#USDA #BIRDFLU #H5N1 #CDC #HHS #BIGAG
Eban, Katherine ‘Inside the Bungled Bird Flu Response, Where Profits Collide With Public Health’ Vanity Fair, 21 Oct 2024<< When dairy cows in Texas began falling ill with H5N1, alarmed veterinarians expected a fierce response to contain an outbreak with pandemic-sparking potential. Then politics—and, critics say, a key agency’s mandate to protect dairy-industry revenues — intervened. >>

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s headquarters are situated on a tony stretch of DC real estate, a world away from the nation’s farms. So when something goes seriously wrong on America’s plains and pastures, something that could threaten animal safety or food production, USDA officials rely on rural veterinarians to sound the alarm."

"Those vets report findings to state veterinarians, whose doors and inboxes are always open. They even post their cell phone numbers online. The state veterinarians, in turn, utilize a network of diagnostic laboratories approved by the USDA, chief among them the National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) in Ames, Iowa."

"That, at least, is how it’s supposed to work. It’s how veterinarians responding to dairy farms in the Texas panhandle earlier this year assumed it would work when they stumbled upon hellish scenes out of a horror movie. Feverish cows in respiratory distress producing trickles of milk. Dying cats. Enough dead barn pigeons and blackbirds to suggest a mass poisoning. Living birds with twisted necks, their heads tilted skyward."

"Worried vets enlisted help from colleagues in other states. In mid-March, one sent an email to an emergency address at the NVSL, urging the lab to test for something seemingly unthinkable: highly pathogenic avian influenza, which had never before been detected in cows."

"Days went by in silence. Finally, on March 25, the USDA lab confirmed that dairy cows in Texas and Kansas had indeed been sickened by a form of bird influenza known as H5N1. Though versions of the so-called bird flu virus have circled the globe for almost two decades, spreading to species ranging from pelicans and polar bears to sea lions and skunks, the announcement stunned the scientific and agricultural communities. 'Every honest virologist will tell you: We did not see this coming,' says Kimberly Dodd, dean of Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine."

"'We plan for every agricultural health emergency, but all of our red teaming missed this' scenario: an agricultural outbreak that potentially imperils public health and leaves cows sick but mostly still standing, says David Stiefel, a former national security policy analyst for the USDA."

"With continued spread amongst cows, or to another 'mixing-vessel' species like pigs, the virus 'could mix and match, then you get a whole new genetic constellation,' says Jürgen Richt, regents and university distinguished professor at Kansas State University. Experts are hesitant to speculate about what could happen if the virus were to begin more widely infecting humans, for fear of spreading panic, but the toll could, in the worst case, dwarf that of COVID-19. If the virus 'infects a person infected with a human flu strain, and something comes out that is reassorted and adapted to humans? I don’t even want to imagine,' Richt says. 'Not good.'"

"At that existential moment back in March, when the virus was first detected in cows, veterinarians involved in the response had every expectation that a well-honed network of experts, led by USDA scientists, would immediately rev to life."

"But it didn’t. 'Nobody came,' says one veterinarian in a Western state. 'When the diagnosis came in, the government stood still. They didn’t know what to do, so they did nothing.'"

"Now, H5N1 has spread to more than 324 dairy herds in 14 states and has sickened at least 26 farm workers exposed to infected cows and poultry. Those numbers are widely assumed to be vast undercounts, as there is no formal nationwide surveillance program, many dairy farmers oppose testing, and few farm workers are being screened."

"While there are no known human fatalities, and the infections in people have been mild so far, the toll on cows appears to be intensifying. In California, farmers have reported that up to 15% of sickened cows have died — a mortality rate significantly steeper than in other states. As for humans, the FDA has warned that raw, unpasteurized milk may pose a health threat, though pasteurized milk is safe to drink."

"This should be a story of heroism, cooperation, and an all-hands effort to defeat a wily virus that many scientists warn could mutate into a pandemic threat. Instead, it is a story of intimidation and obfuscation. The vets who sounded the alarm have been silenced, some even fired, and won’t discuss their experiences on the record for fear of reprisals. And the federal agency that was supposed to help thwart the virus instead has allowed for an unspoken 'don’t test, don’t tell' policy among dairy farmers."

"The USDA’s inaction, critics say, is attributable to its dual — and sometimes conflicting — mandates. It is responsible for the health and safety of the nation’s food animals, but it’s also in charge of promoting and protecting America’s $174.2 billion agriculture trade. And sick cows, with documented cases of a virus never before seen in cattle herds, could be very bad for business." ...
#USDA #BIRDFLU #H5N1 #CDC #HHS #BIGAG