In late May, a story started to gain traction about a Canadian ostrich farm and a culling order due to H5N1 in the flock. Universal Ostrich Farms had been ordered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to cull its 400+ ostriches after detecting H5N1 in December 2024. The farm owners challenged the culling order in […]
Last week, we discussed the first H5N1 human case in Mexico. (See Mexico Reports First Human H5N1 Case). This case was in a three year old girl, hospitalized in serious condition. The situation evolved quickly and unfortunately the child died from respiratory complications in the hospital. (See Fatal H5N1 Cases in Children and Risks to
In recent and unfortunate bird flu news, We have reports of two fatal H5N1 cases in children. The first, a three year old girl in Mexico. The second, a two year old child in India. The latter case also invites questions about the safety of the food chain as more H5N1 infected poultry meat is
On Friday, April 4, 2025, Mexico reported the country’s first human case of H5N1 bird flu. The details about the first human H5N1 case in Mexico: The patient is a three year old girl. She is currently hospitalized. She was treated with oseltamivir and remains in serious condition. The Mexican Government issued a press release
The CDC recently issued a Bird Flu Response Update (March 19, 2025). It provides more details on the recent human H5N1 case from Ohio. The human H5N1 case from Ohio: As we previously discussed in New Human H5N1 bird flu cases: Nevada, Ohio, Wyoming, a poultry farm worker in Ohio tested positive for H5N1 in
In its recent bird flu update, the CDC reported results of serology testing from the close contacts of a recent H5N1 case in a child in San Francisco, California. The results show no human to human transmission of the virus. Another child in California tests positive for H5N1, with an unknown exposure source: This was the
Recently, there have been more reports of cats dying from H5N1 bird flu after eating contaminated pet food or otherwise exposed to the virus. Indeed, just last week, health authorities in New York City confirmed the deaths of 2 domestic cats from H5N1 after eating raw poultry products. The USDA currently lists over 100 confirmed
You may have read some recent news articles about a “concerning new mutation” noted in some infected dairy cattle herds recently reported. Sequence data reportedly shows the PB2 E627K mutation is present in four herds, with the data being reported on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. While the scientific community has been on alert for this mutation,
We now have a second report of dairy cattle infected with H5N1 genotype D1.1, the bird flu strain circulating in wild birds. This is different than the genotype B3.13 viruses circulating through dairy cattle herds. Arizona reports H5N1 genotype D1.1: On Friday, February 14, the health department of Maricopa County, Arizona issued a press release
This last week was busy with new human H5N1 bird flu cases in 3 states. We have the first reported case in Nevada, with exposure from dairy cattle. We have the first case from Ohio, with exposure to poultry. And we have the first case out of Wyoming, with exposure to backyard poultry and the
The USDA has confirmed that Nevada dairy cattle herds have been infected with H5N1 genotype D1.1, the strain circulating in birds, as opposed to genotype B3.13, the strain we have seen moving through dairy cattle in the U.S. This is the first time this strain has been found in dairy cattle. The outbreak in Nevada
We have another human H5N1 case in the U.K., where a person was infected with the virus directly from birds. On January 27, 2025, the United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) reported an H5N1 case in the West Midlands region. (Being curious, I consulted a map and found that this area is located in the
