Scientists are warning that a bird flu pandemic could start from within America’s own farms.
The H5N1 virus has jumped from dairy cows to poultry and even to US farmers in recent weeks.
Since the bird flu outbreak about six months ago, the numbers of cases in livestock have only increased.
H5N1 infections have been recorded in 192 cattle herds in 13 states as of Wednesday, according to the US Department of Agriculture. In addition, 13 people have contracted the virus, including nine workers at poultry farms close to dairy operations in Colorado.
Amid the spread, experts still do not know how easily and frequently the virus has traveled to humans and other animals, or exactly how many cows are sick.
‘We need to understand the extent of the circulation in dairy cattle in the US, which we don’t,’ Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s acting director of pandemic preparedness and prevention, told The New York Times.
‘Everyone’s tired from Covid, everyone’s tired from mpox, everyone’s tired from climate change and war and all that.
‘But right now, we don’t get to be tired.’
The alarming H5N1 situation comes as health officials worldwide are on high alert regarding the spread of the clade 1 monkeypox variant. This week, Argentina quarantined a cargo ship after a suspected case in a crew member.
While health experts have raised concerns over H5N1, it appears possible to prevent a pandemic. The bird flu has not proved to spread quickly through respiration in cattle, and so far has been transmitted through infected milk and objects.
‘If we want to control or eradicate this disease, we just have to focus on the mechanical transmission or anthropogenic transmission,’ Kansas State University veterinarian and virologist Dr Juergen Richt told The Times.
Some experts say it is not necessary to vaccinate farm employees against the bird flu yet, but that producing a vaccine for animals could be the best way to fight the H5N1 spread for the time being.
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