United States: Research indicates that the H5N1 bird flu virus has infected six dairy herds throughout Nevada with a new variant that highly affects human populations, as per the Nevada Department of Agriculture reports.
More about the news
Scientists agree that these new viral infections create a turning point in efforts to control the virus as the virus may become a permanent component of the nation.
The detected virus strain differs from what infects other dairy herd populations nationwide as it represents B3.13.
D1.1 has only been identified previously among avian species and persons with exposure to infected birds.
A new type of bird flu has been detected in dairy cattle in Nevada, according to the USDA. The strain is different from the version that has spread in U.S. herds since last year. https://t.co/Ok4Mn6hHGQ
— FOX 29 (@FOX29philly) February 6, 2025
What more are the experts stating?
Experts have identified dairy cattle infection as a novel discovery because these cows acquired the virus directly from wild birds instead of receiving it from other infected dairy herds.
Wild birds have transmitted infection into cattle herds for a second documented occurrence of avian flu transmission in this way.
Researchers suspect wild birds continuously introduce the virus to cattle since they are present everywhere.H5N1 infection shows potential to establish itself as an endemic threat within North American bird populations until it presents risks to human health.
According to Dr. Louise Moncla, a pathobiologist at the University of Pennsylvania who runs a lab that studies how viruses emerge in human populations and spread, “In my opinion, it is now endemic, and it should be classified as an endemic virus” CNN Health reported.
Under US Department of Agriculture guidelines, H5N1 is identified as a foreign animal disease since it functions as a transmissible animal disease absent from US territory.
A news briefing in October of 2015 revealed USDA agriculture representatives expressed faith that H5N1 could be completely eliminated from all US cattle.
Experts predict repeated bird infections of cattle will decrease the possibility of eliminating the disease from the national herd.
The United States has already experienced similar destructive bird flu outbreaks previously.
Furthermore, as per Dr. Scott Hensley, a microbiologist who studies the evolution of flu viruses at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, “It’s much easier to control virus spread when you’re talking about a virus spreading from cow to cow than controlling spread from birds to cows,” CNN Health reported.
The 2014 arrival of pathogenic H5N8 bird flu from Europe to North America caused commercial facilities to destroy over 50 million birds.