California becomes epicenter of bird flu crisis as more human cases reported

Another five suspected cases of bird flu were reported today in California, where six cases have already been confirmed, according to the California Department of Public Health. The state, which is the country’s largest dairy supplier, has become the epicenter of bird flu in cows and has concerned public health experts since the beginning of the outbreak for this reason.

The people with confirmed infections worked with dairy cattle infected with the H5N1 virus, also known as bird flu, which suggests that the virus has not yet developed the ability to effectively transfer between humans. However, the people with confirmed infections worked at nine different farms across the state, indicating the virus is widespread among herds of cattle.

Public health experts have been critical of the national and state approaches to contain the virus and have recommended increasing screening and surveillance tools to keep it under control. Last week, footage circulated of heaps of cow carcasses left exposed outside of farms in California.

“There are so many cattle passing away from avian influenza that the rendering trucks are backed up, which is why [the cattle] had been left there for a period of time,” Anja Raudabaugh, CEO of Western United Dairies told Newsweek. “We are desperately overwhelmed at this point.”

As of Oct. 11, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had confirmed infections in 299 herds of cattle across 14 states. Additionally, more than 100 million poultry and 10,000 wild birds have been affected, and the virus has been shown to have the ability to transfer from birds to cows and back again, making it more difficult to contain. Each time the virus transfers it also increases the chances it could mutate in some way that could more easily infect humans, posing a pandemic risk on par with COVID-19.

Bird flu is also appearing in other countries across the world. Today, France said the national threat of bird flu increased to “moderate” from “negligible” because it along with several nearby European countries like Germany has reported cases among farm animals. Australia is the only continent that has thus far avoided H5N1 and yesterday invested $96 million in vaccines and increased surveillance in an attempt to keep it that way.