Administration disrupts US bird flu response

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By Elizabeth Schroeder |24 February 2025 | 3:04 pm

... since Trump took office on 20 January, two federal agencies responsible for monitoring and responding to the epidemic had withheld reports and cancelled congressional briefings and meetings with state health officials.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) withheld two weekly reports, one on bird flu transmission and another on surveillance, and cancelled several meetings on bird flu with state officials,” according to Reuters.

No congressional briefings had also been held by the CDC and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for three weeks. In addition, a state official said the USDA had not responded to a request for information on a new programme aimed at protecting the country’s food supply, the sources told Reuters.

Despite more people and livestock testing positive for the virus, there were now fears among federal health staff that “critical information about bird flu would not be disseminated in a timely manner, or at all” ...

https://www.farmersweekly.co.za/agri-news/world/trump-administration-disrupts-us-bird-flu-response/

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1. Two people in US hospitalized with bird flu, CDC reports

Melody Schreiber
Mon 24 Feb 2025 13.13 EST

Two people, in Wyoming and Ohio, have been hospitalized with H5N1 bird flu, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a routine flu update on Friday.

The person from Wyoming is still in hospital, while the Ohio patient has been released, according to the report. Both patients experienced “respiratory and non-respiratory symptoms”, the report said, without detailing those symptoms.

“This shows that H5N1 can be very severe and we should not assume that it will always be mild,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan.

The news comes amid one of the worst seasonal flu outbreaks in 15 years – raising the potential for the emergence of a more dangerous virus that combines bird flu and seasonal flu in a process called reassortment ...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/24/bird-flu-hospitalizations-wyoming-ohio

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2. Bird flu in California rats as USDA scrambles to rehire scientists

Published Feb 22, 2025 at 3:14 PM EST
Updated Feb 23, 2025 at 5:42 PM EST
By Adeola Adeosun

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed H5N1 bird flu in four black rats in Riverside County, California, this week. The rats were discovered in late January near two recently affected poultry farms, marking the first detection in rats since 2021 ...

Black rats, typically found in urban environments, represent a new transmission risk because they can spread the virus through multiple pathways: droppings, urine, blood, and saliva. Their mobility between farms and residential areas could accelerate the virus's spread to both humans and their pets.

Additionally, the USDA said last week that it mistakenly fired officials involved in the federal response to the H5N1 avian flu outbreak ...

https://www.newsweek.com/bird-flu-found-california-rats-usda-scientists-2034873

[underpants]

3. RFK Jr aside, don't forget that Trumpbthinjs any bad news reflects a him personally

As we saw with COVID no one was even implying it was his fault but all his time and energy went in to IT’S NOT MY FAULT!

When asked a couple weeks ago why he wanted Canada to be the 51st state he said (in public) that we had a trade deficit with Canada but if they were part of the US we wouldn’t have a trade deficit anymore.

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4. Avian flu reports in NV lead to starling removal

Joey Ciccolini
February 24, 2025

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) recently confirmed H5N1 avian flu detections in Nevada dairy herds, along with several more detections in U.S. poultry flocks.

Nevada reported its first H5N1 detection in dairy cows in early December 2024, which affected a herd in Nye County, located northwest of Las Vegas. In two recent statements, the Nevada Department of Agriculture (NDA) said the virus had been detected in dairy cattle in Churchill County, which borders Nye County to the northwest. Dairy cattle in both of the counties have been placed in quarantine, and the USDA investigators have begun surveillance and testing wildlife to better determine which strains are circulating and how the virus is spreading.

Federal and state groups will also begin removing non-native European starling populations (Sturnus vulgaris) in Churchill, Pershing and Lyon counties. The NDA called the starling removal a critical step and that, due to their large numbers, the birds are a nuisance population that can spread disease and contaminate animals’ food and water sources ...

https://www.mypmp.net/2025/02/24/latest-avian-flu-reports-in-nevada-lead-to-starling-removal/

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5. Confirmed bird flu found in dead wild bird in Hays County TX

BY Kaila Garrett San Marcos
PUBLISHED 8:33 AM CT Feb. 24, 2025

SAN MARCOS, Texas — A confirmed case of bird flu has been found in Hays County. The Hays County Health Department (HCHD) received a notification that a dead wild bird from the northwestern area of Hays County tested positive for the avian bird flu, according to a press release from the department.

This latest case in Hays County is the most recent detection in Texas, as the virus has been spreading in wild bird across the state with confirmed cases in Galveston, El Paso, Lubbock, Amarillo and New Braunfels.

There were also confirmed cases of bird flu in ducks at a local shopping center in Austin back in January ...

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-texas-el-paso/news/2025/02/24/confirmed-case-of-the-bird-flu-in-hays-county

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6. Precautions in Pennsylvania

By Isabela Weiss | WVIA News | Report for America
Published February 24, 2025 at 5:00 AM EST

... As of Friday, Feb. 21, there were no human cases in Pennsylvania, but bird flu cases in humans are spreading elsewhere in the U.S., prompting caution and preparation in this state.

Bethlehem-based St. Luke’s University Health Network announced earlier this month it was preparing to start testing for human cases ...

https://www.wvia.org/news/local/2025-02-24/officials-take-precautions-in-pennsylvania-as-bird-flu-spreads-to-humans-in-other-states

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7. 6 Indiana farms under quarantine

y: Gregg Montgomery
Posted: Feb 21, 2025 / 08:09 PM EST / Updated: Feb 23, 2025 / 01:08 AM EST

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indiana animal health officials on Friday added three more farms to its list of those quarantined after avian influenza was detected.

Friday’s bird flu announcement came a day after three others farms were quarantined.

The added quarantines mean more than 41,100 birds are at risk in Indiana ...

https://www.wishtv.com/news/indiana-news/indiana-bird-flu-quarantined-farms-february-21-2025/

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8. Bird flu now endemic in cows

Melody Schreiber
Sat 22 Feb 2025 08.00 EST

A newer variant of H5N1 bird flu has spilled over into dairy cows separately in Nevada and Arizona, prompting new theories about how the virus is spread and leading to questions about containing the ongoing outbreaks.

The news comes amid a purge of experts at federal agencies, including employees who were responding to the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the US Department of Agriculture.

The additional spillovers are changing experts’ view of how rare introductions to herds may be – with implications for how to prevent such spread.

“It’s endemic in cows now. There is no way this is going to get contained” on its own, said Seema Lakdawala, an influenza virologist and co-director of the Center for Transmission of Airborne Pathogens at Emory School of Medicine ...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/22/bird-flu-virus-trump

[bif]

9. Anyone sense another pandemic coming?

And it'll be handled just as well as the rapist did the last time around.