(Reuters) -Colorado became the ninth U.S. state to report a dairy herd infected with bird flu on Friday as federal lawmakers urged the Biden administration to further contain the virus’ spread and tests of milk suggested the outbreak is more widespread than previously thought.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed milking cows in Colorado tested positive, following earlier infections in Texas, Kansas, Michigan, Ohio, Idaho, New Mexico, North Carolina and South Dakota.
One person, a Texas farm worker, has been confirmed to have bird flu and suffered conjunctivitis in the current outbreak following exposure to dairy cows. Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization said on Friday the current overall public health risk is low, but is higher for those with exposure to infected animals.
Congress members’ push for a stronger response added pressure on federal agriculture and health authorities still seeking to confirm how the H5N1 virus is spreading and its potential risks to people, one month after the first detection in a Texas dairy herd.
An analysis of U.S. Department of Agriculture data by a University of Arizona scientist offers new evidence that the first known H5N1 outbreak in dairy cattle is more far-reaching than the 34 herds in nine states that have officially tested positive.
“Containing this before it spreads among humans is critical. Given lessons learned from COVID, this federal response is insufficient,” Republican U.S. Senator Mitt Romney said in a post on X.
Some lawmakers, including Romney, have made a bipartisan push to reauthorize legislation known as the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act that lapsed last year and is aimed at bolstering the nation’s response to pandemics and other public health threats. The recent spread of bird flu and the detection of H5N1 genetic materials in milk have increased some calls for action.
The virus in the human case is significantly different from the bird flu virus samples taken from infected cattle that were made public by government officials last weekend, said Dr. Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist from the University of Arizona.
The difference between the genetic sequences of the worker’s virus and the 239 other samples provided indicate that “this was a very longstanding, widespread epidemic,” he told Reuters.
The Texas Animal Health Commission said it did not receive the location of the worker’s farm or obtain samples of that herd to test because of the person’s confidentiality.
“I think the sequences out there probably aren’t representative of everything that’s circulating,” said Dr. Richard Webby, a virologist at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.
A CDC spokesperson said in an email “there are always some subtle changes in genetic sequences when flu viruses move from host-to-host,” but said data points to the virus emerging from birds to infect cows and then transmission to the human.
BIRD FLU TRACES FOUND IN U.S. MILK
One in five commercial milk samples tested in a nationwide survey contained particles of the H5N1 virus, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said late on Thursday. The agency said there is no reason to believe the virus found in milk poses a risk to human health.
“This says this virus has largely saturated dairy cattle throughout the country,” said Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota.
Many infectious disease experts and government officials have said they believe the pasteurization process will inactivate the virus, also known as avian influenza. However, additional testing is needed to confirm that there is no infectious virus in the milk, the FDA said.
“I’m not worried about the milk itself,” said Samuel Alcaine, associate professor, of food science at Cornell University. “It does indicate that the virus is more widespread among dairies than we had previously thought.”
Osterholm said the developments suggest the U.S. should be doing much more sampling, in both dairy and beef cattle, as well as pigs, which are a frequent mixing vessel for flu viruses that can be transmitted to people.
Democratic U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, a significant dairy state with no reported cases, has urged the USDA to “quickly deploy additional resources in states that have the opportunity to prevent the disease from entering herds.”
The White House has said that it is monitoring the avian flu situation, launching an “immediate response team” to ensure the safety of the nation’s food supply, monitor trends to mitigate risk and prevent the virus’ spread.
Starting on Monday, the USDA will require dairy cows to test negative for bird flu before they are moved across state lines.
In Indiana, officials are weighing their own potential restrictions, such as testing within the state, though it has no confirmed cases, said Bret Marsh, the state veterinarian.
“We’re taking a look here at the state level to see what we may need to do,” he said on a conference call.
(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen and Tom Polansek in Chicago; Susan Heavey, Richard Cowan and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; and Leroy Leo and Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid and Josie Kao)
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(Reuters) – About one in five samples of commercial milk in the U.S. tested positive for traces of bird flu in a national survey, with a greater proportion coming from areas with infected herds, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said.
There is no evidence that the milk poses a danger or that a live virus is present, the regulator added.
The FDA said late on Thursday that additional testing is required to determine whether the intact pathogen is still present and if it remains infectious.
Earlier this week, the FDA said that if the milk is heated to a specific temperature, it remains safe for human consumption as the process kills harmful bacteria and viruses.
The health regulator and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have indicated that based on the information currently available, commercial milk supply remains safe due to the pasteurization process and the diversion or destruction of milk from sick cows.
“To date, the retail milk studies have shown no results that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe,” the FDA said in its latest update.
Eight states in the U.S. have confirmed cases of bird flu in 33 herds of dairy cattle, according to the USDA.
Only one person – a Texas farm worker – has been confirmed to have bird flu. The patient suffered conjunctivitis, an eye irritation that can cause redness and discomfort.
The health regulator said that epidemiological signals at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed no uptick in human cases and no cases of H5N1 beyond the one known case.
FDA is further assessing any positive findings through egg inoculation tests, which it described as a gold standard for determining viable virus.
(Reporting by Leroy Leo and Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)
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