GENEVA: The H5N1 bird flu virus strain has been detected in very excessive concentrations in uncooked milk from contaminated animals, the WHO stated Friday, although how lengthy the virus can survive in milk is unknown.
Avian influenza A(H5N1) first emerged in 1996 however since 2020, the quantity of outbreaks in birds has grown exponentially, alongside a rise in the quantity of contaminated mammals.
The strain has led to the deaths of tens of tens of millions of poultry, with wild birds and land and marine mammals additionally contaminated.
Cows and goats joined the checklist final month — a shocking growth for consultants as a result of they weren’t considered inclined to this kind of influenza.
US authorities earlier this month stated an individual engaged on a dairy farm in Texas was recovering from bird flu after being uncovered to cattle.
“The case in Texas is the primary case of a human contaminated by avian influenza by a cow,“ stated Wenqing Zhang, head of the worldwide influenza programme on the World Health Organization.
“Bird-to-cow, cow-to-cow and cow-to-bird transmission have additionally been registered throughout these present outbreaks, which recommend that the virus might have found different routes of transition than we beforehand understood,“ she informed a media briefing in Geneva.
It was solely the second case of a human testing constructive for bird flu in the United States, and got here after the virus sickened herds that have been apparently uncovered to wild birds.
“Now we see a number of herds of cows affected in an rising quantity of US states, which exhibits an extra step of the virus spillover to mammals,“ Zhang stated.
“The virus has additionally been detected in milk from contaminated animals.”
Zhang stated there was a “very excessive virus focus in uncooked milk”, however consultants have been nonetheless investigating precisely how lengthy the virus is ready to survive in milk.
The Texas well being division has stated the cattle infections don’t current a priority for the business milk provide, as dairies are required to destroy milk from sick cows. Pasteurisation additionally kills the virus.
“It is necessary for individuals to make sure secure meals practices, together with consuming solely pasteurised milk and milk merchandise,“ stated Zhang.
– Recent human instances gentle –
From 2003 to April 1 this 12 months, the WHO stated it had recorded 463 deaths from 889 human instances throughout 23 international locations, placing the case fatality fee at 52 p.c.
Zhang famous that the human instances recorded in Europe and the United States in the previous few years — because the virus surged — have been gentle instances.
So far, there isn’t any proof that A(H5N1) is spreading between people.
And Zhang burdened that the A(H5N1) viruses recognized in cows and in the human case in Texas confirmed no elevated adaptation to mammals.
As for potential vaccines, if required, Zhang stated there have been some in the pipeline.
“Having candidate vaccine viruses prepared permits us to be ready to shortly produce vaccines for people, if this turns into crucial,“ she stated.
“For this explicit H5N1 virus detected in dairy cows, there are a pair of candidate vaccine viruses accessible.”
In the case of a pandemic, there are shut to twenty influenza vaccines licensed for pandemic use and so they could possibly be tailor-made with the particular virus strain in circulation, she stated.
