A raw written report details how cats from at least one dairy farm in Texas have died after catching H5N1 avian flu – not from birds , but from drinkingraw cow ’s milk .
Only lately , the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) reported that a dairy farm worker hadtested positivefor H5N1 avian flu , having catch it from the cows themselves . In fact , dozens of herds are thought to have been affected this twelvemonth , underscored by the news that virus fragment have now been detected insamples of Milk River . That ’s not a problem for us humans , as long as we ’re only consume pasteurized Milk River . But , in the latest sorry twist to this saga , it could be a problem for some of the farm ’ feline resident .
The H5N1 stock of avian flu has been hovering in the background of conversation about potentialfuture pandemicsfor many year now , but it has recently been in the headlines all the more . The World Health Organization ( WHO ) has called it “ anenormous concern ” , and has enjoin that we ’re currently in a world beast pandemic of the disease .
While it did start in birds , withvery occasionaljumps into humans , it ’s now separate out to mammal includingcetaceansandpolar bear , as well asbird speciesyou might think would be more isolated .
According to the written report , illness in dairy cows was first observe in February this twelvemonth in the Texas panhandle , followed by standardised lawsuit in Kansas and New Mexico . The cows themselves come out eating less and producing less milk , and what they did produce had a thicken , yellow coming into court . After a few days , they mostly find o.k. .
Unfortunately , it seems some of the domestic quat living on these farms were n’t so favourable .
CAT are cognise to besusceptibleto avian influenza virus , but they usually catch them after hunt infected birds or eating their meat . After analyzing two gone cats get off to the Iowa State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory from a Texas dairy farm , as well as Milk River samples from moo-cow that had shew symptom , experts have conclude the cats caught H5N1 after salute milk .
Pathology present the cat had evidence of infection in their brain , lungs , heart , and eyes . Ars Technicareports that other affected cats displayed symptoms like discharge from their eyes and nose , red ink of coordination , depressive behaviors , and cecity .
analytic thinking of the Milk River samples certify the eminent rates of viral sloughing from the infect cows . The authors state that around half of the cats that were fed raw Milk River by and by die , and the viral isolates from both khat and cow tissue samples were genetically standardized , so it looks likely the milk was the source of the infection .
“ Although exposure to and consumption of all in wild hoot can not be completely rule out for the cats depict in this news report , the known consumption of unpasteurised Milk River and colostrum from infect cows and the high amount of computer virus nucleic acid within the milk make milk and colostrum consumption a potential route of exposure , ” they compose .
As to how the oxen were infected in the first lieu , the writer suggest it ’s likely their feed was foul with feces from infected wild snort .
If nothing else , the sad taradiddle of these cats should service as a reminder of one of the many dangers of consume unpasteurised Milk River . But more than that , it add up another thread to the emerging arras of H5N1 ’s rise across the world , and helps explicate why authorities arekeeping such a close eyeon this computer virus and the peril of even morespillover events .
The study is bring out inEmerging Infectious Diseases .
