Re: D1.1 in dairy cattle?

On 2/6/2025 11:22 AM, RonO wrote:

On 2/5/2025 6:09 PM, RonO wrote:

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influenza-bird-flu/usda-confirms- spillover-2nd-h5n1-avian-flu-genotype-dairy-cattle
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I just got back from my visit to California.
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This article indicates that the H5N1 genotype D1.1 (the virus that killed the Louisiana patient) has infected dairy cattle.  For some stupid reason the article does not mention the increased risk that that this virus poses compared to the Genotype B3.13 that has only had mild symptoms when infecting humans.
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For another stupid reeason the USDA is not going to alter their eradication plans when everyone should want to identify all the herds infected with D1.1 as soon as possible.  This means that they should not risk missing early infections by testing bulk milk tank samples (they missed the raw milk dairy twice before finding it infected).  They likely have to implement testing dairy cattle, and may have to do initial detection by measuring body temp changes.  They do not want dairy workers infected by this virus.
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They also do not want dairy workers working on more than one dairy farm when D1.1 is present among the dairy herds.
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Everyone is still in denial that dairy workers have been the major factor in the spread of the dairy virus from farm to farm and to poultry farms.
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Someone else is claiming that the virus (B3.13) is here to stay if they don't improve their eradication strategy.  The virus will likely start infecting previously infected herds in states like Texas, Michigan and Kansas that were infected early on.  The virus has changed a lot and will likely start evading existing antibodies.  California and Colorado (the only states that tested more than volunteer farms) indicate that all the other states likely had all their herds infected, but just did not test them.  California has detected almost 800 infected herds with less than a 1,000 total herds in the state, and Colorado tested all their herds (there were only 100 in the state) and found over 60% infected before they were able to contain the virus to infected herds.
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This just means that the virus (like Covid) has had plenty of chances to mutate and will likely be able to start reinfecting dairy herds.
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They need to detect the herds as early as possible and stop dairy workers from working on more than one farm.  For some reason California never restricted the dairy workers and it resulted in the virus running through the state.  It was a stupid thing to do because they identified most of the infected farms by contact tracing dairy workers.  Dairy workers have rights, but once a farm is found to be positive those workers should not be allowed to work at other farms.  This is more of an issue with D1.1.  The spread of this virus has to be minimized.
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Ron Okimoto
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https://www.aphis.usda.gov/news/program-update/aphis-confirms-d11- genotype-dairy-cattle-nevada-0
 It looks like they found the D1.1 virus in milk.  It has been a respiratory virus when infecting humans, so they are likely missing many infected cattle.
 This virus still infects mammary gland tissue, and will likely still infect the eyes of the dairy workers.
 Unlike the B3.13 genotype dairy virus that was not a respiratory virus D1.1 has had severe symptoms in humans both cases were in critical condition and one patient died.  If dairy workers get infected by this virus there could be serious effects.
 The USDA claims that it is not changing their detection efforts, and this is, frankly, stupid.  They need to be nasal swabing all the Nevada cattle with symptoms, and trying to prevent human infections at all farms even if they have not yet detected the virus.  If the D1.1 is infecting repiratory tissue they could be missing infected cattle by testing the milk.
 They likely need to start vaccinating the dairy workers against the D1.1 genotype.  In both human cases the virus mutated to be more infective in humans, and was likely a candidate for the next pandemic virus.  They were lucky that the symptoms were so severe that the patients were isolated quickly, and no one else got infected.  If a dairy worker gets infected the virus will likely spread to contacts and be off the dairy before the CDC can respond.
 Ron Okimoto

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-head-pandemic-office-gerald-parker/
The Biden administration tried to light a fire under the CDC and USDA several times, but it resulted in pretty much nothing.  The CDC still has not seemed to have increased human testing for the dairy virus that they claimed that they were going to start back in early November.  The USDA finally started a bulk milk tank testing program 2 months after claiming that they were going to do it, now they claim that they aren't going to change the testing procedure when the D1.1 virus is now infecting dairy cattle and needs a different response.
With Trump's indifference, and the CDC and USDA not wanting to do the right thing this new guy has his work cut out for him.
Ron Okimoto