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Additional strain of H5N1 confirmed in cattle

A research veterinarian says an additional strain of the H5N1 virus has been found in dairy cattle, but it’s one he’s seen before. 

Dr. Keith Poulsen with the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory tells Brownfield up until recently, farmers and researchers have been dealing with the B313 strain of the H5N1 virus, but now, an additional strain of the virus was found in a Nevada dairy herd. “There’s only about twenty-three farms in Nevada. Six of them have what’s called a D1.1 strain, so it’s a different strain of virus and we’ve seen that strain in poultry in Wisconsin, so it’s in multiple different flyways.”

Poulsen says it’s this strain of the virus that caused a human death in Louisiana and infected another human in British Columbia.  He says milk silo testing through the national surveillance program is working. “Here’s why the surveilance program is actually doing its job, to find it early so they can really control this on those six dairies in Nevada.” Researchers including Poulsen believe the avian influenza is mostly spread by wild migrating birds.

Poulsen says it’s very rare to have two different strains of the H5N1 virus circulating at the same time.

Poulsen says about 2/3rds of the nation’s milk is being tested and other states are getting ready for testing.  He says regardless of which variant is found, pasteurization kills it, so H5N1 is an animal health risk and not a food safety risk.

Audio: Dr. Keith Poulsen discusses the latest information on the H5N1 virus with Brownfield’s Larry Lee.