Important Takeaways:
- California, the biggest U.S. milk-producing state, on Thursday confirmed two human cases of bird flu in people who had contact with dairy cattle infected by the virus.
- The cases bring total U.S. bird flu infections among people in contact with dairy cows and poultry to 15 this year.
- The virus’ jump to cattle in 14 states and infections of farm workers have concerned scientists and federal officials about the risks to humans from further spread.
- There is no known link or contact between the two human cases in California, suggesting only animal-to-human spread of the virus in the state, the California Department of Public Health said in a statement.
- It said neither person reported respiratory symptoms nor was hospitalized.
- Scientists are watching closely for signs that the virus has begun to spread more easily in people.
- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday said it would begin testing raw cow’s milk intended for pasteurization at dairy plants to better understand the prevalence of the bird flu virus in milk.
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Important Takeaways:
- A new study provides evidence that a spillover of avian influenza from birds to dairy cattle across several U.S. states has now led to mammal-to-mammal transmission—between cows and from cows to cats and a raccoon.
- So far, 11 human cases have been reported in the U.S., with the first dating back to April 2022, each with mild symptoms: four were linked to cattle farms and seven have been linked to poultry farms, including an outbreak of four cases reported in the last few weeks in Colorado.
- “The concern is that potential mutations could arise that could lead adaptation to mammals, spillover into humans and potential efficient transmission in humans in the future,” Diel said.
- Sequencing also showed that the virus was transmitted to cats, a raccoon and wild birds that were found dead on affected farms. The cats and raccoon most likely became ill from drinking raw milk from infected cows.
- Though it isn’t known how the wild birds became infected, the researchers suspect it may have resulted from environmental contamination or aerosols kicked up during milking or cleaning of the milking parlors.
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