US Detects First Bird Flu Case in Swine

Reuters’ Leah Douglas and Tom Polansek reported Wednesday that “H5N1 bird flu was confirmed in a pig on a backyard farm in Oregon, the first detection of the virus in swine in the country, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Wednesday.”

“Pigs represent a particular concern for the spread of bird flu because they can become co-infected with bird and human viruses, which could swap genes to form a new, more dangerous virus that can more easily infect humans,” Douglas and Polansek reported. “The USDA said there is no risk to the nation’s pork supply from the Oregon case and that the risk to the public from bird flu remains low.”

Bloomberg’s Riley Griffin, Rthvika Suvarna, and Antonia Mufarech reported that the pig with the confirmed case “didn’t show any sign of illness, the USDA said in a statement. …The pig’s lack of symptoms increases the need for vigilance, according to Benjamin Anderson, an assistant professor of environmental and global health at the University of Florida.”

“‘Most of our testing for H5N1 in farm settings to date has only occurred due to clinical outbreaks,’ he said in an email,” according to Griffin, Suvarna and Mufarech. “If the virus is causing little or no illness in pigs, ‘then we may not catch it without regular ongoing testing.'”

Douglas and Polansek reported that “the Oregon farm has been quarantined, and other animals there, including sheep and goats, are under surveillance, USDA said. Pigs and poultry on the farm were culled to prevent the spread of the virus and enable additional testing of the swine, USDA said. Tests are still pending for two of the pigs, the agency said.”

“The swine case originated with wild birds and not from a poultry or dairy farm, said a USDA spokesperson. Wild bird migration has carried bird flu to poultry flocks and cattle herds,” Douglas and Polansek reported. “The case was one factor that drove the USDA to broaden its bird flu surveillance to include nationwide bulk milk testing, which the agency announced on Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told Reuters in an interview.”

Bulk Milk Testing to Begin, USDA Says

Reuters’ Leah Douglas reported in a different article Wednesday that “the U.S. Department of Agriculture will soon begin testing bulk raw milk across the country for bird flu, a significant expansion of the agency’s efforts to stifle the rapid spread of the virus, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told Reuters.”

“The move comes after livestock and veterinary groups pushed the USDA to strengthen its current surveillance approach, calling it inadequate to contain the virus, according to state records and industry documents reviewed by Reuters,” Douglas reported. “The agency in early November will begin sampling milk in states where dairy cattle have contracted bird flu, including testing specific farms as needed to track the virus’ spread, Vilsack said in an interview. USDA will then begin testing in states that have not identified the virus in dairy cows, he said.”

“The rapid spread of the virus in California, where nearly 200 dairy herds have tested positive since late August, contributed to the USDA’s decision that further surveillance efforts are needed, Vilsack said,” according to Douglas’ reporting. “…The U.S. Animal Health Association, whose members include the largest dairy, egg, and poultry trade groups, and the American Association of Bovine Practitioners, a veterinary group, developed recommendations this autumn for how USDA could improve its approach, according to the documents, which have not previously been reported.”