#Hpay

[kedreeva]

Please please please PLEASE keep your cats indoors right now. H5N1 (HPAI, highly pathogenic avian influenza) is zoonotic to cats, and it is just as deadly for them. Additionally, if you have a way to keep your shoes away from your cat(s), or sanitize them after being out in the world (bleach footbath for example), a little biosecurity wouldn't hurt.

A sanctuary in Washington just lost 20 of their rescue big cats to this virus. It is not getting less dangerous for your cats this year than it was last.

It has ALWAYS been dangerous to let house cats free roam without supervision, but it's becoming dangerous right now to be taking them on leashes if they will have access to ground birds have recently been on, or water they have accessed. Catios might be okay, if they're covered and well-screened, but I would take a moment to subscribe to your local state ag department's email or phone alerts for HPAI in your area, and react accordingly even for covered outdoor areas.

Keep the Kitties Safe!

[cathartidae]

so, many of you have probably seen news about one of the first recorded severe case of HPAI (avian flu) in humans.

a lot of you who follow me are birders or inatters or adjacent. hence, a lot of you guys have birdfeeders.

from a rehab worker of almost 3 years: Disinfect your goddamn feeders. not only for HPAI but other diseases, such as avian pox, and for the safety of the birds

and of course, heres how!

now here at rehab we use rescue to disinfect, which is a big ol fancy thing that looks like this

for all our stuff. it's about 1-2tbsp rescue per 32oz water. however, most of you guys cant get a hold of it. so, heres some other things suggested by friends & coworkers that will work just as well

-diluted hydrogen peroxide

-bleach (diluted)

etc. in addition, it's best to use the hottest water you can handle in order to kill off more viruses (our industrial washer does up to 200°F, but whatever you can works just as well.)

the most important thing here is to USE GLOVES!!! PLEASE. pair of gloves to wash it and preferably when youre rinsing it use a DIFFERENT pair of gloves so it doesnt get dirty again.

lastly, if youre seeing visibly uninjured dead birds in your yard, lethargic birds at your feeder, red discolouration or growths on exposed skin, blood on your feeder, or anything else you might deem unusual, take down your feeder. the birds will get food elsewhere i promise, just leave it down for two weeks at least and sterilize it using any of the steps above.

also. please dont hand feed birds. yes even ducks. please please ignore what you see on instagram, it only creates more work for rehabbers. this includes trying to camouflage yourself and feed the birds from your hand when they dont know youre a person. it only hurts you and the birds, and yes this includes hummingbirds. do not try and feed birds off of yourself directly. please. thank you

be safe, clean your feeders, and happy birding!

in addition, below is an approximate of the procedure we use at my work to prevent outbreaks in our residents/patients.

changing aprons between birds, esp for personable birds (assimilated to people, like to fly onto you), switch gloves between birds, between touching hoses, etc. spray or dip + scrape shoes into rescue/accel solution before entering enclosures & or buildings. daily mopping w rescue solution, all dishes are hand washed with soap and hot water, then sent into an industrial washer @ 200°F.

[hedgepay]

Wishing you a harmonious Mid-Autumn Festival filled with love and happiness! 🌕🥮 #MidAutumn #HedgePay

[covid-safer-hotties]

Source

[fox-bright]

Minor H5N1 Note (We really gotta be better about the math than this)

Classically, H5N1 has a 56-53% lethality in humans.

This percentage is because the only people who were being tested for it were already very sick. It is really likely that people have been infected, had a sniffle and a sore throat for a week, and then gone about their lives and never known they hosted the virus for a while. As with covid's ultimate lethality of about 1-2% of infected people, when compared with the 30% of the early pandemic, an actual flu pandemic situation would almost certainly have a lower lethality than we currently have the numbers for.

The bird flu is serious and we need to treat it as such. But when I see people running around all chigginlil saying that a human-to-human, airborne HPAI-H5N1 pandemic means we'd lose 50% of humanity, and it would mean "the collapse of civilization," it makes me wonder if other countries aren't right about the state of US education. EVEN IF the virus retained its high lethality, in order to have 50% of the human population die of it, one hundred percent of humanity would have to be infected. Every single person on the fucking planet. That is profoundly not how infections work. A high death rate makes people avoid each other, and thus avoid infection.

Even during the 1918-1921 HPAI pandemic, incorrectly and quite rudely called the "Spanish Flu," only about thirty percent of humanity was infected. Tens of millions of people died, it destabilized governments and upturned WWI. It was not a little deal. But neither did it mean the end of the fucking world, so people who are saying H5N1 will, need to knock it the fuck off!

Panicking now will make you useless when it matters.

And falling for misinfo makes you, like a plague rat, more likely to be the vector by which others die.

[disasterhimbo]

I’m not sure if anyone’s noticed, but if you’re wondering why I often go days without posting anything recently, it’s the long covid. Sometimes I’m too tired to even use my phone in bed.

Wear a respirator (KN95 or better, N95s tend to seal better but it depends on your face shape).

There’s a 10% chance of long covid every time you get infected, 59% of transmission is asymptomatic, you can get it outside (I did), and this shit sucks ass. Also, there’s gonna be a bird flu pandemic soon too if there isn’t already.

[dr-otter]

Inaccuracies in scientific literature. I'm trundling along reading papers about high pathogenicity avian influence for (reasons) and one prominent, recent review lists species that have been hosts: cats, dogs, foxes (...etc etc...) and even ✨ fish✨

*needle scratch sound effect*

FISH???

So I track that citation down because no seriously WTF since when, does it really?? And sure enough the reference says " ... naturally isolated from cats, dogs (...etc etc...) and fishes. Fishes? But still not a first hand account. THAT reference goes to the USDA APHIS site that tracks detections in...mammals. hm. A search for fish turns up nothing but "fish" isn't a species (or taxonomic valid but that's a different rant). So I comb through the damnable list and find ✨fisher✨. That's a mammal in the weasel family. The paper citing this has a typo that turned fisher into fishes. Maybe autocorrect, idk, but nobody caught it. And then that typo was perpetuated. Who knows how many people have read the recent review and think we have HPAI in fish now?

And this, kids, is why you need to check those references and find the primary paper for any extraordinary claims.

[wormgremlin]

Can I offer you a nice egg in this trying time?

The politics of poultry and eggflation

Boil 'em, crack 'em, stick 'em in a soup. Eggs are an American staple. Despite back and forth about cholesterol and animal ethics, demand for eggs hasn’t going anywhere.  At a few cents each, eggs have historically been one of the most affordable nutritious foods; now, they're nearly $1 apiece and rising -- if you can find them at all. How did we get here? And more importantly, how do we get back?

H.P.A.I. Four accursed letters that haunt every veterinarian and I would dare say most Americans. Avian Influenza (AI), or bird flu, causes issues ranging from respiratory disease and diarrhea to decreased egg production. Within AI, there are high and low pathogenic strains; of primary concern is the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 strain, a form that spreads quickly, causing more severe illness and more deaths.  Despite having disease nationwide, HPAI is still considered a "Foreign Animal Disease," a government designation of a carefully monitored disease not regularly in the USA (ignoring backyard flocks).

In addition to killing birds and marine mammals as it has been doing for years, the recent concern with HPAI has been the new species affected: humans, cattle, and cats. People are becoming ill or even dying. Dairy cows have been miscarrying, dying, and losing milk production. Seemingly healthy cats are dropping dead.

Another epidemic making eggs expensive, it's 2020 all over again! Except unlike COVID, we already have answers. And this time, we’ve got our eyes on Big Egg. HPAI has been a problem for years. We have the tools to deal with it. Yet, we refuse to use them. As a Foreign Animal Disease, the federal government controls how HPAI outbreaks are handled, specifically the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The USDA dictates that commercial flocks (more than 1,000 birds) that test positive for HPAI are culled. Culled. Depopulated. Notably, different from euthanasia. Every bird in the infected flock must be killed. Commonly using carbon dioxide foam or gas, suffocating the birds. While unsavory, mass depopulation has its place to protect other animals from contagious disease, especially when the infected animals have little chance of surviving.

Except that current knowledge suggests that mass depopulation may increase spread. Production is delayed by an overzealous requirement that houses remain vacant for 14 days despite virus no longer being contagious within 96 hours. HPAI causes death – but not 100% death. In fact, in healthy unvaccinated populations, as much as 25% the flock could survive, building immunity which culling prevents.

Unvaccinated populations, like every poultry flock in the entire country. Unvaccinated implies availability of a vaccine though. And there is! Just… not here. In much of Asia, HPAI is commonplace, as it is becoming in the USA. As such, some countries such as China vaccinate all commercial birds. And it works, bringing HPAI-related death as low as 3% and speeding recovery with up to 97% survival. What about us? The vaccine is not available for use within the United States. Chickens are food animals under the USDA, heavily restricting vaccine use. Understandably so! Not all vaccines are good – some are dangerous, some just don’t work. Except other countries have been using this vaccine for years, so we know it’s safe and effective.

The USDA has yet to approve it for two reasons: trade and surveillance. In allowing chickens to die, the USDA maintains trade partners – certain countries would ban import of American poultry products should HPAI vaccination be permitted. Additionally, the USDA claims that the high mortality allows more effective surveillance so we can stamp out disease quickly. A strategy based in culling, an inefficient method of control rife with animal welfare concerns, human stressors, and economic impact. Even with vaccination, death rates are at least 2x that of a flock without HPAI (3% versus 0.5-1.5% normal mortality). Of course, cows with HPAI are not mass depopulated, further calling into question poultry use of this “stamping out” strategy.

The current outbreak, even just in dairy cows, has been a problem for a year now, the first case reported in late March 2024. Everything thus far has been bipartisan, absent of administration-specific criticism. These are ongoing issues, present through several presidential administrations, all failing to successfully address HPAI. Which is not to say I lack administration specific criticisms regarding ongoing epidemic(s) – HPAI … tuberculosis, measles, Listeria... Prior to mass layoffs and NIH funding freezes, research in both cows and chickens were underway to reassess the vaccine and its place in our production systems. Despite the destruction DOGE wreaks in the name of deregulation to “streamline our government,” we have yet to see changes benefiting Americans. Reassessment of HPAI vaccine and mass depopulation protocols ought to be a priority. An effective human HPAI vaccine would minimize hospitalizations and death; instead, we are left wondering if we will even have a flu vaccine next season. As an administration entrenched in a “bread and circuses” mindset, the clowns are excelling at circuses in the form of human rights violations but have yet to make groceries more affordable, ostensibly the reason many Americans voted for them

[rikaklassen]

Viral transmission through eyes is confirmed

So, not only dairy workers are coming down with severe conjunctivitis (pink eye), the ferret study confirms ocular transmission.

Better stock up on prescription snorkeling goggles (if you need glasses and cannot wear contact lenses) and firefighting goggles for smoke jumpers.

If you want to help me buy equipment to keep bestie safe from COVID, climate-induced wildfires and the bird flu, here is her PayPal: paypal.me/bglamours.

[grrlscientist]

H5N1 Avian Influenza Detected In New York City’s Wild Birds🪶 | Icahn School of Medicine, BioBus & the WildBirdFund, published by Journal of Virology

by @GrrlScientist 🦠 🔬 �� 🧪

[kedreeva]

Sometimes FB is okay

[quixoticanarchy]

“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.” The Institute for Disease Modeling, a research institute within the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has estimated that a global flu pandemic could kill close to 33 million people within six months.

--

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.

--

And H5N1 was not in the corporate playbook. Dairy farmers, afraid their cows would be quarantined or that they would not be able to sell their milk, simply opted not to test. Some forced veterinarians off their property. “Everyone is so scared shitless. That is what is going on in the background,” says the Western-state veterinarian. Meanwhile, the USDA was sitting on details about infected farms. Researchers rely on the international data-sharing platform GISAID to track the spread of worrisome viruses, and the USDA’s H5N1 submissions have been both late and frustratingly light on detail. The CDC submits H5N1 sequences and metadata within eight days. Countries like Vietnam and Cambodia move even faster. But the USDA has been sharing the genetic sequences of H5N1 samples an average of 24 days after collection, and those submissions don’t say on what date, or even in which state, each sample was collected. Only later, usually after three to six weeks, does the agency provide that additional information. As a result, the USDA’s data is effectively useless for monitoring in real time how the virus is mutating. “Why can the US CDC provide actionable information while the USDA cannot?” asks a GISAID staffer. “The withholding of such data by other nations would most certainly have triggered political outrage at the highest level in the US.”

[bookwyrmbran]

Serious question for people as might know: is cooking freeze-dried raw to 165 sufficient to render it safe? Either slowly in the oven or more quickly by soaking in boiling water.

Context: I have a senior cat who has had problems with literally everything else we've tried, including a variety of limited ingredient wet and dry foods. Digestive issues, horrible shits, skin problems, trouble keeping weight on, less energy, etc. I'm 99% sure that the freeze-dried raw working is more about the extremely limited ingredients than the actually raw part, especially since she's had no added trouble when it's been soaked in boiling water before feeding. Given her age/life stage I'm pretty concerned about switching her to something she'll have trouble with but HPAI is a literal killer and I also would like her to not die suddenly with minimal to no warning! So: is cooking enough to make this safe? If so, recommendations for how long?

Again, entirely serious question, not a gotcha, this is a major concern and I am trying to figure out risk mitigation.

Brands used are Vital Essentials (freeze dried patties in turkey duck rabbit and sometimes pork) and Instinct (freeze dried Alaskan pollock), as they've historically had some of her favorite flavors and also a reasonably decent track record in terms of recalls.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Reference saved in our archive

"Drinking From a Fire Hose: Are We Drowning?" Dr. Osterholm and Chris Dall discuss recent actions taken by the Trump administration, most notably the decision to leave the World Health Organization. Dr. Osterholm also shares his thoughts on the developing H5N1 crisis and provides an update on respiratory virus transmission in the U.S. and around the world.

[fox-bright]

So the info is FINALLY out about the poor kid in Canada with H5N1.

She is thirteen, with a history of mild asthma and was overweight. She "presented to an emergency department in British Columbia with a 2-day history of conjunctivitis in both eyes and a 1-day history of fever. She was discharged home without treatment, but cough, vomiting, and diarrhea then developed, and she returned to the emergency department on November 7 in respiratory distress with hemodynamic instability. On November 8, she was transferred, while receiving bilevel positive airway pressure, to the pediatric intensive care unit at British Columbia Children’s Hospital with respiratory failure, pneumonia in the left lower lobe, acute kidney injury, thrombocytopenia, and leukopenia."

They threw everything at this kid. Intensive respiratory support (was intubated and put on ECMO), three different antivirals (oseltamavir, amantadine, baloxavir), renal replacement therapy as her kidneys failed, plasma exchanges every day for three days (in an attempt to lower the concentration of cytokines in her blood and prevent/lessen the storm). "No evidence of reduced susceptibility to any of the three antiviral agents used in treatment was observed" in samples which were cultured--and honestly, I'm not sufficiently-educated to understand what that means in this case. The drugs we have aren't any weaker against it, and it still took all three? Or did they just hit her with everything because it's Canada, she is a child, and this shit is scary? But what it sounds like to me is "the drugs we have are as strong against H5N1 as they were ever going to be, and it's not enough."

"It is notable that lower-respiratory specimens consistently yielded lower Ct values than upper-respiratory specimens, a finding that suggested higher viral levels in the lower-respiratory tract." So, strong samples from her lungs, weaker samples from throat and sinuses. Nnnnot great.

Notable, but not surprising, is that the virus in her body showed the HA mutation which makes it more adapted to humans. In the serious New Orleans case with a similar mutation, the sick birds he was exposed to didn't show it, meaning it happened inside his body; in this case we don't know where the exposure was, just that it was the same virus type as was present in local birds, but it's probable that it also happened after she was sickened rather than before.

Link to paper below:

[nicolagriffith]

H5N1 Bird Flu updates

The latest news on H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza (bird flu) is a mix of good and bad. The bad: it transmits between ferrets (a good model for humans) and it is deadly. The good: some antivirals work well.

This a good new/bad news situation. The good news—excellent, actually—is that the Missouri case that might have been human-to-human transmission very probably was not. For one, the health care contacts were not infected with H5N1, and for another, the household contact was very likely infected at exactly the same time as the index patient and therefore exposed to the original source of the…