“Poultry litter” as a potential source of infection of dairy cows in the USA with highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 cannot be ruled out. In the USA , it is permitted to feed ground-up chicken waste to cattle. #vogelgriep
telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…

This is wild: California senators want to exempt factory farms from the state's animal cruelty law.

If their bill, SB-921, passes, any practice the *industry* thinks is 'routine and acceptable' is presumed legal.

This is like a bill to exempt coal power from environmental laws.

The current #H5N1 detection in cattle is a good moment to think about food safety and security, and the risk posed by emerging animal and human viral diseases. The way we currently farm & interact with livestock is not sustainable and not safe. And not ethical.

Lots of hand-wringing about whether various dairy products might have H5N1 in them. I’ll leave that to food safety experts to show the actual data (haven’t seen it yet), but may I humbly suggest that now is a great time to try plant-based dairy products that DEF don’t have H5N1…

Exactly.

This is not what a resilient food system looks like. Industrial animal ag is highly vulnerable to disruptions from zoonotic outbreaks.

Tests confirm avian flu on New Mexico dairy farm, probe finds cat positives

The virus was also confirmed on five more Texas farms, as investigators find more clues from animal samples and genetic sequences.

ow.ly/vNOo50R6T75

Agricultural subsidies are the largest item in the EU budget. You'd hope much of that money was going towards sustainable food systems. Unfortunately we find that over 80% goes to emission-intensive animals in our new Nature Food study. theguardian.com/environment/20…🧵

Cats also involved in highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 outbreak in Texas and Kansas. #vogelgriep 1/2
dshs.texas.gov/news-alerts/he…

Not great news. Hopefully there will be more information soon and appropriate measures taken on affected farms. We should really test cows in Europe as well to understand how widespread such infections are. Another examples how livestock acts as amplifying/intermediate host

Lifting this thread up for current relevance now too. There is already evidence, since last summer, that mammalian adaptation markers are indeed making their way back into migratory birds. Mammal-to-mammal spread anywhere is a threat to mammals everywhere.

Resurfacing this thread for two reasons:
1) As springtime comes, we'll see migratory flocks carrying new H5N1 mutations to new geographies.
2) The January mass death event in seals in Argentina very likely indicates mammal-to-mammal transmission, which is one such mutation…

Similar situation in the U.S.... this is absolutely disincentivizing a transition toward more sustainable and healthier food systems. Subsidies can help catapult emerging solutions to scale, but when used to insulate entrenched interests, no bueno. theguardian.com/environment/20…

Reminder that while this one patient's symptoms are mild, worldwide thru February there have been 887 confirmed human cases of H5N1. Of those, 462 have died (52% mortality).

+1 to these articles for current relevance. As Keira Wickliffe Berger MPH, MSN, RN (she/her) just noted on my recent post, the next big alarm bell will ring when we see the first case of H5N1 in commercial swine.

Texas issues health alert after state's first human case of H5N1 bird flu

Q for academics: TIL that some universities give recently tenured faculty another package of unrestricted funding. Anyone know of a list of which unis these are? Does it vary by department? Does yours do this? TIA!