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Beef tissue from a sick dairy cow has tested positive for the bird flu virus, federal officials said on Friday. The department continued to stress that the commercial food supply remained safe. But the positive test, which came as part of an ongoing federal study of beef safety, raises concerns about whether the virus might make its way into the commercial beef supply, posing a health risk to humans. Just one cow tested positive, the department said. Meat from condemned cows is not allowed in the commercial food supply.

Organizations: U.S . Department of Agriculture, Service

☆ A Second Dairy Worker Has Contracted Bird Flu, C.D.C. Reports
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( Apoorva Mandavilli | Emily Anthes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A farmworker in Michigan has been diagnosed with bird flu, state officials announced on Wednesday, making it the second human case associated with the outbreak in cows. Officials said that the individual became infected with the virus, called H5N1, after exposure to infected livestock. They did not provide additional details in order to protect the privacy of the farm and farmworker, they said. In 2022, a person in Colorado with direct exposure to infected poultry became the first confirmed human case of H5N1 in the United States. The detection of this latest case did not suggest that bird flu was widespread in people, officials said, adding that the risk to the general public remained low.

Persons: — Organizations: Centers for Disease Control, Prevention Locations: Michigan, Colorado, United States, Texas

☆ Farm Animals Are Hauled All Over the Country. So Are Their Pathogens.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-20 | by ( Emily Anthes | Linda Qiu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The bird flu virus that is spreading through American dairy cows can probably be traced back to a single spillover event. Late last year, scientists believe, the virus jumped from wild birds into cattle in the Texas panhandle. By this spring, the virus, known as H5N1, had traveled hundreds of miles or more, appearing on farms in Idaho, North Carolina and Michigan. Instead, it hitched a ride with its hosts, the cows, moving into new states as cattle were transported from the outbreak’s epicenter to farms across the country. Many facilities focus on just one step in the production process — producing new young, for instance, or fattening adults for slaughter — and then send the animals on.

Locations: Texas, Idaho , North Carolina, Michigan, United States

Even as it has become increasingly clear that the bird flu outbreak on the nation’s dairy farms began months earlier — and is probably much more widespread — than previously thought, federal authorities have emphasized that the virus poses little risk to humans. Yet there is a group of people who are at high risk for infection: the estimated 100,000 men and women who work on those farms. That leaves the workers and their families vulnerable to a poorly tracked pathogen. And it poses broader public health risks. If the virus were to find its way into the wider population, experts say, dairy workers would be a likely route.

Persons: ”, Jennifer Nuzzo Organizations: Pandemic, Brown University School of Public Health

☆ Environmental Changes Are Fueling Human, Animal and Plant Diseases, Study Finds
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-08 | by ( Emily Anthes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Several large-scale, human-driven changes to the planet — including climate change, the loss of biodiversity and the spread of invasive species — are making infectious diseases more dangerous to people, animals and plants, according to a new study. Scientists have documented these effects before in more targeted studies that have focused on specific diseases and ecosystems. For instance, they have found that a warming climate may be helping malaria expand in Africa and that a decline in wildlife diversity may be boosting Lyme disease cases in North America. “It’s a big step forward in the science,” said Colin Carlson, a biologist at Georgetown University, who was not an author of the new analysis. “This paper is one of the strongest pieces of evidence that I think has been published that shows how important it is health systems start getting ready to exist in a world with climate change, with biodiversity loss.”

Persons: “, ”, Colin Carlson Organizations: Georgetown University Locations: Africa, North America

☆ How to Know When a Good Dog Has Gone Bad
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-05 | by ( Emily Anthes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Since late last month, Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota has been the subject of fierce bipartisan attacks for her decision to shoot and kill her family dog, a 14-month-old German wirehaired pointer named Cricket. Ms. Noem has repeatedly defended her actions, which are detailed in her forthcoming memoir, in which she says the dog was “aggressive,” “untrainable” and “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with.”On Sunday, she suggested that President Biden should have considered killing his own dog, Commander, a German shepherd who was banished from the White House last year after repeatedly biting Secret Service officers. But euthanasia should be an option of last resort, they said, used only when a dog poses a serious danger and other potential solutions have been ruled out. In the cases of both Cricket and Commander, there were plenty of reasonable, nonlethal approaches available.

Persons: Kristi Noem, Noem, ”, Biden, “ Joe Biden’s, Ms Organizations: Republican, Cricket Locations: South Dakota

☆ 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

☆ 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

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

☆ 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

☆ 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

☆ 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

☆ 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

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