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The H5N1 bird flu virus is spreading through American cattle herds for the first time.
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Mammal-to-mammal transmission has scientists concerned that the virus could mutate and spread between people.
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Former Surgeon General Jerome Adams fears the US will repeat the mistakes of 2020.
Bird flu is flying around. In recent months, the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus has first spread among U.S. cattle herds.
The cow-to-cow transmission is the latest escalation of a global outbreak that began when the virus reemerged in Europe in 2020. Since then, it has killed tens of millions of birds and more than 40,000 sea lions and seals in South America.
World Health Organization chief scientist Jeremy Farrar called this an “animal pandemic” on April 18.
Genetic fragments of the virus, discovered Tuesday in supermarket milk, suggest the livestock outbreak is more widespread than officials thought, The Washington Post reported.
Experts told the Post that drinking pasteurized milk is probably still safe. Pasteurization inactivates pathogens, including likely H5N1, according to the Food and Drug Administration. However, no studies have specifically tested whether pasteurizing milk inactivates H5N1. According to the New York Times, the FDA is now testing this.
One person in Texas has tested positive for the virus after exposure to dairy cattle. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that person’s only symptom was redness of the eyes.
There is no known human-to-human transmission. Still, future mutation could allow the virus to spread more easily to and between people – a possibility that is of “great concern” to Farrar.
Dr. Jerome Adams, a former surgeon general and director of health care at Purdue University, is experiencing deja vu.
“If it continues to spread among animals, it will eventually cause problems for people, either because we don’t have food because they have to start wiping out herds, or because it starts to take off in people,” Adams says. , who served under former President Donald Trump and was part of the administration’s first COVID-19 task force, told Business Insider. “The more it replicates, the more likely it is to mutate.”
While he agrees with the CDC’s assessment that the current risk to humans is low, Adams fears the U.S. is repeating many of the mistakes it made in the early days of COVID-19.
Weak message without clear leaders
Who is in charge of an animal pandemic in the US? The CDC? The US Department of Agriculture? The FDA?
The answer is: actually all of them. That decentralized responsibility may account for the lack of widespread, clear public reporting thus far.
For example, Adams says he hasn’t changed his diet because pasteurization and proper cooking procedures should kill any live virus present. But he’s not sure everyone gets the message.
He compared it to the development of COVID-19 vaccines, when people were suspicious of a process they didn’t understand.
“The public needs good, consistent communication from the White House and from the USDA to reassure them what the process is to keep them safe,” Adams said.
The people most at risk are not consumers, but agricultural workers or anyone with short- or long-term exposure to chickens or livestock. It’s those groups that need strong, targeted guidance now, Adams said.
Only testing the sick
Until now, the USDA has only tested herds of cattle if an animal appears sick. That means asymptomatic spread could fly under the radar.
“An animal can’t tell you, ‘Hey, I’m feeling a little bad today.’ So they are literally waiting for an animal to collapse, show fatigue or show severe symptoms,” said Adams “We need a testing strategy that is proactive and allows for true surveillance, not reactive.”
The USDA took a step forward Wednesday by ordering that all lactating dairy cows be tested for H5N1 before being moved across state lines and that all positive test results be reported.
New York Times columnist Zeynep Tufekci reported that same day that the USDA has not tracked any positive test results in cattle to date.
Election distraction
In late 2019 and early 2020, the big news story was the impeachment and later acquittal of President Trump. Now another Trump trial is dominating the news.
And just like 2020, this is an election year.
“The Biden administration, and especially the White House, has been incredibly quiet about this bird flu situation. Why? To me it seems like they don’t want to scare the public and spook the economy in an election year,” Adams said.
Business versus public health
Just as the COVID-19 lockdowns were devastating to the restaurant and hospitality industries, the crackdown on bird flu could be devastating to the chicken industry.
The treatment for an outbreak of bird flu is to kill all the chickens. Even before that, herd testing can slow production.
“We see the same tension between business interests and public health interests,” Adams said.
In addition, many of the workers who handle chickens and livestock are undocumented immigrants. That can make them and their bosses hesitant to call authorities in on sick animals.
Many vulnerable groups were also hesitant to report illness in the early days of COVID, including migrant workers and those without sick leave.
“My concern is that we keep making the same mistakes over and over again,” Adams said. “Because we keep focusing on the wrong things instead of focusing on the root causes.”
Read the original article on Business Insider