Three of America’s top milk-producing states aren’t a part of federal surveillance testing for bird flu even as a new variant is turning up in dairy cattle, in what some public health experts say is a troubling gap in the national effort to identify and detect the spread of the virus. ...
... the Trump administration has blocked the release of some of the information used to protect against H5N1 and understand this risk, including studies that show how frequently veterinarians who treat cows had been unknowingly infected.
Although many of the infections have been mild, emerging data indicate that variants of the avian influenza virus H5N1 that are spreading in North America can cause severe disease and death, especially when passed directly to humans from birds. The virus is also adapting to new hosts — cows and other mammals — raising the risk that it could spark a human pandemic.
Recent Comments