Re: The CDC knew in May that dairy workers were infecting their own cats.

On 2/21/2025 8:22 AM, RonO wrote:

On 2/20/2025 5:37 PM, RonO wrote:

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/74/wr/mm7405a2.htm
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For some reason the CDC is finally releasing a report where the conclusion should have been that the two domestic cats got the virus from infected dairy workers.  For some stupid reason they claim that the workers refused to be tested, but one admitted to likely being infected by milk splashing in his face at the infected dairy where he worked.
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This report is just sad, and should have been release months ago, and the stupid conclusions should have been used to contact trace dairy workers whether they wanted to be tested or not like California did to identify more infected dairies and stop them from infecting poultry farms where they also worked.
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The obvious conclusion is that the workers were infected and managed to infect their cats, but did not infect others in the households of one of the workers.  The other lived alone with his cat.
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Why has it taken 9 months to release this information.  The USDA release the fact that two dairy workers working at infected dairy farms also worked at two of the poultry farms that got infected back in June. Nothing was done then to identify infected dairy workers and make sure that they did not go to other farms.  California did not restrict dairy worker movements and ended up with nearly all the dairies in the state infected even though contact tracing had worked in finding more infected farms and they had identified several infected dairy workers early in the California dairy epidemic.
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The denial of how this virus spreads to poultry flocks and other dairy herds is just stupid at this time.
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Ron Okimoto

 I should note that the stupid denial continues in Nevada and Arizona where the D1.1 virus is spreading among dairies.  They still refuse to test dairy workers and prevent them from going to other dairies and poultry farms.  Nevada has half a dozen infected dairies and multiple poultry infections, so how do they think that the virus is spreading?
 There really isn't any excuse for allowing the dairy workers to be infected, and absolutely no excuse for allowing the virus to spread to more dairies.
 California understood that dairy workers were taking the virus to other farms, but never restricted farm worker movements.  They only restricted cattle movement, now nearly all of their dairies have been infected. That should not be allowed to happen with the D1.1 virus when there has already been a human mortality, and they know that the mutations that would make the D1.1 genotype into the next pandemic virus have already occurred in two of the human patients.
 Ron Okimoto
 

This also means that the cats in several other states like California that did not have contact with dairy cattle or raw milk or contaminated raw food were likely infected by dairy or poultry workers or their close contacts.  Infected likely only have to rub their eyes and pet the cats.   The cat's self grooming would infect the animal, and with cats it is first a gut infection and spreads to the brain.
Ron Okimoto