USDA faulted for disclosing scant information about outbreaks of H5N1 avian flu in cattle
With H5N1 bird flu spreading to more dairy cow herds, scientists and pandemic experts in this country and abroad are calling on the U.S. government to release more information to help them assess the risk the outbreaks pose to cattle operations and people.
Three and a half weeks after first announcing the startling news that cows from a milking herd in Texas had tested positive for H5N1, the government agencies involved in the investigations have not yet revealed what research shows about whether pasteurization of milk kills this specific virus. And until Thursday, U.S. officials had not disclosed whether the now 28 affected herds in eight states form a single linked outbreak fueled by the movement of cattle from the Texas panhandle, where the first outbreak was discovered. At present, STAT was told, that does not appear to be the case.
Other countries are trying to determine whether this event is a strange one-off, or proof that the wily virus has evolved to be able to infect cattle more easily, and what risk their own herds — and potentially people — could face if the latter is true. But they are operating largely in the dark because the United States has released such sparse information, said Marion Koopmans, head of the department of viroscience at Erasmus Medical Center in the Dutch city of Rotterdam.
