Bird Flu in Dairy Cattle

[BurbMum]

but it does not spread easily even into the whole udder from the infected teat: read the APHA report I linked https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/bird-flu-in-dairy-cattle.1616347/page-3#post-28135304

I fail to see how it can possibly be spread by the airborne route if the point of entry is the teat. Inadequate hygiene with milking machinery is the obvious route, both for the cows and the workers.

H5N1 trial from USDA:
H5N1 is spread between cattle by both the respiratory and mammary route

‘Respiratory disease was mild in the heifers, but infection was confirmed by replicating virus detection in the airways and lungs , as well as seroconversion. Thus asymptomatic cows are able to spread H5N1 to the rest of the herd.’

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.12.603337v1

 

[BurbMum]

End of thread:

 

[Perris]

H5N1 trial from USDA:
H5N1 is spread between cattle by both the respiratory and mammary route

‘Respiratory disease was mild in the heifers, but infection was confirmed by replicating virus detection in the airways and lungs , as well as seroconversion. Thus asymptomatic cows are able to spread H5N1 to the rest of the herd.’

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.12.603337v1

but how cattle get it in the first place is key - by eating infected poultry litter - and as long as the focus stays off what they are eating, the problem will just grow as more and more become infected, not by transmission between cows but by eating shit (literally).

 

[Perris]

H5N1 trial from USDA:
H5N1 is spread between cattle by both the respiratory and mammary route

‘Respiratory disease was mild in the heifers, but infection was confirmed by replicating virus detection in the airways and lungs , as well as seroconversion. Thus asymptomatic cows are able to spread H5N1 to the rest of the herd.’

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.12.603337v1

"This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review"
I'll wait till it's been through the review process and then read the final versions. But the idea that "A single transmission event, likely from avian species to dairy cattle, followed by..." and then tons of detailed genetic work strikes me as building the house on very weak foundations indeed. They may well find what they set out to find.

 

[BurbMum]

but how cattle get it in the first place is key - by eating infected poultry litter - and as long as the focus stays off what they are eating, the problem will just grow as more and more become infected, not by transmission between cows but by eating shit (literally).

It may have started with the feed, but I think at this point the there has been so much transmission and mutation that there’s no containing it even if feed practices were immediately changed across the board.

I won’t share the pics of the cows but here in Cali several people have reported sick/dying/rotting cows right next to seemingly healthy cows up & down our interstate highways.

New cases in humans daily is what seems the most worrying as we head into flu season and the wet/cold temps are conducive to viral survival.

I hope everyone heeds the warnings & can keep themselves, their families and their flocks safe!

 

[Perris]

I think at this point the there has been so much transmission and mutation that there’s no containing it even if feed practices were immediately changed across the board

I disagree. Every day more cows in dairies and feedlots risk infection from their feed. Stopping that is relatively easy in scientific and technical terms; the barrier is the relevant feed and food producers and their lobbyists and lackeys. Even global supply chains can be stopped in their tracks if the will is there: covid showed that, whether or not one agrees with the shutdowns, it demonstrates that where there is a will, there is a way. The status quo is always easier in the short term. Cure is always easier to sell than prevention.

 

[Nym]

what was that you were looking for and has gone missing?

Sorry, it was this, posted by BurbMum:

Globally, from January 2003 to 25 November 2022, there have been 868 cases of human infection with avian influenza A(H5N1) virus reported from 21 countries.’

https://www.who.int/docs/default-so...-influenza/ai_20230127.pdf?sfvrsn=22ea0816_23
From what I understand it’s now just one mutation away… so if and when someone with a ‘regular’ flu also contracts H5N1, it will recombine with the ability to spread human to human.

 

[Perris]

it’s now just one mutation away

er...

it will recombine

er...

you do know that common flu changes all the time? and that recombination is a very haphazard affair?

Your CDC says
https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/situation-summary/index.html
Our NHS has this to say about it
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/bird-flu/

And the World Health Organisation has this to say:
"Globally, from 1 January 2003 to 27 September 2024, 904 cases of human infection with avian influenza A(H5N1) virus were reported from 24 countries. Of these 904 cases, 464 were fatal (CFR of 51%)...
Public health risk assessment for human infection with avian influenza A(H5) viruses: Whenever avian influenza viruses are circulating in poultry, there is a risk for sporadic infection and small clusters of human cases due to exposure to infected poultry or contaminated environments. Therefore, sporadic human cases are not unexpected."
https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/defa...n-influenza/ai_20241108.pdf?sfvrsn=1f562bbb_6

 

[Perris]

and there's some good news:

"US Democrat Senator Cory Booker (New Jersey) last week introduced the No Stools in Herds’ Troughs Act, which specifically targets the practice of feeding chicken litter to cows in large-scale feedlots and dairies.
The routine factory farming practice is banned in the United Kingdom, following the BSE epidemic, and in Canada but is allowed in the US, although the practice has raised public health alarms due to the risk of spreading disease from chickens to cows.

On animal health and welfare grounds, NO SHT Act would:

• Prohibit the intentional adding of excrement to animal feed
• Prohibit the manufacture or introduction into interstate commerce of animal feed containing excrement.

Brooker was backed by a range of scientific experts:

• Dr Steve Van Winden, Associate Professor in Population Medicine at the UK’s Royal Veterinary College, said: “In the US, the feeding of poultry litter to beef cows is a known factor in the cause of botulism in cattle and a risk in the case of H5N1.”
• Dr Brian Ferguson, Associate Professor of Immunology at the University of Cambridge, added: “The flu can be spread by fecal-oral routes, and so it is not an impossible scenario that chickens who are infected with H5N1 can shed live virus through faeces, which the cattle then consume. It is a potential mechanism of transmission, although there are other possible explanations for the current outbreak in dairy herds.”
• Bill Bullard, CEO of RCALF, said feeding excrement simply had to stop: “It’s a shame the US have to pass laws to forbid what we already know to be wrong and a potential risk to cattle and humans, but apparently we do.”
• And Michael Kovach, President of Pennsylvania Farmers Union, added: “The practice of intentionally feeding cattle – even a little – “chicken litter” is awful in the best of times. Given the current outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, and its well documented ability to cross species to bovines and humans, it is an even more egregious and ill-advised practice.”

https://www.allaboutfeed.net/market...in-livestock-feed-comes-under-scrutiny-in-us/

 

[Nym]

er...

er...

you do know that common flu changes all the time? and that recombination is a very haphazard affair?

Your CDC says
https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/situation-summary/index.html
Our NHS has this to say about it
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/bird-flu/

And the World Health Organisation has this to say:
"Globally, from 1 January 2003 to 27 September 2024, 904 cases of human infection with avian influenza A(H5N1) virus were reported from 24 countries. Of these 904 cases, 464 were fatal (CFR of 51%)...
Public health risk assessment for human infection with avian influenza A(H5) viruses: Whenever avian influenza viruses are circulating in poultry, there is a risk for sporadic infection and small clusters of human cases due to exposure to infected poultry or contaminated environments. Therefore, sporadic human cases are not unexpected."
https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/defa...n-influenza/ai_20241108.pdf?sfvrsn=1f562bbb_6

BurbMum was saying the quotes you attributed to me. I was only posting about the link not working.