Category: Zoonotic Diseases
USDA reports more H5N1 avian flu in mammals, including bears
(CIDRAP) The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) recently reported 12 more highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu detections in mammals, including skunks, bears, a raccoon, and a red fox. Most of the animals that tested positive were from West Coast states, including Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. Oregon reported the virus in […]
Jan 10, 2023
COVID-19 is more widespread in animals than we thought
(National Geographic) From lions and tigers to big hairy armadillos, a growing number of animals have been infected with the coronavirus. Here’s what we’ve learned. We think of COVID-19 as a human pandemic, but it’s much more than that. The virus that causes the disease, SARS-CoV-2, can infect a wide and growing range of animals, […]
Jan 10, 2023
An elegant way to stop deadly Hendra virus spillovers from bats to horses … to us
(NPR) Not quite 20 years ago, Raina Plowright stood in a forest in Australia’s Northern Territory at dusk. She watched as hundreds of thousands of bats called little red flying foxes launched themselves into the air. “The sky was [dark] with these huge bats taking off in this stream of animals across the landscape looking for nectar,” […]
Nov 22, 2022
Bird flu found in Southeast Alaska bear cub
(Alaska News) A sick bear discovered last month at Bartlett Cove in Glacier Bay National Park was found to be infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza, the Division of Wildlife Conservation said.“The virus that causes HPAI was detected on both nasal and rectal swabs and in brain tissue screening at Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory […]
Nov 21, 2022
Bird flu infects Iowa egg farm with 1 million chickens
(ABC News) Iowa agriculture officials say another commercial egg farm has been infected with bird flu, the first commercial farm case identified since April when a turkey farm was infected. Iowa agriculture officials said Monday that another commercial egg farm in the state has been infected with bird flu, the first commercial farm case identified […]
Nov 1, 2022
Which Animals Catch COVID? This Database Has Dozens of Species and Counting
(Scientific American) Tracking how SARS-CoV-2 spreads among animals could help us prepare for the next pandemic. The virus that causes COVID-19 is a prolific sack of genes that targets not just humans but nonhuman animals as well. And just as humans and animals can infect one another, animals can also infect other animals, says Amélie Desvars-Larrive, […]
Oct 18, 2022
Emmanuel, a TikTok-famous emu, has avian flu after a deadly outbreak on a Florida farm
NPR – Emmanuel, a widely beloved emu who went viral on TikTok, is in dire condition battling the avian flu. Taylor Blake’s family farm in South Florida, Knuckle Bump Farms, has lost more than 50 birds in just three days, Blake wrote on Twitter Saturday. Only two birds survived. “I am still trying to wrap […]
Oct 18, 2022
Wild Birds in North America Are Dying Like Never Before
The Atlantic – Scientists are concerned for North American wildlife as the worst avian flu outbreak since 2015 rages on. The July 5 trip was routine: From the deck of an airboat, two wildlife biologists scanned the cattail marsh—one of many seasonal wetlands in the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge—on their weekly lookout for sick or […]
Oct 3, 2022
Zoonotic diseases like COVID-19 and monkeypox will become more common, experts say
NPR – Cases of monkeypox are on the rise in the U.S., with about 67,600 global cases, including about 25,500 in the U.S. Simultaneously, the world is still facing a COVID-19 pandemic, despite the number of cases tapering off. Researchers say these types of viruses, known as zoonotic diseases, or ones that spread between humans and animals, will […]
Sep 29, 2022
An ACE2-dependent Sarbecovirus in Russian bats is resistant to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines
PLoS Pathogens – Spillover of sarbecoviruses from animals to humans has resulted in outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome SARS-CoVs and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Efforts to identify the origins of SARS-CoV-1 and -2 has resulted in the discovery of numerous animal sarbecoviruses–the majority of which are only distantly related to known human pathogens and […]
Sep 23, 2022