Extra cattle are getting the chicken flu virus, and it seems that individuals are a giant think about spreading it from herd-to-herd. NPR’s Danielle Kurtzleben talks to NPR Well being correspondent Will Stone.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, HOST:
Does the U.S. have chicken flu below management? It is laborious to inform, regardless that it has been shut to 3 months because the virus was first noticed in dairy cattle. New instances are nonetheless cropping up, most just lately in Wyoming and Texas. This week, federal well being companies launched a number of new assessments of the state of affairs. NPR’s Will Stone is right here to inform us the newest. Hey, Will.
WILL STONE, BYLINE: Hey there.
KURTZLEBEN: So what did we study from these newest reviews?
STONE: Nicely, we acquired a greater sense of how chicken flu is spreading between completely different dairy farms. The virus has been detected in additional than 90 herds in a dozen states since late March. Many of those instances had been in Michigan. The USDA drilled down into what’s taking place there. They discovered it is primarily being transmitted from her to herd in 3 ways. So first, via shared tools and automobiles, second, individuals are carrying the virus inadvertently on their clothes or boots. And eventually, some animals which are contaminated are shifting between farms.
There had been concern that wild birds could possibly be repeatedly reintroducing the virus into dairy cattle. To date, federal officers say, the proof doesn’t assist that. Primarily based on genetic sequencing of viral samples, it seems there was a single spillover occasion when a wild chicken unfold it into cattle in Texas someday final 12 months, and that sparked this unprecedented nationwide outbreak in dairy cattle.
KURTZLEBEN: Proper. Nicely, past animals, although, I do know a number of people have contracted this flu, which has some of us involved about this sparking a pandemic. Do we’ve got any higher sense of the danger to folks right here?
STONE: So proper now, federal well being officers say the danger to most people stays low. Should you work with dairy cattle, clearly, the danger degree is increased. There’s nonetheless have solely been three human instances reported. The newest one was in a Michigan dairy employee. That was extra regarding as a result of the particular person truly had respiratory signs. I requested the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention this week whether or not there have been any alarming mutations within the samples of the virus they collected from that particular person. Here is what physician Nirav Shah with the CDC advised me.
NIRAV SHAH: We did not see any indicators within the virus’s fingerprints that means that it is extra capable of transmit between people or from animals to people.
STONE: So clearly, that’s reassuring, however certainly, there are folks in public well being who’re deeply nervous concerning the state of affairs; the truth that we do not have extra visibility round this outbreak.
KURTZLEBEN: Are there unknowns which have public well being officers involved?
STONE: There’s rather a lot. For starters, precisely, what number of cattle are contaminated proper now, we do not know. I requested the CDC if we even have some sense of the trajectory right here. Have we hit the height of instances in cattle? The reply was additionally, we do not know. Andrew Pekosz introduced up one other large concern after I spoke to him, which is healthier surveillance on the human facet of issues. Pekosz is a virologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg College of Public Well being.
ANDREW PEKOSZ: That is actually the crucial factor that we’re now nervous about, is that if this virus will get into people, then the virus can adapt to people immediately. This has been occurring lengthy sufficient in order that there ought to be antibody signatures within the blood of people that have gotten uncovered, and that may actually give us a way of how a lot low-level publicity, maybe gentle illness, has been on this inhabitants.
STONE: So principally, determining what number of instances we’d have missed by searching for proof of a previous an infection, that may assist us gauge the general threat to people. Pekosz says it nonetheless appears that inside a herd, the virus is primarily spreading within the strategy of milking. It could possibly be the virus simply retains doing that and does not find yourself adapting to unfold from human to human if we will maintain it from infecting different folks. However that is optimistic and never one thing we will financial institution on.
KURTZLEBEN: That is NPR well being correspondent Will Stone. Thanks, Will.
STONE: Thanks.
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