Scientific American Infectious bird flu virus was found in milk, on equipment, within wastewater and aerosolized in the air on California dairy farms. The H5N1 avian influenza virus can now be found not only in milk and on milking equipment but also in farm wastewater and in the air, say researchers who have been trying to figure out how the virus spreads on dairy farms.
The researchers identified the virus in both large and small aerosol particles in the air on farms affected by bird flu in California, according to a new preprint paper posted on the biology server bioRxiv. “There is a lot of H5N1 virus on these farms,” says Seema Lakdawala, an associate professor of microbiology and immunology at the Emory University School of Medicine and senior author of the new study, which has yet to go through scientific peer review. “It is everywhere. We need to be expanding biosafety measures, biosecurity measures and trying to control where the virus is.”
The finding—that the virus is “everywhere”—fits with what has been seen in previously published work, says Richard Webby, who studies host-microbe interactions at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. “It’s a ridiculously contaminated environment,” Webby says.