Well, the United States has recorded its first death from the H5N1 virus. The serious case in Louisiana has died. This case was contracted from backyard and wild birds.
Outbreaks continue to occur in dairy cattle and on poultry farms, both large and small. Confirmed human cases number only about 70, most of them among dairy workers, who contract mild illness. It is unclear whether the viral clade in cows is actually weaker or whether it is attenuated by its passage through contact rather than respiratory droplets. He is still quite capable of killing cats.
DON’T BE THE NEXT CASE. Really don’t be the next death. Wild birds pose the greatest risk to humans and their pets.
Arizona Game and Fish yesterday urged hunters and falconers to take steps to avoid and prevent the spread of the virus, given recent detections in the state’s domestic poultry and wild birds. He said dabbling duck species carrying the virus rarely show signs of illness, but Canada geese, eagles, other raptors, and domestic poultry appear to be susceptible to more severe clinical disease. [my bold]
Waterfowl are the most susceptible, but songbirds, raptors and corvids can all get it, as can domestic poultry. If your backyard chickens catch it, they will all die. You must report and the entire herd will have to be euthanized. Wear a mask and gloves when handling birds or cleaning their areas. You can continue to feed songbirds in your garden, they are less vectors than waterbirds. Wear gloves and a mask when cleaning the feeder, just in case.
Do not try to help a sick bird. You will not succeed and you will put yourself and the community at risk.
Raw poultry is the vector that has killed many cats. DO NOT feed your pets raw food. They can be made from sick animals that would not be allowed for human consumption. (A man in Cambodia died on January 10 after eating sick poultry from his own flock.) Raw milk has also infected cats. And cats are capable of transmitting the virus to each other, although there are no signs of transmission to humans. Again. Maybe. We still don’t know how the British Columbia teen became infected.
There has been no human-to-human transmission so far, but other mammal species such as cats and ferrets have shown the ability to pass the disease to each other, so it’s not really a big step to take. TO DO.
If it starts to spread, vaccines won’t stop it. Nor will we have enough available quickly enough. Flu vaccines reduce severity but are not very effective in preventing infection and spread. Masks WILL be the most effective tool to prevent the spread. Make sure you are stocked.
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Oh, and just to make sure you have sweet dreams, there’s also a highly pathogenic H5N5 avian flu spreading in Europe. Which also kills cats.
The kittens come from Ísafjörður, in the Westfjords region of northwest Iceland, but the one diagnosed with H5N5 had arrived in Reykjavík, the country’s capital.
MAST said the same H5N5 strain was detected in wild birds in Iceland in September 2024 and in poultry in December 2024. It added that the cats likely contracted the virus from wild birds.
A separate report According to the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), the main clinical signs in the kittens were lethargy, loss of appetite, cramps and stiffness.
H5N5 is expanding its geographic distribution, including Greenland
Most recent quarterly overview of avian influenza from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Food Safety Agency (ESFA) said that H5N5 viruses continue to expand their geographic and specific range, with impact on domestic birds reported in Iceland, Norway and the United States. Kingdom.
In a related new development, Greenland animal health officials reported highly pathogenic H5N5 in a northern fulmar, a seabird, found dead in October in the northwest, according to notification today from WOAH.
Quotes and information from the University of Minnesota’s CIDRAP, a source of information on infectious diseases that I highly recommend.
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