United States: According to the official report, four cases of bird flu were identified in humans this year, linked to exposure from cattle farms. Moreover, 143 dairy herds have reportedly been contaminated with the virus across a dozen US States.
Bird flu risk to humans
Scientists have been warning that the bird flu virus could become another pandemic like COVID-19, as H5N1 has destroyed populations of seals and cats.
According to the latest study published in the journal Nature, in which experts examined the virus affecting cows and noted that the risk it could pose to humans is possible.
The study results also found that the H5N1 virus extracted from an infected cow could spread to the mammary glands of mice and some ferrets.
What more have the experts noted?
Keith Poulson, the co-author of the study and director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, said, “There’s good news and bad news,” as salon.com reported.
According to Poulson, the good news is that the researchers now have a model for infecting lab animals and getting them to spread in their mammary glands.
Moreover, as the study showed, the virus in mice and ferrets spread to the brain, intestines, kidneys, heart, and lungs as well.
The transmission of the virus from female mice to their pups did occur through their milk, too.
Moreover, as experts noted, influenza viruses generally spread rapidly in winter. However, they are more potent and dangerous than bird flu, as they spread readily among mammals through tough droplets in the air, expelled through sneezes or coughs by the infected.
The study showed that the current prevalent strain of bird flu is not potent enough for respiratory transmission, which is great news.
However, as Poulson added, “The bad news is that this will attach to both sets of sialic acid receptors.”
Poulson explains that these receptors are present across the upper respiratory tract of humans. In the case of birds, the H5N1 strains generally attack different sialic acid receptors.
Now, it has adapted to attach mammalian receptors, giving the virus more ability to be transmitted between people.
Therefore, Poulson stated, “So we really need to pay attention to this virus; we can’t let it continue to be endemic in our dairy herds,” as salon.com reported.