Texas Man and Dairy Cattle Test Positive for Bird Flu
- by Carolyn Hendler, JD
- Published
- Infections
A man in Texas has tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu after direct exposure to infected dairy cattle. While this is the second recent case of bird flu identified in humans in the United States, it is the first time the disease has been found in dairy cattle.1 The first case of H5N1 in the U.S. was diagnosed in a Colorado man in 2022.2
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant health Inspection Service (APHIS), there is evidence that the H5N1 virus may be spreading among cattle not only in Texas but also in in Kansas, Michigan and New Mexico, where cattle have also tested positive for bird flu.3 The USDA blames migratory birds for infecting the cattle.4 This is the first time the H5N1 strain of bird flu has been found in cattle, which may indicate the virus is more easily spreading among different species.5
More Than 80 Million of U.S. Poultry Supply Have Been Affected by Bird Flu
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), H5N1 was detected in wild birds in the U.S. in late 2021. Outbreaks have been detected in the commercial poultry supply since February 2022, with more than 80 million of the poultry supply in almost all states and some 100,000 wild birds affected. The USDA warns that the bird flu virus has infected other animals such as racoons, mountain lions, harbor seals, skunks and foxes.6
The lone Texas man to test positive complained of eye redness and that was the only symptom that he was infected with the potentially deadly virus. He was successfully treated with anti-viral medication. CDC officials said that those who work with wild animals or livestock are most likely to become infected.7
CDC Announces Bird Flu Vaccine Candidates are a Match for H5N1
CDC analysis shows that the H5N1 virus has not adapted in a way that it could infect humans more easily. While Mandy Cohen, MD, MPH, director of the CDC, said that the public’s risk remained low. She noted:
We have treatment that is available, things like Tamiflu. Not only do we have that in pharmacies, but we have it in stockpile, here in the country. And we have vaccine candidates that are matched to the current virus.8
Others public health professionals are more concerned about the potential impact to humans from the recent cases of H5N1 emerging in animals. Ashish Jha, MD, MPH, who was in charge of the Biden administration’s COVID-19 response, warned:
Every single time is a little bit of Russian roulette. You play that game long enough and one of these times it will become fit to spread among humans.9
One of the largest producers of eggs in the U.S., Cal-Maine Foods, Inc., has destroyed nearly two million chickens (3.6 percent of its flock) after a confirmed case of the bird flu in a chicken. The current virus has led to the death of more than 82 million animals across the world.10
Pasteurized Milk No Threat as US Stockpiles H5N1 Vaccine
The bird flu spreads swiftly and has as a very high mortality rate in chickens and turkeys. Infected cattle usually recover in a week to 10 days once isolated in a sick pen. CDC officials say that drinking milk from a cow sick with bird flu does not pose a threat to humans because the pasteurizing process inactivates viruses before milk is sold to the public.11
While the virus is not easily transmissible to humans, senior White House officials are closely monitoring developments as bird flu is spreading among cattle. Peter Marks, MD, PhD, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said that the U.S. has stockpiles of the H5N1 vaccine should it become necessary.12
Dr. Marks stated:
Just because of being on edge from COVID, there are a lot of people looking at what’s going on here, and there’s probably a pretty low threshold to pull the trigger here. This is one case we’re a little luckier because it’s a pathogen that we know. We know what this is and what we have in the freezer, so to speak. We have a little bit of a leg up on at least getting started.
Gain of Function Research to Make Strains of Bird Flu More Infectious Continues
The recent cases of bird flu infections in cattle are being reported as U.S. agencies continue to fund gain-of-function (GOF) research in China in an effort to make various strains of bird flu more infectious and transmissible. The experimental GOF research uses chickens, quails, geese and duck to predict the virus evolution in natural hosts and study their “potential to jump into mammalian hosts.”13
The GOF research on bat coronaviruses conducted at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) with U.S. funding reportedly created the SARS-CoV-2 synthetic virus that was responsible for the global COVID-19 pandemic that emerged in late 2019 and early 2020.14
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