Re: D1.1 in dairy cattle?

On 2/6/2025 4:59 PM, RonO wrote:

On 2/6/2025 2:18 PM, RonO wrote:

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
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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.
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This virus still infects mammary gland tissue, and will likely still infect the eyes of the dairy workers.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Ron Okimoto

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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-head-pandemic-office-gerald-parker/
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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.
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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.
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Ron Okimoto

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 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cows-bird-flu-d11-symptoms/
 The cattle infected with the genotype D1.1 were showing respiratory symptoms, and my guess is that unlike the genotype B3.13 dairy virus that it can be detected with nasal swabs of infected cattle.  Most dairy cattle with B3.13 showed mammary gland infections, and nasal swabs were usually negative.  D1.1 is a different virus and was a respiratory infrection in the two infected humans.
 The article notes that the CDC refused to comment as to whether this altered the danger to humans from this virus.  The suppression of information on the D1.1 infections is stupid.
 None of the dairy workers in Nevada have been tested when all of them should have been tested by now at all the infected herd sites.  The D1.1 virus cannot be allowed to infect humans.  They need to get the workers to wear protective gear and likely start taking antivirals.  Both human patients had the virus develop the mutations necessary to better infect humans and they would have been expected to lose the ability to infect birds, since two of those mutations switched the receptor binding to the human receptor.  Both human patients produced the next potential pandemic virus, and one of them died.  We were lucky that spread from them was prevented.  If they do not identify infected dairy workers as soon as possible the virus will likely not be contained with the lack of any viable response by the CDC to the dairy infections so far.
 The nonresponse is incredibly stupid when the CDC and USDA understand that likely over 7% of dairy workers at infected farms have been infected by the B3.13 genotype.
 Ron Okimoto
 

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-02-05/deadly-version-of-h5n1-bird-flu-spills-over-into-nevada-cattle
A former USDA scientist:
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“I can’t overemphasize what a big deal it is,” said John Korslund, a former USDA scientist, in an email. “This is truly ... unfolding into a nightmare scenario. We have no idea how widespread this version of the virus already is in cattle herds. Every time poultry flocks break (with virus), we’ll need to investigate cattle contacts (which are many) as well as wild bird and other poultry contacts.”
END QUOTE:
Most of the commercial poultry flocks that have gone down with H5N1 were infected by nearby dairies with the genotype B3.13.  Some of them have been infected by wild birds with the D1.1 genotype, and the dairy workers also working on poultry farms are now a vector for infecting dairies from poultry farms.  It is obvious that dairy workers have been infecting most of the commercial poultry farms from the first commercial poultry farm infections.  They even identified 2 dairy workers on infected farms also working on 2 of the commercial poultry farms infected by the dairy virus in Michigan early in the infection.  Now this can work both ways with the D1.1 genotype mainly found in wild birds.  The dairies now have to worry about a more virulent strain of influenza coming from poultry farms to dairies via dairy workers.
This is likely the second round of herd infections in Nevada.  Back in December one Nevada dairy herd was found to be infected by the dairy virus but they refused to test their other dairy herds.  Most likely the B3.13 virus has burned through all the Nevada dairy herds by now, and the D1.1 virus in reinfecting these herds.
Since the D1.1 virus is a respiratory infection they can't rely on bulk milk tank testing.  They need to start testing cattle with respiratory symptoms.  They definitely need to start testing all dairy workers at infected farms, but that has never happened.  It has been over 2 months, probably 3 months since the CDC claimed that they were going to start testing dairy workers, but nothing happened.
Ron Okimoto