wider spread of the virus among the country’s milk-producing cows. In January 2024, it is still a pandemic causing far too many reinfections, hospitalizations, deaths, and long covid when tools exist to prevent them.

Another year has passed where covid has been part of our reality. While the United States remains in a federal public-health emergency free zone, a leader at the WHO voiced concerns about where the world stands at this stage in the pandemic. Covid is still a global health threat. Cases and hospitalizations for covid have been on the rise for months.

Hospitals in many countries are burdened and overwhelmed from covid and other pathogens, and deaths are on the rise. The world has gone through something traumatic, governments and individuals can not give in to complacency. Too many think covid is not something to worry about, that they need a new variant with a Greek letter to take this virus seriously.

The message comes as JN.1, a virus variant in the Pirola clan, is now the most dominant strain in the United States, according to recent estimates from the CDC.

Deaths and hospitalizations from covid are also on the rise across United States and other parts of the world. The covid pandemic is still ongoing. People died alone and people are dying now, thousands each week. Hundreds of thousands of people in hospital right now fighting for their lives. Those suffering from long covid struggling each and every day.

The WHO was worried about the current state of the global outbreak heading into the fifth year since the virus’ eruption. However, the JN.1 variant is not believed to cause a more serious infection than other strains. JN.1 made up 44% of cases and is the most widely circulating variant, increasing from 21.3% and overtaking the HV.1 strain. The CDC also reports a 10% increase in deaths caused by the JN.1 variant.

Covid is still a worry as the global fight against the virus enters a new phase. This condition develops for some people infected by the virus, often leading to months of debilitating symptoms. The WHO called on governments to remember the tragedies of the early days of the pandemic, and the ongoing crisis facing many people. The virus is still evolving.

We are entering the fifth year of the pandemic.

The variant JN.1 is becoming dominant and was recently marked as a variant of interest by the WHO. The covid pandemic was not normal. In December 2023, scientists are warning a virus dubbed the “Zombie Deer Disease” could potentially spread to humans after Yellowstone National Park saw its first in November 2023. Zombie Deer Disease, or Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), is caused by prions that leave animals drooling, lethargic and emaciated, stumbling with a telltale blank stare.

The prions, abnormal transmissible pathogens, cause changes in the hosts’ brains and nervous systems. CWD can spread through deer, elk, moose, caribou, and reindeer and is fatal with no known treatments or vaccines. Cases have been detected across dozens of states, including Ohio, where white-tailed deer tested positive for CWD in Marion and Wyandot counties.

CWD can be found all across Wyoming. Park officials estimate 10-15% of the mule deer that migrate to the southeastern section of Yellowstone in the summer have CWD. Despite the widespread nature of CWD, the long-term effects on deer, elk, and moose are unknown. CWD also transmits among other animals, leaving them drooling, lethargic, stumbling, and with a blank stare.

CWD has been found in more than 800 samples of deer, elk, and moose across the state of Wyoming.

Infected animals get this abnormal protein and it causes them, over a year or two, to develop these holes in their brain so they can not feed themselves, eventually they will die. In 2022, officials confirmed cases in 13 Ohio counties. A deer carcass in Yellowstone National Park tested positive for the highly contagious disease, causing some scientists to sound the alarm about possible risks to humans.

The Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) outbreak in Britain provided an example of how, overnight, things can get crazy when a spillover event happens from, say, livestock to people. There is a potential of something similar occurring. It is not definitely going to happen, but it is important for people to be prepared. It is worrying that there is no known way to eradicate it, neither from the animals it infects nor the environment it contaminates.

No known case of CWD in humans has ever been recorded. CWD could pose a risk to certain non-human primates, like monkeys, that eat meat from infected animals. These studies raise concerns that there may also be a risk to people. Since 1997, the WHO has recommended that it is important to keep the agents of all known prion diseases from entering the human food chain.

CWD should be viewed against a backdrop of dangerous emerging zoonotic pathogens.

But experts have now warned the disease could soon become a slow-moving disaster and have urged governments across the globe to prepare for the possibility of CWD spreading to humans in the future. These pathogens are said to be moving back and forth across species including humans across the entire globe. As for humans, any potential outbreaks could occur due to settlements and agricultural operations delving deeper into environments where animals carrying CWD.

This will particularly become a concern in the United States as hunting season gets underway. As a result, the CDC is recommending that harvested game animals be tested for CWD, while meat from cervids that appear ill should not be consumed. The science of what is needed to help slow the spread of CWD is clear, and has been known for a long time. Do not feed wildlife in the face of a growing CWD outbreak.

There is a lot at stake for the Yellowstone ecosystem, and a lot at stake for all Americans who enjoy having healthy wildlife on the landscape. Wildlife predators such as wolves, cougars, and bears are able to detect sick animals long before humans do. They tend to prey on them and remove the animals with the CWD from the landscape, and have so far been immune to the disease.

However, as per some studies, monkeys face the threat of getting infected by CWD if they eat infected animal meat or come in contact with the bodily fluids or brains of infected animals.

CWD is a fatal and contagious disease illness which affects cervids, which is a group of animals that includes elk, deer, moose, reindeer, and caribou. CWD is caused by a malformed protein, known as prion, which gets accumulated in the tissues and the brain and causes behavioral and physiological changes, emaciation, and ultimately death. CWD gets transmitted by direct animal-to-animal contact and also indirectly by getting in contact with infectious particles which are present in soil, vegetation, or faeces.

Animals can also get an infection if their pasture or feed is contaminated by the prions which are carrying it. It may take more than a year for the development of symptoms in the deer. It generally starts with the deer losing weight drastically, stumbling around, and eventually losing all the energy. At present, there is no cure or vaccine with CWD. In September 2020, the Utah Department of Health is reporting 572 new confirmed cases of covid and 2 deaths in its daily online update on the virus.

That brings Utah to 57,247 total cases and 433 deaths from the new covid since the pandemic began. There have now been 190 long-term facility resident covid deaths in Utah. New case number is slightly down, but is still elevated compared to average daily figures. The windstorm that ravaged northern Utah and temporarily closed many testing centers may have explained the high number of covid cases, as a delay had been created.

120 Utahns are hospitalized for covid.

Of Utah’s total covid cases, 48,396 are considered recovered and 8,418 are considered active. Utah is averaging 421 new covid cases per day and its positive test percentage is 9.2%. State leaders this week unveiled new metrics by which they are judging Utah’s response to covid, including the seven-day average case number as well as the case fatality ratio, outbreak containment, intensive care bed utilization, and even economic indicators like consumer confidence.

Utah has met its short-term goals in most respects, but still aims to bring down the seven-day rolling covid case counts and improve consumer confidence and continuing unemployment claims. State leaders aim to get average daily covid cases below 400, as they were recently. Fewer than 15 passengers with covid were identified through airport screenings.

International travelers arriving in the United States will reportedly no longer go through enhanced health screenings at the airport. The policy is expected to go into effect on September 14th 2020. The CDC has been screening travelers coming into the United States from certain countries since January 2020. The screening involves temperature and symptom checks.

Travelers are also expected to provide information that could be used for contact tracing in the event they were exposed to someone with covid.

The White House ordered the change in practice. Airport screenings are designed to catch infected people traveling into United States so that they do not continue to spread covid. The screenings do not usually end up catching that many sick people, though. Temperature checks alone are not going to catch people who have covid but are not showing symptoms yet or anyone who is asymptomatic.

Fever is a common symptom of covid, but some very sick people never develop one. The symptom is also easily masked by medication. Symptom screenings rely on people telling the truth and, again, will not flag anyone who is pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic. In February 2020, United States officials screened over 30,000 people in airports and did not find anyone infected with covid.

One analysis found that airport screening would miss almost half of infected travelers. Catching people in airports is also most likely to be beneficial before transmission starts in earnest, when public health officials are still trying to contain any spread of a virus. The United States has the biggest covid outbreaks of any country in the world.

An international traveler is probably more at risk of catching covid in the United States than of bringing it in.

The moves to get rid of the airport checks line up with what the White House seems to think about the pandemic. Airport health screenings are, in many ways, security theater showing the public that the government is doing something. Eliminating the security theater makes it look like things are back to normal. It is in line with with “out of sight, out of mind” approach the Trump administration seems to be taking with the covid outbreaks across United States.

Last month, officials pressured the CDC to change its testing recommendations and discourage people without symptoms from getting covid tests, which runs counter to public health recommendations. For months, President Donald Trump has publicly downplayed the significance of covid that has killed around 190,000 people in the United States at the time of writing. Since February 2020, behind closed doors, Trump seemed clear on the danger of covid but intentionally minimized the risk, playing it down because he did not want to create a panic.

In August 2020, CDC Director Doctor Robert Redfield says teachers are critical workers just like doctors, and need to continue showing up to schools even after possible exposure to covid. Redfield stressed the importance of educators as classrooms across United States reopen for in-person learning amid the covid outbreak. Teachers’ vocation is extremely important, they need not to be formally recognized as critical infrastructure workers.

Redfield’s assertion that teachers are essential workers echoes The White House’s claim.

Vice President Mike Pence announced that under Department of Homeland Security guidance, teachers are now considered critical infrastructure workers and are subjected to the same kinds of advisories as other workers who have borne that label, such as doctors and law enforcement officers. The designation comes as schools across United States have begun re-opening for the academic year, with the decision causing deep divides in many communities. Teachers’ union has blasted the move, despite the fact doctors, nurses, first responders, and grocery store workers continue to risk their own health by showing up to work each day.

In a statement, the National Education Association (NEA) said if the Trump administration truly valued educators, it would have listened to their concerns months ago about safety and it would not be blocking another desperately needed covid relief package that could provide schools with what they need to safely and equitably continue educating students during this pandemic. Instead, the Trump administration is trying to extort educators into a reckless reopening that risks lives. Schools in several states have already been forced to close just days after reopening because students and faculty tested positive for covid.

When quizzed on whether teachers should continue showing up to work after possible exposure to covid, Redfield said that the decision would have to be worked out on a school-by-school, local-community-by-local-community basis. However, Redfield touted new data that showed daycare centers had safely reopened in Rhode Island. A CDC report found that the state was able to reopen day care programs without high rates of covid spread. Out of the state’s 666 programs that opened, there were 52 confirmed and probable cases of covid at 29 centers.

Just 13 percent, four facilities, had outbreaks in which children or adults spread the virus to others.

Redfield held the study up as an example that could be replicated across United States. The findings indicate there is a path to get these childcare programs to reopen, which are very important for United States. California reported its first case of plague affliction in five years. In the Middle Ages, the plague caused tens of millions of deaths in Europe in a series of outbreaks known as the Black Death.

And while it is extremely rare in modern times, the deadly bacterial infection is still around today. The patient, a resident of the South Lake Tahoe area, is said to be recovering at home. In July 2020, a 15-year-old boy in western Mongolia died of bubonic plague that he contracted from an infected marmot. According to the WHO, a total of 3,248 cases were reported worldwide between 2010 and 2015, resulting in 584 deaths.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, and Peru were the most affected countries. Reports of the affliction can be scary, but experts say there is little cause for concern in most cases. Plague is a disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which affects humans and other mammals. There are three types of affliction: bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic.