Happy New Year!

This is a note about the current Avian Flu epidemic spreading among poultry and dairy farms in the US, and which has been in the news in the last few days.

In the last few years, an H5N1 strain of the flu has been spreading among commercial poultry and even dairy farms, causing a lot of trouble for farmers, including the culling of animals.  According to the CDC, 66 humans have been infected in the US during this same time period.  So far, all of these people were infected because of close contact with birds or cattle.  There is still no human to human transmission.

The reason avian influenza is in the news right now is that there is a case of severe disease in a human in Louisiana.  DNA sequencing has been done on the strain in this case, and it appears that there was significant mutation that occurred in the infected individual.  Mutation in a human host makes it more likely that the new strain may be able to infect other humans directly.  The mutations were in the Hemagglutinin protein, the protein from which the H in H5N1 is derived.

Again I want to be clear that no human to human transmission has been detected as of yet, so there is not yet any need to go into COVID mode!  However, if you work with poultry or cattle, you should be more cautious.  Wash your hands regularly, and make sure fluids from your animals stay out of your mouth, nose or eyes.  This includes milk!  If you drink raw milk, make sure you are getting your milk from a source that performs regular testing for flu.  Also, if you have back yard chickens, you should limit your birds’ contact with wild birds by keeping them in a coup with a roof, even one made of wire is fine.

As usual, make sure chicken products are cooked thoroughly before consumption.

There has also been a significant number of cases in house cats.  If you can keep your house cat indoors, it might be a good idea to do that until things die down.

The State of California has declared a state of emergency regarding this flu outbreak.  My opinion is that this is premature, since we still don’t have human to human transmission.  I will continue to monitor the situation, and will let you know if more concern is warranted.

Don’t fear, but be smart!
Erik