Bird flu in Texas has spread to some employees

Within days, the Amarillo veterinarian heard about sick cows with unusual symptoms: high fever, unwillingness to eat and far less milk. Tests for typical illnesses were negative.

Petersen, who monitors greater than 40,000 cattle on a dozen farms within the Texas Panhandle, collected samples from cats and cows and sent them to Dr. Drew Magstadt, a university friend who now works within the veterinary diagnostics lab at Iowa State University.

The samples tested positive for an avian influenza virus never before seen in cattle. It was the primary evidence that bird flu, referred to as type A H5N1, can infect cows. As of Wednesday, 36 US herds had confirmed infectionsin response to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“It was just a surprise,” Petersen recalled. “It was just a bit of disbelief.”

At the identical time, Petersen said that on almost every farm with sick animals, she also saw sick people.

“We were actively looking for people,” Petersen said. “I had people who never missed work, missed work.”

So far, two people within the US have been confirmed to be infected with H5N1, most recently a Texas dairy employee According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the disease is linked to the cattle outbreak. About two dozen people have been tested and about 100 people monitored because the virus emerged in cows, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, a CDC respiratory disease official, told reporters on Wednesday.

Daskalakis said the CDC has not noted any unusual flu trends in areas with infected cows, but some experts query whether isolated reports of sick employees mean multiple person has contracted the virus from the animals.

Petersen said some employees had flu-like symptoms: fever and body aches, nasal congestion or stuffy nose. Some had conjunctivitis, the attention infection present in the Texas dairy employee who was diagnosed with bird flu.

Dr. Gregory Gray, an infectious disease epidemiologist on the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, collected samples from livestock and folks at two farms in Texas. On farms with confirmed cattle infections, there have also been reports of mild illness amongst employees, he said.

His research was difficult. Many employees are afraid to get tested. This could also be because they’ve limited access to healthcare or are afraid of exposing private health information.

Without confirmation, nobody knows whether the sick employees were infected with the bird flu virus or something else, Gray said.

“They seem to be connected in time and space, so you would say it’s biologically plausible,” Gray said.

Some of the sick employees sought treatment and were offered oseltamivir, an antiviral drug sold under the brand name Tamiflu, Petersen said.

Some farm employees who were exposed to infected animals or people were offered the drugs, CDC spokesman Jason McDonald said. Under federal guidelines, state health departments are liable for assessing and providing treatment.

Health officials in Texas provided Tamiflu to the person known to be infected with H5N1 and household members, in addition to two people on a second dairy farm who tested negative but were exposed to infected animals, said Chris Van Deusen, a spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services. He said he wasn’t sure if others had been offered the antiviral.

Farmers are reluctant to permit health authorities access to their land, Dr. Kay Russo, a Colorado veterinarian who advised Petersen in regards to the outbreak.

“This particular disease is considered a scarlet letter,” Russo said. “There’s this stigma attached to it right now.”

Russo called for more comprehensive testing of cattle, humans and milk.

“We don’t know what we’re not measuring,” she said. “Unfortunately the horse left the stable and ran away much faster than we could mobilize.”

Gray is nervous that a recent federal regulation The requirement to examine all lactating dairy cows transported between states could further hinder cooperation. All laboratories that perform tests must report positive results to the Department of Agriculture. But many farmers may simply select not to check in hopes of weathering the outbreak, he said.

The reluctance of employees and farmers to permit testing “significantly complicates” understanding how the virus is spreading, how large the outbreak is now and the way quickly it could spread, Gray said.

“It’s a negative, very negative effect,” he said.

Petersen said she understands the fears of employees and farmers. She praised the farmers who agreed to let her take the primary samples that confirmed the outbreak and reflected on what the outcomes might mean.

“You immediately think of the cows, the people who care for them and the families who run these farms,” she said. “They think about the big picture in the long term. Your mind starts going down this whole path of worry.”

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