Fowl flu danger is restricted to those that work with dairy cattle — for now : NPR

DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, HOST:

Does the U.S. have chicken flu beneath management? It is arduous to inform, regardless that it has been shut to a few months for the reason that virus was first noticed in dairy cattle. New instances are nonetheless cropping up, most 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 most recent. Hey, Will.

WILL STONE, BYLINE: Hey there.

KURTZLEBEN: So what did we be taught from these newest experiences?

STONE: Effectively, we received 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 occurring there. They discovered it is primarily being transmitted from her to herd in 3 ways. So first, by way of shared tools and automobiles, second, individuals are carrying the virus inadvertently on their clothes or boots. And eventually, some animals which can be contaminated are transferring between farms.

There had been concern that wild birds may very well be repeatedly reintroducing the virus into dairy cattle. To date, federal officers say, the proof doesn’t assist that. Based mostly 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. Effectively, past animals, although, I do know a number of people have contracted this flu, which has some people involved about this sparking a pandemic. Do we’ve got any higher sense of the chance to folks right here?

STONE: So proper now, federal well being officers say the chance to most of the people stays low. In case you work with dairy cattle, clearly, the chance stage is greater. 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 informed 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 indisputably, there are folks in public well being who’re deeply nervous in regards to 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 loads. 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 huge concern once I spoke to him, which is healthier surveillance on the human aspect of issues. Pekosz is a virologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Faculty 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 instantly. This has been occurring lengthy sufficient in order that there needs 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 delicate illness, has been on this inhabitants.

STONE: So mainly, determining what number of instances we’d have missed by in search of proof of a previous an infection, that may assist us gauge the general danger to people. Pekosz says it nonetheless appears that inside a herd, the virus is primarily spreading within the strategy of milking. It may very well be the virus simply retains doing that and would 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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