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☆ One in Five Milk Samples Nationwide Shows Genetic Traces of Bird Flu
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Emily Anthes | Noah Weiland | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Federal regulators have discovered fragments of bird flu virus in roughly 20 percent of retail milk samples tested in a nationally representative study, the Food and Drug Administration said in an online update on Thursday. Samples from parts of the country that are known to have dairy herds infected with the virus were more likely to test positive, the agency said. Regulators said that there is no evidence that this milk poses a danger to consumers or that live virus is present in the milk on store shelves, an assessment public health experts have agreed with. But finding traces of the virus in such a high share of samples from around the country is the strongest signal yet that the bird flu outbreak in dairy cows is more extensive than the official tally of 33 infected herds across eight states. “It suggests that there is a whole lot of this virus out there,” said Richard Webby, a virologist and influenza expert at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Persons: ”, Richard Webby, Jude Children’s Organizations: Food and Drug Administration, Regulators, St, Jude Children’s Research

The Biden administration on Wednesday said that it would begin requiring dairy cows moving across state lines to be tested for bird flu, which has been spreading in herds for months. The new policy is part of a growing effort to stamp out the spread of a virus that federal health officials have sought to reassure Americans poses little risk to people so far. The new order, issued by the Department of Agriculture, says that lactating cows must test negative for influenza A viruses, a class that includes bird flu, before they are transported. The owners of herds with positive tests will need to provide data on the movements of the cattle to help investigators trace the disease. Since a highly contagious form of bird flu was detected in the United States in 2022, federal officials have sought to reassure Americans that the threat to the public remained low, even as the virus infected a growing number of mammals.

Persons: Biden, ” Mike Watson Organizations: Department of Agriculture, of Agriculture Locations: United States

Federal regulators on Tuesday said that samples of pasteurized milk from around the country had tested positive for inactive remnants of the bird flu virus that has been infecting dairy cows. The viral fragments do not pose a threat to consumers, officials said. “To date, we have seen nothing that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe,” the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement. Over the last month, a bird flu virus known as H5N1 has been detected in more than 30 dairy herds in eight states. The virus is also known to have infected one farmworker, whose only symptom was pink eye.

Persons: “ Organizations: and Drug Administration, Agriculture Department

Listen and follow The DailyApple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicThe outbreak of bird flu currently tearing through the nation’s poultry is the worst in U.S. history. Scientists say it is now spreading beyond farms into places and species it has never been before. Emily Anthes, a science reporter for The Times, explains.

Persons: Emily Anthes Organizations: Spotify, The Times

☆ Bird Flu Is Infecting More Mammals. What Does That Mean for Us?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-22 | by ( Apoorva Mandavilli | Emily Anthes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In her three decades of working with elephant seals, Dr. Marcela Uhart had never seen anything like the scene on the beaches of Argentina’s Valdés Peninsula last October. Instead, it was “just carcass upon carcass upon carcass,” recalled Dr. Uhart, who directs the Latin American wildlife health program at the University of California, Davis. H5N1, one of the many viruses that cause bird flu, had already killed at least 24,000 South American sea lions along the continent’s coasts in less than a year. Sick pups lay listless, foam oozing from their mouths and noses. Dr. Uhart called it “an image from hell.”In the weeks that followed, she and a colleague — protected head to toe with gloves, gowns and masks, and periodically dousing themselves with bleach — carefully documented the devastation.

Persons: Marcela Uhart, ”, Uhart, — Organizations: University of California, Team Locations: Argentina’s Valdés, Davis

☆ Scientists Fault Federal Response to Bird Flu Outbreaks on Dairy Farms
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-19 | by ( Apoorva Mandavilli | Emily Anthes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the month since federal authorities announced an outbreak of bird flu on dairy farms, they have repeatedly reassured the public that the spate of infections does not impact the nation’s food or milk supply, and poses little risk to the public. Yet the outbreak among cows may be more serious than originally believed. Officials in North Carolina have detected bird flu infections in a cattle herd with no symptoms, The New York Times has learned — information the U.S.D.A. It has been reimbursing farmers for testing, but only for 20 cows per farm that were visibly ill. This week, the department said it would begin reimbursing farms for testing cows without symptoms.

Organizations: Department of Agriculture, New York Times Locations: North Carolina

Katherine Moseby wanted to be clear: She does not hate cats. Very smart.”That was precisely the problem, said Dr. Moseby, the principal scientist and co-founder of Arid Recovery, a conservation nonprofit and wildlife reserve in South Australia. Cats are not native to Australia, but they have invaded nearly every corner of the country. But feral cats were absolutely out there, Dr. Moseby said, and they had a taste for the tiny, threatened marsupials that lived at Arid Recovery. Over the previous few nights, a “pest control contractor” — a robustly bearded sharpshooter equipped with an all-terrain vehicle and powerful spotlight — had been riding through the Arid Recovery reserve, shooting cats.

Persons: Katherine Moseby, Moseby, ”, — Organizations: University of New Locations: South Australia, Australia, University of New South Wales

It was spring in Queensland, Australia, a season when many wild animals find themselves in trouble, and the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital was a blur of fur and feathers. A groggy black swan emerged from the X-ray room, head swaying on its long neck. A flying fox wore a tiny anesthetic mask. “We see everything,” Dr. Michael Pyne, the hospital’s senior veterinarian. The wards were often full; in 2023, the hospital admitted more than 400 koalas, a fourfold increase from 2010.

Persons: Dr, Michael Pyne, Pyne Organizations: Currumbin Locations: Queensland, Australia

☆ Should We Change Species to Save Them?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-14 | by ( Emily Anthes | Chang W. Lee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It is the birthplace of songbirds, the land of egg-laying mammals and the world capital of pouch-bearing marsupials, a group that encompasses far more than just koalas and kangaroos. Nearly half of the continent’s birds and roughly 90 percent of its mammals, reptiles and frogs are found nowhere else on the planet. Australia has also become a case study in what happens when people push biodiversity to the brink. Habitat degradation, invasive species, infectious diseases and climate change have put many native animals in jeopardy and given Australia one of the worst rates of species loss in the world. In some cases, scientists say, the threats are so intractable that the only way to protect Australia’s unique animals is to change them.

Locations: Australia

☆ Gripe aviar en Texas: una persona se infecta tras contacto con ganado
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-01 | by ( Emily Anthes | Apoorva Mandavilli | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

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Organizations: The

☆ Person Infected With Bird Flu in Texas After Contact With Cattle
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-01 | by ( Emily Anthes | Apoorva Mandavilli | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

At least one person in Texas has been diagnosed with bird flu after having contact with dairy cows presumed to be infected, state officials said on Monday. The announcement adds a worrying dimension to an outbreak that has affected millions of birds and sea mammals worldwide and, most recently, cows in the United States. So far, there are no signs that the virus has evolved in ways that would help it spread more easily among people, federal officials have said. The patient’s primary symptom was conjunctivitis; the individual is being treated with an antiviral drug and is recovering, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Organizations: Centers for Disease Control Locations: Texas, United States

☆ All Orcas Are Classified as a Single Species. Should They Be?
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Emily Anthes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Killer whales are some of the most cosmopolitan creatures on the planet, swimming through every one of the world’s oceans. Although their habitats and habits vary widely, all killer whales are considered part of a single, global species: Orcinus orca. (Despite their common name, killer whales are actually part of a family of marine mammals known as oceanic dolphins.) In a paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science on Tuesday, the scientists proposed giving new species designations to two groups of animals, one known as resident killer whales and the other often called Bigg’s killer whales. Although both types live in the eastern North Pacific, they have different diets: the resident orcas eat fish, with a particular predilection for salmon, while the Bigg’s orcas hunt marine mammals such as seals and sea lions.

Organizations: Royal Society, Science Locations: Africa, Hawaii, Coast, United States, Canada, North Pacific

☆ Bird Flu Spreads to Dairy Cows
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Emily Anthes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A highly fatal form of avian influenza, or bird flu, has been confirmed in U.S. cattle in Texas and Kansas, the Department of Agriculture announced on Monday. It is the first time that cows infected with the virus have been identified. The cows appear to have been infected by wild birds, and dead birds were reported on some farms, the agency said. The results were announced after multiple federal and state agencies began investigating reports of sick cows in Texas, Kansas and New Mexico. In several cases, the virus was detected in unpasteurized samples of milk collected from sick cows.

Organizations: Department of Agriculture Locations: U.S, Texas and Kansas, Texas , Kansas, New Mexico

☆ Where the Wild Things Went During the Pandemic
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Emily Anthes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

But a new global study, which used wildlife cameras to track human and animal activity during the Covid lockdowns, suggests that the story was not that simple. “We went in with a somewhat simplistic notion,” said Cole Burton, a wildlife ecologist and conservation biologist at the University of British Columbia, who led the research. “You know, humans stop, animals are going to breathe a sigh of relief and move around more naturally. And there was enormous variability in how wild mammals responded to changes in human behavior. It also highlights the nuanced ways in which humans affect the lives of wild animals, as well as the need for varied and multifaceted conservation efforts, the authors said.

Persons: ”, Cole Burton, “, Kaitlyn Gaynor Organizations: University of British Locations: University of British Columbia

☆ For Some Mammals, Large Adult Daughters, Not Sons, Are the Norm
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-12 | by ( Emily Anthes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Female elephant seals are not delicate creatures. Still, female elephant seals are absolutely dwarfed by their male counterparts, which are typically at least three times heavier. A new analysis of a diverse array of more than 400 mammalian species paints a more complex picture. Males outweigh females in 45 percent of mammalian species, scientists found. And in 16 percent of species, females are the heavier sex.

Persons: ”, Kaia Tombak Organizations: Purdue University, Nature Communications

☆ The Dogs That Live Longest, by a Nose
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Emily Anthes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

There are exceptions to those broad trends, and the findings might not apply to dogs outside Britain, where breeding practices — and gene pools — may be different, the researchers noted. More research will be needed to determine why some breeds have shorter life spans than others. Some breeds are genetically predisposed to serious health problems, but breed-related differences in behavior, lifestyle, diet, environment or other factors could also play a role in shortening some dogs’ lives, experts said. “Now that we have identified these populations that are at risk of early death, we can start looking into why that is,” said Kirsten McMillan, an author of the new study and the data manager at Dogs Trust, a dog welfare charity in Britain that led the research. “This provides an opportunity for us to improve the lives of our dogs.”

Persons: ’, ”, Kirsten McMillan Organizations: Dogs Trust Locations: Britain

☆ First Bird Flu Deaths Reported in Antarctic Penguins
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-30 | by ( Emily Anthes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Three Antarctic penguin species — emperor penguins, southern rockhopper penguins and macaroni penguins — are listed as vulnerable or near threatened. Before H5N1 arrived in the Antarctic region last fall, highly pathogenic bird flu viruses had never been documented in the area before. And because they breed in large, crowded colonies, once one penguin is infected, the virus could spread rapidly, causing mass mortalities. (As the virus spread through South America last year, Chile reported the deaths of thousands of Humboldt penguins.) The extent of the virus’s spread in Antarctic penguin populations remains unclear, and the king penguin cases have not yet been confirmed.

Persons: Laura Willis, ” Organizations: Penguins, South America Locations: South, Chile, Humboldt, South Georgia, Sandwich

☆ U.S. Life Expectancy Creeps Up as Covid Deaths Fall
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Emily Anthes | More About Emily Anthes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The rise represents a slow and partial recovery for the country, which tallied more than 1.1 million Covid-19 deaths and lost 2.4 years in life expectancy between 2019 and 2021. In 2022, life expectancy at birth was 77.5 years, compared with 76.4 years in 2021. A fall in Covid-19 deaths accounts for more than 80 percent of that increase. In 2019, before the pandemic, life expectancy at birth was 78.8. Drops in deaths from heart disease, unintentional injuries (a category that includes traffic deaths and drug overdoses), cancer and homicide also contributed to the rise in life expectancy, the C.D.C.

Organizations: Centers for Disease Control Locations: United States, Covid

☆ Could a Drug Give Your Pet More Dog Years?
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Emily Anthes | More About Emily Anthes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The life of a pet dog follows a predictable trajectory. “When you adopt a dog, you’re adopting future heartbreak,” said Emilie Adams, a New Yorker who owns three Rhodesian Ridgebacks. On Tuesday, the biotech company Loyal announced that it had moved one step closer to bringing one such drug to market. “The data you provided are sufficient to show that there is a reasonable expectation of effectiveness,” an official at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration informed the company in a recent letter. (Loyal provided a copy of the letter to The Times.)

Persons: ”, Emilie Adams, “ Organizations: New Yorker, Rhodesian, Loyal, U.S . Food, Drug Administration, Times Locations: New, U.S

☆ To Knock an Elephant Off Balance, Bring Out a Giant Blindfold
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-26 | by ( Emily Anthes | More About Emily Anthes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“The bigger you are, the harder you fall,” said John Hutchinson, an expert on large animal locomotion at the Royal Veterinary College in Britain. “If an elephant falls, it’s in big trouble.”But scientists knew little about how elephants maintain their stability as they lumber across the landscape. A new study, published in Biology Letters on Wednesday in Britain, suggests that visual feedback helps elephants time their strides. “Our elephants were going slowly, very slowly, a really slow walk,” said Dr. Hutchinson, a co-author of the study. Otherwise, I would never have done the experiment.”Studies have shown that visual feedback helps humans fine-tune their steps.

Persons: ”, John Hutchinson, it’s, Hutchinson Organizations: Royal Veterinary College, Hollywood Locations: Britain

☆ We Asked Readers to Spend the Summer Watching Birds. Here’s What Happened.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Emily Anthes | More About Emily Anthes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

One Saturday morning in June, Amy Simmons spotted some sparrows flitting around a coastal marsh in Maine. She and her two companions, all dedicated bird-watchers, quickly identified one of the foraging birds as a Nelson’s sparrow, a small, round bird with a yellow stripe over its eye. The stripe over this sparrow’s eye had a more saturated, orange tint, and its breast was speckled with black and white. It was a saltmarsh sparrow, a species threatened by sea level rise. Without significant conservation action, climate change could render the species extinct by the middle of this century, some scientists predict.

Persons: Amy Simmons, ”, Simmons, Ms Organizations: National Audubon Society, Cornell, of Ornithology Locations: Maine

☆ Bird Flu Raced Through South America. Antarctica Could Be Next.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( Emily Anthes | More About Emily Anthes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Last fall, the virus, known as H5N1, finally arrived in South America. It raced quickly down the Pacific coast and killed wild birds and marine mammals in staggering numbers. “The negative impact of this virus on Antarctic wildlife could be immense — likely worse than that on South American wildlife,” the report warns. More than 100 million birds breed in Antarctica and on the islands nearby, and many marine mammals swim in the surrounding waters. Some of those species, including the distinctive emperor penguin and Antarctic fur seal, crowd together in large colonies.

Persons: OFFLU, ”, Ralph Vanstreels, Davis Organizations: University of California Locations: Europe, Africa, Asia, United States, South America, Peru, Chile, Antarctica, Australia, American

☆ For Migrating Birds, It’s the Flight of Their Lives
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-29 | by ( Emily Anthes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +17 min

Simone NoronhaFor Migrating Birds, It’s the Flight of Their Lives Leer en españolAmerica’s birds are in trouble. If migrating birds lose their winter refuges, the consequences will ripple across the hemisphere. MissouriMissouri provides breeding habitats for many grassland bird species, which have been faring especially poorly in recent decades. “This is a classic Pacific Northwest to west Mexico species,” Mr. Jiang said. The birds breed at marshes and wetlands across the Western United States and Canada.

Persons: Simone Noronha, “, ”, Viviana Ruiz, Gutierrez, Jeremy Radachowsky, Ken Rosenberg, Deb Hahn, Hahn, Anna Lello, Smith, Sarah Kendrick, Nick Bayly, That’s, Andrew Stillman, Archie Jiang, Mr, Jiang, Dr, Stillman, Camila Gómez, ” Dr, Ruiz Organizations: Center, Avian, Cornell, of Ornithology, Wildlife Conservation Society, Partners, New, New York Metro Area, UNITED STATES, BERMUDA BAHAMAS MEXICO Maya, PERU Moderate, Forest, Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, Southern Wings, The, Central, Mesoamerican Alliance for People, Forests Initiative, Forests Initiative . Missouri, CANADA UNITED STATES, BERMUDA CUBA MEXICO VENEZUELA COSTA RICA BRAZIL, U.S . Fish, Wildlife Service, Missouri Department of Conservation, Colorado Colorado, CANADA, ARGENTINA CANADA Colo, U.S, Bird Conservancy, Rockies, , Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, UNITED STATES Calif, Western Locations: North America, United States, Canada, Costa Rican, Caribbean, U.S, eBird, New York, BERMUDA BAHAMAS MEXICO, BRAZIL, PERU, CHILE, ARGENTINA, PERU Moderate CHILE, Forest BRAZIL, CHILE ARGENTINA, Forest BRAZIL PERU, New York City, Bahamas, The New York, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Central America, Central American, Forests Initiative ., Forests Initiative . Missouri Missouri, South America, BERMUDA MEXICO VENEZUELA COSTA RICA, Missouri, BERMUDA MEXICO VENEZUELA COSTA RICA BRAZIL, BERMUDA CUBA MEXICO VENEZUELA COSTA RICA, BERMUDA CUBA MEXICO VENEZUELA COSTA RICA BRAZIL PERU, Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba, Central, South, SELVA, Colombia, Costa Rica, Plains, UNITED STATES MEXICO ECUADOR, Colorado, UNITED STATES Colo, MEXICO ECUADOR BRAZIL, Northern Mexico, Texas, California, West Coast, Alaska, Pacific, MEXICO, URUGUAY ARGENTINA Alaska, Salt, CHILE URUGUAY ARGENTINA Alaska, BRAZIL PERU BOLIVIA, URUGUAY ARGENTINA, Sierra Nevada, Chile, Western United States

When Michelle Reininger went to bed on Thursday, June 15, she wasn’t worried about the weather. But in the middle of the night, an emergency alert blared on her phone: a severe thunderstorm warning. Ms. Reininger dressed quickly in the dark. “Everywhere I went, there was a tree across the road or power lines down,” Ms. Reininger said. She and her colleagues, who were also making their way to work, soon discovered that a tree was blocking the main road to the sanctuary.

Persons: Michelle Reininger, Reininger, ” Ms Locations: Chimp Haven

☆ A Half-Million Americans May Have Tick-Linked Meat Allergy, C.D.C. Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-27 | by ( Emily Anthes | More About Emily Anthes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Lone star ticks, which scientists believe are the primary culprits of the disease in the United States, can transmit the sugar to people through a bite. Even patients who have the syndrome may not feel sick every time they eat meat. “It’s consistently inconsistent,” Dr. Salzer said. Until August 2021, a single commercial lab did nearly all of this antibody testing in the United States. In one of the new studies, researchers reviewed the results of the antibody tests performed at this lab from 2017 to 2022.

Persons: Salzer, Maya Jerath, Louis, ‘, ’ ”, Jerath, it’s, ”, “ It’s Organizations: Washington University Locations: St, United States

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