The U.S. Division of Agriculture kicks off a brand new program searching for extremely pathogenic chook flu within the milk provide. Beginning this week, they’re testing samples of milk supposed for pasteurization.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
The chook flu outbreak in U.S. dairy cattle retains getting worse. Greater than 50 human circumstances have been confirmed, and the variety of contaminated cows retains rising too. That is why this week, the U.S. Division of Agriculture is starting widespread testing of the nation’s milk provide for the virus. NPR’s Pien Huang is right here to assist us perceive what is going on on, Hey, Pien.
PIEN HUANG, BYLINE: Hey, Ari.
SHAPIRO: Inform us about this new testing program. How does it work?
HUANG: OK. So beginning this week, the USDA is requiring samples of milk to be collected earlier than it will get pasteurized and shared for testing. These milk samples are going to be taken from huge storage tanks at dairy processing crops the place milk from a number of completely different farms, tens of 1000’s of cows, are all blended collectively. And whereas there are some in public well being that say it is probably not the strong testing they had been hoping for, Ted McKinney, head of the Nationwide Affiliation of State Departments of Agriculture, says it is a begin.
TED MCKINNEY: Our sense is that, no, it isn’t going to each single milk tank on each single farm. However boy, it is the subsequent neatest thing. It begins to get you extra data, extra surveillance information than you could have now.
HUANG: Now, if a milk pattern exams optimistic for chook flu, it is presupposed to set off a farm investigation to determine the place the cows are contaminated. This federal order begins with six states this week, together with some states the place it is spreading quickly and states the place no circumstances have been discovered. And it’s supposed to succeed in all 50 states sooner or later.
SHAPIRO: We have recognized about chook flu in cows for some time now. So why is that this program launching now?
HUANG: Yeah, we have now, Ari. And McKinney says that the thought of testing extra robustly has been kicking round for a few months. State veterinarians, specifically, have been calling for extra surveillance. However he says that it took a while to get everybody concerned to agree on a plan.
The timing additionally does make it clear that this chook flu outbreak just isn’t dying down. So bear in mind, that is an outbreak that is thought to have began when chook flu jumped from wild birds to dairy cows in Texas someday late final 12 months. And within the spring, it grew to become clear that it was spreading with cows which might be being moved to completely different farms in numerous states. Since then, it has been detected in virtually 850 herds in 16 states. And previously few weeks specifically, it has been spreading quickly amongst California’s dairy cows. There have been greater than 300 new confirmed circumstances previously 30 days, and it is also infecting farm employees too.
SHAPIRO: Yeah. So inform us extra concerning the numbers amongst people. What do we all know?
HUANG: Yeah. So in line with CDC, there have been 60 confirmed circumstances in people since April. Most of those have been in farm employees, although, there have been a number of complicated circumstances with no recognized connection to farms or livestock. Many of those have been gentle. Folks have had flu signs, some eye infections. However there’s some proof that there are circumstances which might be going unnoticed. You understand, the CDC did a examine of dairy farm employees and located that 7% had antibodies to chook flu, which indicated that that they had just lately recovered from it, possibly with out even realizing that that they had it. Seema Lakdawala at Emory College research how flus unfold.
SEEMA LAKDAWALA: Each time this virus spills over into people, it has the potential to adapt and acquire the properties essential for transmission human to human.
SHAPIRO: That sounds ominous, Pien. So how nervous ought to individuals be?
HUANG: OK, so on the one hand, Ari, it’s excellent news that the model of the virus that is at present spreading amongst dairy cows has been spreading for nearly a 12 months now or extra, and it hasn’t been spreading so much amongst people or inflicting extreme sickness. The CDC does say that the chance of an infection to most people stays low.
However however, there was this latest examine from the Scripps Analysis Institute that discovered it will take only one mutation to a viral protein to make it higher infect people. So not a pandemic but. Everybody hopes it is going to keep that method, however individuals who observe pandemics are nervous.
SHAPIRO: That’s NPR’s Pien Huang with the most recent on the H1N1 chook flu outbreak amongst dairy cattle and people. Thanks, Pien.
HUANG: Thanks, Ari.
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