Free Republic

Dairy cows cannot be moved between states without testing for the highly pathogenic avian influenza, U.S. officials announced on April 24. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a federal order that says “prior to interstate movement, dairy cattle are required to receive a negative test for Influenza A virus.” A strain of the highly pathogenic avian influenza A, H5N1, has been spreading across the country since first being detected in cows in March. The influenza is commonly known as the bird flu. At this point, no beef cattle are known to have been infected with the virus. The order,...

Bird flu has been detected in 'very high concentrations' in milk, health officials announced. The World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday that bird flu, also known as H5N1, has been found in raw milk, which is milk that does not go through standard pasteurization processes to rid it of bacteria. Officials said that pasteurized milk, which is standard in major retailers, is still safe. Bird flu has surged in cows and chickens throughout the US, with animals in 29 farms across eight states becoming affected, according to the CDC. Last week, Dr Darin Detwiler, former FDA and USDA food safety...

As avian influenza (bird flu) continues to spread among wild birds in the European Union, officials are warning of the potential for a future human pandemic. On Wednesday, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) issued an alert noting that "transmission between bird and mammal species has been observed, particularly in fur animal farms, where outbreaks have been reported."

A bird flu pandemic could be '100 times worse than Covid' and kill up to half of everyone it infects, experts have warned — as the White House says it is 'monitoring' the situation. Speaking at a briefing, virus researchers said the H5N1 strain of bird flu may now be getting 'dangerously close' to triggering a pandemic. Multiple cases of the infection in a variety of mammals, including cows, cats and, more recently, humans, are all raising the risk of the virus mutating to become more transmissible, they said. But others attending the briefing said it was too early to...

AUSTIN (KXAN) — A human case of avian influenza A(H5N1), also known as bird flu, has been confirmed in Texas, the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) reported Monday The person had direct contact with dairy cattle presumed to be infected with avian influenza, the department said. Their only reported symptom was eye inflammation, and they’re now being treated with the antiviral drug oseltamivir (commonly known by the brand name Tamiflu). DSHS did not specify where the person lives or where they contracted the virus, however, officials last week confirmed an illness that impacted dairies in the Texas Panhandle was...

A virology team has confirmed the first bird flu infections in elephant and fur seals in the sub-Antarctic region, as the highly contagious H5N1 virus continues to spread around the world. Researchers previously reported the mass deaths of seals and that a number of elephant seals on South Georgia island – a UK overseas territory in the southern Atlantic Ocean – had been exhibiting symptoms of avian flu. But while seabird cases were confirmed, the seal infections were classed as suspected, pending lab results. The first known cases of H5N1 were detected in the Antarctic region in October among brown...

Russia's egg shortage is being exacerbated by bird flu-riddled imports from Turkey, one of the country's biggest trading partners and a NATO member, according to a recent report citing a Russian government official. More than one-fifth of the eggs imported from Turkey were found to be infected with the highly contagious H5N1 avian influenza, as well as other dangerous ailments including salmonella and botulism, Russian authorities warned. -snip- Russia's attempt to pivot to Turkey for emergency egg supplies in January now appears to have backfired, as the delivery of the first batch of Turkish eggs was promptly followed by reports...

Around the world, scientists are now beginning to examine samples of the virus with a significant question in mind: Could this strain of the disease cause a global pandemic? This international network of scientists keeps constant watch for good reason. In 1918 and 1919, a flu pandemic killed between 20 million and 40 million people, more than the total death toll of World War I, more in a year than the Black Death of 1347 to 1351. More recently, an H1N1 swine flu pandemic was blamed for more than 284,500 human deaths worldwide between April 2009 and August 2010. So...

ast fall, on a mink farm in Spain, H5N1 (avian influenza) likely spread across the animals. The outbreak resulted in the death or culling of the entire group of 50,000 minks. Why should you care? Because it may have marked the first known case of mammal-to-mammal transmission of the deadly virus known as the bird flu, according to a new study. And that doesn’t portend anything good for humans.

A bird flu strain that claimed the life of a schoolgirl in Cambodia has evolved to better infect human cells, in a worrying sign. Scientists on the ground who made the discovery said the finding 'needs to be treated with the utmost concern'. They added that there were 'some indications' the virus had already 'gone through' a human and picked up the new mutations before infecting the girl. The 11-year-old girl, from Prey Veng province, last week became the first victim of H5N1 in 2023. Her father has also tested positive for the virus but has not developed symptoms.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced late Thursday that a person in Colorado has tested positive for an H5 bird flu virus — the first such recorded infection in the United States. The CDC did not reveal the neuraminidase subtype of the virus — the N portion of an influenza A virus’ name. The country is currently experiencing an unprecedented outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in both wild birds and in commercial poultry flocks. The man, described by Colorado health officials as being younger than 40 years old, experienced only fatigue; he is now in isolation and being...

Some 24 million poultry birds like chicken and turkeys have already been lost, either because they died from the virus or were killed to prevent its spread. But unlike a similar bird flu outbreak seven years ago, this one is unlikely to just burn itself out. That’s because this particular flu virus seems capable of hanging around in populations of wild birds, which can pass the virus on to poultry farms. While chickens and turkeys with the virus quickly sicken and die, some waterfowl can remain healthy with the virus and carry it long distances. Scientists believe that wild migratory...

.... With billions of birds hosting an uncountable number of permutations of influenza strains, it’s inevitable that once in a while, one of these combinations will evolve the ability to replicate in humans. This has happened with an influenza type known as H5N1, the “bird flu” that the world has been watching since it was first isolated from human infections in Hong Kong in 1997. In the past 16 years, H5N1 has caused more than 600 infections in humans and almost 400 deaths—killing approximately 60 percent of those who are known to have been infected with this virus. Luckily, H5N1...

David Wilkerson was known to always be correct concerning his prophetic words. David Wilkerson, Pastor and prophet of Times Square Church in New York City, was a voice that many prophetic people respected for his accuracy, he was known to always be correct concerning his prophetic words, and now we are seeing the fulfillment of his prophetic word from 1986. In a 1986 meeting, Wilkerson by the Holy Spirit, prophesied about a coming plague which will force the Church, government and bars to shut down. And this is exactly what is happening all around the world currently, as many religious...

A nice catch from our friends at Grabien, who got it from Ace [update] and who had to go all the way back to 2005 to find this nugget and the contemporaneous coverage at the NYT. At the time, the US prepared for a predicted epidemic of the avian flu, also known as H5N1, of global proportions. The virus had been identified for 18 years by that time, but by the end of 2004 had only resulted in 36 deaths and 50 known cases over the prior two years, according to WHO data. In 2005, the number of cases would...

After back-to-back potentially serious laboratory accidents, federal health officials announced on Friday that they had closed the flu and anthrax laboratories of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and have halted shipments of all infectious agents from the agency’s highest-security labs. The accidents, and the C.D.C.'s emphatic response to them, could have important implications for other laboratories around the world engaged in research into dangerous viruses and bacteria. If the C.D.C — which the agency’s director, Dr. Thomas Frieden, called “the reference laboratory to the world” — had multiple accidents that could have, in theory, killed not just laboratory...

China has reported an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu in Hunan province which lies on the southern border of Hubei province, the epicenter of the rapidly spreading coronavuirus. Excerpt- No human cases of the Hunan H5N1 have been reported.

[The following is an excerpt.] Could it be blowing from farm to farm in the dirt? Could determined starlings and pigeons be carrying it into poultry houses on their feet? Is it spreading in feed, or being carried on truck tires? Federal agriculture officials are looking everywhere they can think of for H5N2 bird flu, which has spread to poultry flocks in 14 states and killed or forced the slaughter of more than 39 million birds. Highly pathogenic avian influenza has never spread like this before in the United States, and it's flummoxed the U.S. Department of Agriculture, farmers and...

A US government laboratory mistakenly mixed a common flu strain with a dangerous and deadly type of bird flu and shipped it to another lab, authorities said Friday. The latest news followed admissions of mishandled anthrax and forgotten smallpox vials at separate US government labs, and raised new concerns about the safety of dangerous agents which could be used as bioterror weapons. No one was endangered by the mixed flu strain, said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Tom Frieden, who nevertheless said he was "astonished" that protocols could have been violated in that way. "Everything we have looked...

Flu scientists are hoping to vaccinate themselves against another outbreak of a crippling controversy. In a letter published this week by Nature and Science (see p. 612), 22 researchers make their case for launching potentially risky experiments with the H7N9 avian influenza virus, which emerged earlier this year in China and which some scientists fear could spark a deadly human pandemic. The scientists, who mostly work in U.S.-funded labs, also detail the safety and security precautions that they would take to prevent the possibly dangerous viruses they create from escaping from the lab—or falling into the hands of terrorists. In...