The cows in Nevada have been infected with a new form of bird flu, which differs from a version that has been spreading through the herds in the last year. The US Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday.
The finding shows that the virus known as H5N1, spilled from birds to cows at least twice – which led to these two sets of infections – and that it could continue. This also suggests that the virus can pose a persistent risk for cows and people who work closely with them.
Before last year, scientists did not know that cows were susceptible to this type of flu.
“That’s not what someone wanted to see,” said Louise Moncla, an evolutionary biologist who studies the bird flu at the University of Pennsylvania. “We must now consider the possibility that cows are wider for these viruses than we originally thought.”
The report was announced in the report on the Inspection Service of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Ministry of Agriculture Division. Since President Trump joined office, the federal agency has not given reports of bird flu.
The virus that spread through the national dairy is the H5N1 version known as the B3.13 that infected More than 950 herds in 16 states. Scientists believe that he initially jumped on cows of birds about a year ago, somewhere in Texas Panhandle. This transition surprised scientists and this new even more.
“I was a little under the belief that the bird movement is quite a rare event,” said Richard Webby, flu expert at the St. Jude.
The fact that it happened again is “a little” wow “for me,” he added.
The cows in Nevada were infected with a version of the virus known as D1.1, which spread in wild birds and poultry. Was originally detected in the milk collected from the silo as part of National Milk Testing Strategy Notified USDA at the end of last year.
Form D1.1 H5N1 also proved dangerous to people. Of the 67 Americans who are known to be ill with H5N1, he was the only one who died was infected with this version. This person, resident Louisiana over 65 years of age, took care of the sick and dying birds and Died in early January.
In November, a 13 -year -old Canadian girl also infected with D1.1, but it is not clear where she could get it. Her only risk factor was obesity, but she was also seriously ill and was Placed to support life Due to organ failure. She eventually recovered.
Bird flu is called because it is best adapted to infecting birds. In both of these individuals, however, the virus gained mutations during the infection that could allow it to infect people better.
“It is possible that the virus is more permissive for human adaptive mutations,” said Scott Hensley, an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania.
It seemed that the soothing virus was spreading from any person to anyone else. Nevertheless, his evolution indicated that he was able to gain the ability to spread effectively among people.
So far, at least the spread of D1.1 to cows “does not change the life of an average person,” said Dr. Moncla. However, it represents the risks for dairy workers and the dairy industry, experts said. It also suggests that cows that have already infected B.3.13 could become ill for the second time with D1.1, said Dr. Webby.
“It’s no longer just one virus,” he said. “It suggests that it will be a persistent problem.”
Since January 2022, when H5N1 was detected In wild water birds in the United States, the virus affected More than 153 million Commercial, backyard and wild birds, resulting in record prices on eggs.
It also hit dozens of mammalists, including both wild and domesticated, raccoons, bears and sea lions.
