{"id":7508,"date":"2024-08-28T08:56:57","date_gmt":"2024-08-28T13:56:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=7508"},"modified":"2024-08-28T08:57:02","modified_gmt":"2024-08-28T13:57:02","slug":"avian-flu-has-infected-dairy-cows-in-more-than-a-dozen-states-a-microbiologist-explains-how-the-virus-is-spreading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2024\/08\/28\/avian-flu-has-infected-dairy-cows-in-more-than-a-dozen-states-a-microbiologist-explains-how-the-virus-is-spreading\/","title":{"rendered":"Avian flu has infected dairy cows in more than a dozen states \u2013 a microbiologist explains how the virus is\u00a0spreading"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/avian-flu-has-infected-dairy-cows-in-more-than-a-dozen-states-a-microbiologist-explains-how-the-virus-is-spreading-235526\">The Conversation<\/a> <em>The current strain of avian flu, H5N1, is responsible for the culling of millions of domestic birds and has&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/bird-flu\/spotlights\/h5n1-response-08162024.html\">sickened more than a dozen farmworkers in 2024<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/cdphe.colorado.gov\/press-release\/health-officials-confirm-human-cases-of-avian-flu-in-colorado-poultry-workers#\">most recently in Colorado<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Conversation U.S. asked&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/citations?user=4arwbfMAAAAJ&amp;hl=en\">immunologist and microbiologist<\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/medschool.cuanschutz.edu\/immunology-and-microbiology\/faculty\/primary-faculty\/guthmiller\">Jenna Guthmiller<\/a>&nbsp;from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus to explain the historical roots of H5N1, its mode of transmission and how to avoid coming into contact with it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What is H5N1?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>H5N1 is a subtype of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/flu\/about\/viruses\/types.htm\">influenza A viruses<\/a>. Other commonly known influenza A virus subtypes include&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/books\/NBK513241\/\">H1N1<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/oklahoma.gov\/health\/health-education\/acute-disease-service\/disease-information\/influenza-a-h3n2-variant-.html\">H3N2<\/a>, which cause seasonal outbreaks in humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unlike H1N1 and H3N2, H5N1 largely infects wild birds, with waterfowl such as ducks and geese being the natural reservoirs for H5N1 viruses. Most H5N1 viruses are\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/food\/alerts-advisories-safety-information\/updates-highly-pathogenic-avian-influenza-hpai\">highly pathogenic avian influenza<\/a>, meaning spillovers into other bird populations can lead to high mortality rates,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/bird-flu\/virus-transmission\/avian-in-birds.html\">including domesticated poultry<\/a>. <em>The current strain of avian flu, H5N1, is responsible for the culling of millions of domestic birds and has&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/bird-flu\/spotlights\/h5n1-response-08162024.html\">sickened more than a dozen farmworkers in 2024<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/cdphe.colorado.gov\/press-release\/health-officials-confirm-human-cases-of-avian-flu-in-colorado-poultry-workers#\">most recently in Colorado<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Conversation U.S. asked&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/citations?user=4arwbfMAAAAJ&amp;hl=en\">immunologist and microbiologist<\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/medschool.cuanschutz.edu\/immunology-and-microbiology\/faculty\/primary-faculty\/guthmiller\">Jenna Guthmiller<\/a>&nbsp;from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus to explain the historical roots of H5N1, its mode of transmission and how to avoid coming into contact with it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What is H5N1?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>H5N1 is a subtype of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/flu\/about\/viruses\/types.htm\">influenza A viruses<\/a>. Other commonly known influenza A virus subtypes include&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/books\/NBK513241\/\">H1N1<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/oklahoma.gov\/health\/health-education\/acute-disease-service\/disease-information\/influenza-a-h3n2-variant-.html\">H3N2<\/a>, which cause seasonal outbreaks in humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unlike H1N1 and H3N2, H5N1 largely infects wild birds, with waterfowl such as ducks and geese being the natural reservoirs for H5N1 viruses. Most H5N1 viruses are\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/food\/alerts-advisories-safety-information\/updates-highly-pathogenic-avian-influenza-hpai\">highly pathogenic avian influenza<\/a>, meaning spillovers into other bird populations can lead to high mortality rates,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/bird-flu\/virus-transmission\/avian-in-birds.html\">including domesticated poultry<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/avian-flu-has-infected-dairy-cows-in-more-than-a-dozen-states-a-microbiologist-explains-how-the-virus-is-spreading-235526\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Conversation The current strain of avian flu, H5N1, is responsible for the culling of millions of domestic birds and has&nbsp;sickened more than a dozen farmworkers in 2024,&nbsp;most recently in Colorado. The Conversation U.S. asked&nbsp;immunologist and microbiologist&nbsp;Jenna Guthmiller&nbsp;from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus to explain the historical roots of H5N1, its mode of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-avian-influenza"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7508"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7509,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7508\/revisions\/7509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}