The continued spread of avian influenza remains a cause for concern among health officials and the nation’s dairy producers, says Texas A&M University biosecurity expert Dr. Gerald Parker, though the threat to the average American remains low.
Parker, who serves as associate dean for Global One Health at Texas A&M’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, will discuss this outbreak and other pressing public health issues during a panel discussion at the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday. He will be joined by Dr. Kiril Dimitrov, assistant director of the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory, as well as two experts from the University of California, Davis. The talk will be moderated by Kevin Cain, senior director for governmental affairs with the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges.
Parker said 14 states and nearly 200 dairy herds are being impacted by the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian flu, first detected in dairy cows in March. While the spread of avian flu is generally confined to birds, only rarely spilling over to other animals or humans, he said this particular strain has shown an unusual ability to jump from birds to mammals. In addition to widespread transmission among dairy cow populations, the virus as also been detected in a few humans, including a farm worker in Texas this April.
“So far, it hasn’t developed the characteristics for sustained human-to-human transmission. If that were to happen, it could be very worrisome,” Parker said, noting that public health officials have long been concerned about the pandemic potential of H5N1. “We don’t know if that’s going to happen, but the more it circulates in animals, mammals particularly, the more likely it is that it could happen.”