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04-02-2024, 01:25 PM
This post was last modified 04-02-2024, 01:26 PM by Maxmars.
Edit Reason: formatting
Bird flu confirmed in person who had contact with infected dairy cows
A person in the US has contracted bird flu from infected dairy cows in Texas. This is the first confirmed case of a subtype of the virus, named H5N1, transmitting between a human and another mammal.
...
Last week, cows across five US states – Texas, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico and Idaho – tested positive for H5N1. It is unclear how they became sick, but it now seems that the virus may be spreading among the animals, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
As it turns out, the advice is don't handle or drink raw milk.
Previously, mammals had only been confirmed to contract the virus from sick birds. “There have been a couple of outbreaks that didn’t include humans where it is possible there was mammal-to-mammal transmission,” says Richard Webby at St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Tennessee. For instance, 17,000 baby elephant seals died from bird flu in Argentina late last year. There was also an outbreak among farmed mink in Spain in 2022. But it is hard to rule out the possibility of other sources of the virus such as contaminated food in these situations, he says.
A person in the US has contracted bird flu from infected dairy cows in Texas. This is the first confirmed case of a subtype of the virus, named H5N1, transmitting between a human and another mammal.
...
Last week, cows across five US states – Texas, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico and Idaho – tested positive for H5N1. It is unclear how they became sick, but it now seems that the virus may be spreading among the animals, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
As it turns out, the advice is don't handle or drink raw milk.
Previously, mammals had only been confirmed to contract the virus from sick birds. “There have been a couple of outbreaks that didn’t include humans where it is possible there was mammal-to-mammal transmission,” says Richard Webby at St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Tennessee. For instance, 17,000 baby elephant seals died from bird flu in Argentina late last year. There was also an outbreak among farmed mink in Spain in 2022. But it is hard to rule out the possibility of other sources of the virus such as contaminated food in these situations, he says.
