The Biden administration announced on Friday a swath of mitigation efforts to combat the spread of bird flu among livestock, totaling $101 million in new funding.
The Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services issued a joint statement on the new protocols following weeks of mounting concern about the spread of the highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI, among dairy cows.
“The U.S. government is addressing this situation with urgency and through a whole-of-government approach,” the agencies said in a press release. “Since the detection of H5N1 in dairy cattle, the Federal response has leveraged the latest available scientific data, field epidemiology, and risk assessments to mitigate risks to workers and the general public.”
Bird flu was first detected in dairy cattle in the Texas panhandle region in March, which was quickly followed by the first and only confirmed case of bovine-to-human transmission. As of Thursday, a total of 42 herds of cattle across nine states are known to be infected with the virus, but there have been no other documented human cases.
Preventing human-to-human transmission
Much of the efforts announced by the agencies are aimed at preventing bovine-to-human transmission and preparing for the development of human-to-human transmission, which is thought to be highly unlikely.
The USDA announced that the agency would be providing up to $2,000 per month of direct financial assistance to livestock producers to supply personal protective equipment, or PPE, to their workers upon participation in a joint USDA-HHS symptom surveillance program.
Agricultural workers have been slow to adopt PPE, including gloves, masks, goggles, and gowns, in part because the gear is not designed for working in hot, damp conditions like milking parlors. For example, goggles are likely to become foggy in humid conditions, and N95 respirator masks are largely ineffective when wet.
In conjunction with biosafety efforts from the USDA, HHS announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be spending $93 million from within its existing budget to ramp up laboratory testing and surveillance for possible human cases.
The funding package includes $34 million for developing rapid testing and antivirals that can be disseminated on a global scale and $8 million for possible vaccine development.
How bird flu could affect humans
The World Health Organization’s chief scientist, Jeremy Farrar, told reporters in April that human spillover is an “enormous concern” due to the high human fatality rate of H5N1.
Since 2003, the WHO has reported a total of 888 human H5N1 infections worldwide, largely clustered in Southeast Asia and North Africa. Of those cases, there have been 463 deaths, making the fatality rate over 52%.
Symptoms of bird flu in humans are similar to traditional flu-like symptoms but can progress to gastrointestinal and neurological problems if left untreated.
The first human H5N1 case in the United States occurred in 2022 at a poultry processing facility in Colorado. As of last month, neither the 2022 Colorado case nor the recent patient in Texas experienced severe symptoms, and both responded to treatment quickly.
Of top concern for public health officials is the potential for bovine-to-human transmission from asymptomatic cows. This, in part, is prompting the CDC to develop wastewater testing capacities that distinguish between animal and human infection.
Genetic testing of the virus
CDC will allocate funds for genetic sequencing of H5N1 strains circulating, a key switch in how the administration is allocating responsibility.
In mid-April, the scientific community at large began increasing the pressure on the USDA to release more information on the genetic sequences of the H5N1 virus samples.
Researchers use genetic sequencing to determine the evolution of viruses and track their spread. However, raw sequencing data shared by the USDA last month lacked critical pieces of information to help with this, including locations and dates of samples.
The CDC announced on Friday that it would contribute $14 million to enhance bioinformatics and data analytics for bird flu strains. The funding will be shared between the main CDC campus and state-level influenza centers across the country.
Safety for milk supply
The USDA and the Food and Drug Administration reported to have been working closely to prevent the contamination of the milk supply with active H5N1 virus.
The USDA announced that the agency would pay affected milk producers up to $2,000 monthly to each affected premise to provide heat treatments to dispose of contaminated milk “in a biosecure fashion.”
This funding is separate from the compensation that milk producers can expect for the destruction of milk or otherwise limited milk production.
Last month, the FDA announced that denuded H5N1 virus particles had been detected in 20% of tested samples in the commercial milk supply. These results came from PCR rapid testing, which only requires small fragments of virus DNA to produce a positive test.
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Although the vast majority of public health officials agree that the pasteurization process likely prevents the contamination of milk with live virus, the FDA said more complete testing was necessary to determine the exact size and density of H5N1 particles in milk.
The HHS announced the FDA would be spending an additional $8 million to continue its monitoring of the commercial milk supply, including training staff on biosecurity protocols and developing stronger partnerships with state-level regulatory bodies.
