Avian Flu Alert in Sussex County—Could H5N1 Spark a Wildlife and Poultry Crisis? - MyChesCo
DOVER, DE — A troubling sight in the coastal waters of Sussex County has set off alarms across Delaware. A cluster of snow geese, found either dead or gravely ill near …
Who Is Leana Wen? Health Expert Slammed For Advocating Immediate H5N1 Vaccine Approval | Times Now
Dr. Leana Wen has called on the Biden administration to accelerate the FDA's approval and distribution of the H5N1 bird flu vaccine, highlighting the importance of taking proactive steps to avert a possible crisis. She emphasized the necessity of expanded testing, especially for agricultural workers, and noted that postponing vaccine distribution might result in serious repercussions, particularly with a new administration in place., US News News - Times Now
Dr. Marc Siegel on bird flu: ‘California worries me’ due to spread of disease in cattle | Fox News Video
Fox News correspondent Christina Coleman and Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel have the latest on the spread of bird flu in the United States on ‘Fox News Live.’
Avian influenza risk for humans low; but future mutations could cause problems
The Iowa DHHS reported the first human case of Avian Influenza in Iowa last week. Dr. Mark Rupp at Nebraska Medical Center, says that it's not a big risk to humans. At least not right now.
Detecting SARS-CoV-2 Cryptic Lineages using Publicly Available Whole Genome Wastewater Sequencing Data
Beginning in early 2021, unique and highly divergent lineages of SARS-CoV-2 were sporadically found in wastewater sewersheds using a sequencing strategy focused on the most mutagenic region of SARS-CoV-2, the receptor binding domain (RBD). Because these RBD sequences did not match known circulating strains and their source was not known, we termed them “cryptic lineages”. To date, more than 20 cryptic lineages have been identified using the RBD-focused sequencing strategy. Here, we identified and characterized additional cryptic lineages from SARS-CoV-2 wastewater sequences submitted to NCBI’s Sequence Read Archives (SRA). Wastewater sequence datasets were screened for individual sequence reads that contained combinations of mutations frequently found in cryptic lineages but not contemporary circulating lineages. Using this method, we identified 18 cryptic lineages that appeared in multiple samples from the same sewershed, including 12 that were not previously reported. Partial consensus sequences were generated for each cryptic lineage by extracting and mapping sequences containing cryptic-specific mutations. Surprisingly, seven of the mutations that appeared convergently in cryptic lineages were reversions to sequences that were highly conserved in SARS-CoV-2-related bat Sarbecoviruses. The apparent reversion to bat Sarbecovirus sequences suggests that SARS-CoV-2 adaptation to replicate efficiently in respiratory tissues preceded the COVID-19 pandemic.
### Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
### Funding Statement
This project has been funded in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) contract 75N93021C00045 for the Johns Hopkins Center of Excellence in Influenza Research to MCJ. This project has been funded by a gift from Heart of Racing and a grant from Inkfish (MCJ and DHO).
### Author Declarations
I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.
Yes
I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals.
Yes
I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).
Yes
I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable.
Yes
All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors
Ex-Covid response chief says US setting itself up for another potential pandemic | CNN
Dr. Deborah Birx, former White House Coronavirus response coordinator during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term, explains to CNN’s Pamela Brown the dangers of contracting bird flu and the human flu simultaneously and what needs to happen to prevent another pandemic similar to Covid.
As Bird Flu Concerns Increase, Don’t Forget About Normalcy Bias
Remember how few governments, businesses, and individual decision-makers were able to respond effectively to the last pandemic. The primary culprit was normalcy bias.
Agriculture industry leaders warn of possible bird flu scammers
The farm bureau sends this warning to farmers, encouraging them to call law enforcement if they see suspicious people. Both the San Joaquin and Stanislaus Co...
City of Newton: Dozens of geese deaths likely due to bird flu
Following an alert in early December from Kansas game wardens about geese carrying bird flu into Kansas, the City of Newton said that dozens of dead geese reported in recent weeks at the wetlands on Southwest 14th Street likely are connected with the virus.
USDA Expands Nationwide Milk Testing to Combat H5N1—Are We Winning the War on Dairy Disease? - MyChesCo
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has ramped up its fight against the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 with a groundbreaking strategy that puts the …
Could H5N1 Trigger the Next Global Pandemic? Epidemiologists Fear the Worst
Discover why the recent H5N1 virus mutation is raising global alarms. Epidemiologists warn of its potential to adapt to humans, sparking fears of a future
Dr. Deborah Birx: "Our agencies are making the same mistakes they made with COVID"
The CDC recently reported findings from an analysis of specimens collected from the patient in Louisiana who became severely ill from H5N1 avian flu, and found genetic mutations that, according to Politico, "may…
The global expansion of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza - Prof Thijs Kuiken
The University of Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute (Sydney ID) welcomes you to our Distinguished Lecture by world-leading bird flu expert, Prof Thijs Kuiken, entitled “The global expansion of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza”.
The currently circulating high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) virus of the subtype H5 causes illness and death in wild and domestic birds and mammals, as well as in humans. This virus evolved from the Goose/Guangdong lineage of HPAI H5 virus, which emerged in commercial poultry in China in 1996, spilled over into wild birds, and spread through Asia, Europe, Africa by 2006, North America by 2021, South America by 2023, and Antarctica starting in 2024. So far, only Oceania has remained free of HPAI H5 virus. To prevent more of such emerging infectious disease events in wildlife, livestock and humans from happening in the future, a paradigm shift is needed in infectious disease prevention and control.
Thijs Kuiken is Professor of Comparative Pathology at the Department of Viroscience, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam. He graduated as a veterinarian at Utrecht University in 1988, obtained his Ph.D. in 1998 from the University of Saskatchewan on Newcastle disease virus in cormorants, and qualified as a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists in 2002. His current research interests include highly pathogenic avian influenza at the interface between poultry, people and wildlife; the pathogenesis, pathology and epidemiology of virus infections in bats compared to humans; and how to implement transformative changes in the health sciences to make the transition to a sustainable human society.
Bird flu has landed in Los Angeles.Officials from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported that several cats tested positive for the bird flu, also called H5N1, after drinking raw milk. Shortly after, the officials reported the first confirmed local case of the illness in a human.But how much of a threat does the bird flu actu...
(PDF) Quantitative risk assessment of human H5N1 infection from consumption of fluid cow's milk
PDF | The emergence of H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b in dairy cattle raised concerns over the safety of fluid milk. We developed two stochastic quantitative risk... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate
Bird Flu Samples From Very Ill Patient Had ‘Concerning’ Mutations
Tiny genetic alterations could help the bird flu virus enter cells in the upper respiratory tract, the C.D.C. said. But there is no sign that mutations are widespread in nature.