United States: An increasing number of known public health professionals are expressing concern over what they characterize as inadequate measures to monitor and prevent bird flu outbreaks in the US’s dairy farms.
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According to the experts, its been around three months now ever since the H5N1 bird flu virus have been detected, which have also spilled over to cows. However, as experts confirm, the country is far from having a reliable picture to have a clearer picture of expanse of the disease spread.
Avian influenza has been diagnosed in 92 dairy cattle farms in 12 states, as reported by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Only three workers in dairy farms in the US have been infected in a confirmed state, and all of these diseases have been of a mild nature, as Axios reported.
Although authorities maintain that the likelihood of the virus threatening the populace remains negligible, one of the major concerns is whether the virus is capable of mutating in a way that enables it to move in the community with relative ease.
Officials are conducting the tests
Authorities have been conducting tests and screening cows and farmworkers for the virus and by sampling wastewater to gauge the spread of the virus.
Yet, experts say that there is little doubt that cases of both cows and humans have been missed in the US. Workers, too, do not want to be involved in surveillance, and of all the dairy farm workers that were used in the study, only 45 of them from the US had been tested by June 13.
They note that the spot tests related to bird flu may also be unavailable, making it possible for potential cases to go unnoticed as they present themselves to different doctors.
Amesh Adalja, the senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, informed Axios that even with what is available, there’s an inability to determine if there’s an increase or decrease in cases in cows.
Michael Osterholm, the director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, however, pointed out that those who get into contact with these animals also need to know the corresponding risk window: it also takes time for herds that get infected to clear the virus.
Last month the CDC identified bird-to-cow transmission as having stemmed from a single event in late 2023 only. However, more details from farms might reveal if there have been other cross-over incidents, Osterholm continued, as Axios reported.
According to Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist and senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, “The H5N1 is very likely changing, but we don’t know—USDA and CDC are flying blind.”
Moreover, “We failed — through two administrations — to develop and implement an effective surveillance strategy with COVID, and we are repeating the same mistakes,” said, Jerome Adams, surgeon general under former President Trump as Politico reported.
According to Seth Berkley, former CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, “It’s been shocking to watch the ineptitude of just doing the surveillance, being able to talk about it, tracking the infections, understanding where we are,” as Stat reported.