Wednesday, 24 April the USDA, CDC, FDA held a closed briefing to disseminate information on H5N1. It shouldn't have been closed but we still got the info.
Eric Topol who you may recall from the last pandemic wrote about the key points. You can read his full report on his substack.
erictopol.substack.com/…
Confirmation of widespread prescence in commercial milk in 8 states though likely many more. To date no infectious virus from the milk supply. Should know on this more soon.
[Following section not from Topol but based on a Stat News article]
Attempts to culture from milk failed so far. Milk probably safe currently. In fact one of the guys at OSU used the extra milk from testing to make dinner.
[End outside article, Topol Substack report continues]
Confirmation of asymptomatic dairy cows.
Routine pig tests — no H5N1 detected.
USDA issued an order regarding testing interstate cattle shipments. Will kick in Monday. Current genetic testing has indicated likely H5N1 outbreak in cows is the result of single or very few bird/cow contact(s) in Texas.
Vaccination. Officials believe tamiflu would be effective, and 2 vaccine candidates well matched to strain are available. He links to this article (no paywall) in Stat News by Helen Branswell going into the issue of vaccine production in depth.
[Comment to original substack report by Topol follows]
While no known human to human transmission is occuring, illegal workers have every incentive to hide illness and tests and protections should be given to them as well as sick leave.
Links
https://erictopol.substack.com/p/a-bird-flu-h5n1-status-report
https://www.statnews.com/2024/04/25/h5n1-bird-flu-cows-outbreak-likely-widespread/
https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2024/04/24/usda-actions-protect-livestock-health-highly-pathogenic-h5n1-avian
https://www.statnews.com/2024/04/24/h5n1-bird-flu-vaccine-preparedness/