The H5N1 virus, also known as bird flu, appears to be transmitted through the air. That’s according to a recent publication in Scientific American this week.
Although of course originally found in birds – a huge story when it first emerged from Chinese poultry farms in the 1990s – the H5N1 virus has more recently made the jump to dairy cattle. It appears to spread very readily between cattle on dairy farms.
“There is a lot of H5N1 virus on these farms,” said a study author interviewed by Scientific American. The study found that H5N1 is widespread in the air and drinking water streams on US dairy farms.
“It is everywhere. We need to be expanding biosafety measures, biosecurity measures and trying to control where the virus is.”
“It is a ridiculously contaminated environment,” said another microbiologist involved in research in this field.
In the environment of commercial dairy farms, the virus can make the jump to humans. There have been 41 human cases of H5N1 contamination linked to dairy farms in just the past 18 months.
When H5N1 hits commercial poultry farms, it kills some three-quarters of all birds exposed within 1 or 2 days. The rest are culled to prevent the virus from spreading further.
This is obviously an economic catastrophe for affected poultry farmers, but its lethality does shorten the time period that humans are exposed to the virus. There is no such comfort for H5N1 setting in at dairy farms.
Some researchers have argued that H5N1 becoming “endemic” and establishing a “reservoir” in the dairy farm is a “perfect storm” for ongoing mutations and, eventually, human-to-human transmission.
However in March this year, the consensus at a Harvard research forum placed concern at around 5 out of 10. The virus is becoming more transmissible and will likely eventually be transmitted from person to person, but it is also possibly becoming less and less virulent in its newest strains.
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