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Avian flu outbreak in US cows tracked by Australian officials

Inside the Fall of the CDC
This article in full is very, very long.
[...]The market’s fall infuriated the president. Trump had privately confessed to author Bob Woodward that he was publicly downplaying the virus to prevent panic. The CDC would pay the price for undercutting that narrative.
The next day, Trump put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of his coronavirus task force and assumed the role of communicator-in-chief. The CDC, which had been the public face of the government during every health crisis in memory, soon became nearly invisible. After a few more briefings, a Pence aide told the agency’s media staff that this was the president’s stage, not theirs.
P - Even when Redfield was allowed to speak publicly, his sleepy eyes and soft, droning tone anesthetized listeners. The agency had been effectively muzzled.
P - “When it mattered the most, they shut us up,”a senior CDC official said. “The threat is clear. If we want to ever be able to talk tomorrow or next week or next month — or whatever is being dangled in front of us, you stay inside the lines.”
P - A friend of one CDC scientist ribbed him: “We keep waiting for the CDC to show up on a milk carton as a missing child.”
P - In the months that followed, CDC scientists watching the president’s news conferences on a wall of screens in the agency’s Emergency Operations Center were dumbfounded as Trump countermanded science in a flurry of inaccuracies and dangerous advice, saying the virus would soon go away, theorizing about injecting disinfectant as a treatment, and dismissing recommendations about wearing a mask."

Related: Good man! Your comment on Trump cutting CDC during his term and overseas too reminded me...
[...]How Trump let coronavirus take over America
[...]Trump's "drain the swamp" means 'drain the expertise'. Excerpt from yours ..
"In May 2018, Trump ordered the NSC’s entire global health security unit shut down...
[...]with the video of Trump saying covid would just go away, and more, are here..
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=164963124
It didn't strike me earlier, but that and and the long one - Inside the Fall of the CDC
March, 2023 - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=171446036

Jill Margo Health editor
Apr 2, 2024 – 5.25pm

Australian authorities are tracking the outbreak of contagious avian flu in cows in the US.

The US Department of Agriculture has confirmed that cows in Texas, Kansas and Michigan have been infected with H5N1 bird flu, and herds in New Mexico and Idaho have had presumptive positive tests.

So far, one person in Texas, who had direct contact with dairy cattle, has tested positive. A public health alert was issued in Texas, asking healthcare providers to look out for symptoms in anyone exposed to an infected person or animal.

IMAGE --[/I]The US Department of Agriculture has confirmed that cows in Texas,
Kansas and Michigan have been infected with H5N1 bird flu. Louie Douvis

It is the first time the disease has been found in dairy cattle in the US and the second time an American has been infected with bird flu – in 2022, a person was infected from poultry in Colorado.

H5N1 belongs to the “highly contagious pathogenic avian influenza” (HPAI) viral family.

The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said while the risk assessment for the public was low it was a developing situation, and it is working with the Food and Drug Administration and the US Department of Agriculture.

As America’s commercial milk supply is pasteurised .. https://www.afr.com/markets/commodities/the-government-helped-dairy-farmers-and-created-another-problem-20231113-p5ejn8 , there are currently no concerns about its safety. Pasteurisation inactivates bacteria and viruses in milk.

IMAGE -- Flu surveillance expert Craig Dalton: “The alarm bells really go off
if human-to-human transmission occurs.” Eddie O’Reilly

“It is very difficult to predict what will happen,” said associate professor Craig Dalton, a flu surveillance expert from the University of Newcastle who has been watching the situation closely.

“We have been worried about H5N1 avian influenza jumping into humans since about 2005. Health departments were running H5N1 pandemic exercises and then the H1N1 swine flu pandemic came out of nowhere in 2009.”

Dr Dalton said movement of the bird flu strain into a broader range of mammals was concerning.

“It is one thing to see transmission direct from birds to mammals – with mammals as a ‘dead end’ host – but in recent days there is evidence of cow-to-cow transmission, with the US Department of Agriculture suggesting that infected cows have spread the disease when transported to other states.

“More concerning is that it suggests further adaptation for transmission in another mammal. We worry about the impact on livestock and the potential for adaptation for sustained transmission in humans.”

A spokesman for Australia’s Department of Agriculture said HPAI viruses had never been detected in wild birds, poultry, or livestock in this country.

There was no way to prevent new strains of avian influenza entering Australia with migratory wild birds, or transmission between wild birds, the spokesman said.

However, he said Australia had well-established emergency response plans for avian influenza and the department was working to increase awareness of the virus with poultry producers and people working with wild birds.

Health experts are watching for three things: transmission from cattle to farmworkers; transmission from workers to family members who had no exposure to cattle; and genetic analyses that suggest the virus is mutating, predisposing it to human infection.

“The alarm bells really go off if human-to-human transmission occurs,” said Dr Dalton, founder of FluTracking .. https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/forget-a-royal-commission-next-pandemic-we-need-a-public-health-army-20220126-p59rd5 , now operating in Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and Hong Kong.

He said recent research looked at mammals infected with H5N1 over the last 20 years. Only 12 species were identified to 2019. More than 40 new species were identified through to 2023.

It was important to have enhanced surveillance for influenza in animals and detect new strains in humans as soon as possible, he said.

Human infections with H5N1 are uncommon, with symptoms ranging from mild to severe. The virus can be fatal.

Seasonal flu vaccines do not provide protection against these viruses, but new vaccines can likely be manufactured .. https://www.afr.com/companies/healthcare-and-fitness/uq-to-tackle-bird-flu-with-rebooted-covid-vaccine-20230419-p5d1rv .

It is thought mammals become infected when they interact with secretions from infected birds.

Jill Margo is the health editor, based in the Sydney office. Jill has won multiple prizes, including two Walkley Awards and is an adjunct associate professor at School of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health, UNSW Sydney, Australia. Connect with Jill on Twitter. Email Jill at [e-mail]

https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/australia-tracking-outbreak-of-avian-flu-in-us-cows-20240402-p5fgtx