#poultry disease control

[farmerstrend]

Diseases do Not Announce Their Arrival: Understanding and Preventing Poultry Diseases

In poultry farming, diseases pose a silent but ever-present threat to your flock. For most rural poultry farmers, the scourge of disease can lead to devastating consequences, ranging from financial losses to the eventual closure of operations. This article aims to educate poultry farmers on the causes, warning signs, and practical steps to mitigate poultry diseases effectively. The Heavy Cost of…

[thebookishwallflower]

I want to make a post to inform people about the current situation with the bird flu (/avian flu/H5N1) outbreaks.

I don't want to cause panic but do want to spread information.

This is especially important if you live in an area that has a news system you don't trust to give accurate, timely, or honest news about something like a possible new pandemic, use your own judgement.

If that applies it is going to be very important to make sure you stay informed and follow these H5N1 outbreaks yourself and know how to best protect yourself.

I am no expert, but I do know a good bit about disease and influenza in particular, and have been following the H5N1 outbreaks as they've been happening, so under the cut I'm going to do my best to inform everyone I can.

Please stay safe, stay informed, and spread information, not germs.

What's bird flu and why do I care? (What's bird flu and why do I care?)

Avian flu and bird flu mean the same thing, an influenza virus that (primarily) infects birds. H5N1 denotes a specific strain of avian influenza. H5N1 can spillover (when a pathogen spreads from it's normal host organism to a new host organism) from animals to humans.

How could I get H5N1? (How could I get H5N1?)

Human to human transmission has not been observed yet (12/1/24) during this current outbreak. You can get this from contact with wild birds, especially water fowl, domestic birds, cattle, pigs, horses, dogs, and bats. It is also possible to get from raw (unpasteurized) milk and undercooked meat from infected animals.

What's the big deal then? (What's the big deal then?)

The common flu is not very pathogenic. How pathogenic something is determines how sick something makes the host, something that is highly pathogenic can cause severe disease. H5N1 is considered a HPAI, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza.

H5N1 is also a Type A influenza virus, most known Type A influenza viruses can infect birds. There is one Type A human flu in circulation at the moment, however it isn't very prevalent.

"IAV poses a significant risk of zoonotic infection, host switch, and the generation of pandemic viruses. IAVs can infect humans and a variety of animals, such as pigs, horses, marine mammals, cats, dogs, and birds (S1)."

IAV - Influenza A Viruses | Zoonotic infection - when an infectious disease of a non-human host infects a human host | Host switch - when a cross-species transmission of a pathogen can lead to successful, stable, and continuous infections

Every species the flu infects, the more strains that pop up under a sub-type IAV, the possibility for recombination increases. "Recombination occurs when at least two viral genomes [or strains] co-infect the same host cell and exchange genetic segments (S2)."

The flu is pretty good at recombination, when given the chance. It is also really good at mutating, and fast. If there were to be a recombination event and a new strain evolved (this would be called an antigenic shift) that was highly pathogenic, highly infectious (good at spreading, which H5N1 is), that could then infect humans and cause human-to-human transmission we might have a pandemic on our hands. This has not shown signs of happening during this outbreak*, this is what to look out for.

This (a recombination event) is what caused the 1918 pandemic during WW1. This pandemic killed an estimated 50 to 100 million people in 1918, in a world with a population of around 2 billion. 7.1 million died of COVID 19, as of 11/9/24 (S3), from a population of around 8 billion.

We know more, we are prepared, it's not guaranteed to happen, and it's not guaranteed to be as bad. But the possibilities are endless and it's extremely important to be prepared and stay informed.

So what do I do? (So what do I do?)

Again, stay informed, and that might mean checking independent news sources, the CDC website, and more, to keep yourself updated, especially if you know your local news won't do it for you. You should also familiarize yourself with the symptoms of influenza, if you have it, stay home.

Keep yourself safe, we had a pandemic already, you know the drill. Cover your nose and mouth when sneezing/coughing, wash your hands, sanitize your hands, and get your flu shot. And, in addition, avoid contact with wild birds, poultry, pigs, and cattle if you can.

In the event that this gets worse, social distancing is very important, being outdoors, wearing a mask, and all the stuff above, you can shed the virus for around a week before you start feeling bad. Keep yourself safe and don't infect anyone else.

If that doesn't sound like it'll do much, I promise you it does. Those are all classified NPI's (non-pharmaceutical interventions) and even epidemiologists were shocked at their impact and importance during the COVID-19 pandemic. They did work, and they were incredibly effective—as long as they were carried out.

I don't want to cause panic or worry anyone, but that is how information ends of suppressed. I want to make everyone aware of what we might face so that we can fight it and be strong and stay safe.

If anyone has any questions, wants any clarification, any corrections, or wants to know some good places to learn more about this stuff please don't hesitate to contact me (@'s, dm's, or asks), I will answer as best I can.

Here's the CDC's page covering the H5 bird flu current situation.

S1 - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5578040/

S2 - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7106159/

S3 - https://data.who.int/dashboards/covid19/deaths?n=c

*with the exception of this coverage (as a possibility): https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/19/bird-flu-cases-mutation-canada

[follow-up-news]

A nationwide recall of meat and poultry products potentially contaminated with listeria has expanded to nearly 12 million pounds and now includes ready-to-eat meals sent to U.S. schools, restaurants and major retailers, federal officials said. The updated recall includes prepared salads, burritos and other foods sold at stores including Costco, Trader Joe’s, Target, Walmart and Kroger. The meat used in those products was processed at a Durant, Oklahoma, manufacturing plant operated by BrucePac. The Woodburn, Oregon-based company sells precooked meat and poultry to industrial, foodservice and retail companies across the country. Routine testing found potentially dangerous listeria bacteria in samples of BrucePac chicken, officials with the U.S. Agriculture Department said. No illnesses have been confirmed in connection with the recall, USDA officials said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not launched an outbreak investigation, a spokesperson said. The recall, issued on Oct. 9, includes foods produced between May 31 and Oct. 8. The USDA has posted a 342-page list of hundreds of potentially affected foods, including chicken wraps sold at Trader Joe’s, chicken burritos sold at Costco and many types of salads sold at stores such as Target and Walmart. The foods were also sent to school districts and restaurants across the country. The recalled foods can be identified by establishment numbers “51205 or P-51205” inside or under the USDA mark of inspection. Consumers can search on the USDA recall site to find potentially affected products. Such foods should be thrown away or returned to stores for refunds, officials said. Eating foods contaminated with listeria can cause potentially serious illness. About 1,600 people are infected with listeria bacteria each year in the U.S. and about 260 die, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Listeria infections typically cause fever, muscle aches and tiredness and may cause stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions. Symptoms can occur quickly or to up to 10 weeks after eating contaminated food. The infections are especially dangerous for older people, those with weakened immune systems or who are pregnant. The same type of bacteria is responsible for an outbreak tied to Boar’s Head deli meat that has killed at least 10 people since May.

[collapsedsquid]

In the U.K., the Health Security Agency recently raised its threat level to 4 out of 6, the stage immediately before large-scale human outbreaks. In Europe, countries are proactively vaccinating dairy and poultry workers against infection, with 15 nations already securing a total of 40 million doses through the European Commission. In the United States, despite having a stockpile of those vaccines, we are not distributing them, instead focusing on standing up voluntary supplies of seasonal flu vaccines to frontline workers. (The hope is that this will prevent animal infections of human flu that might aid in the further mutation of H5N1.) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has cited the low number of cases to justify its inaction, but it has also moved remarkably slowly to promote the kind of widespread surveillance testing that could actually identify cases. Only recently has the agency begun to mobilize real funding for a testing push, after a period of months in which various federal groups batted around responsibility and ultimate authority like a hot potato. And as was the case early in the Covid-19 pandemic, the C.D.C.’s preferred test for bird flu “has issues.” Three months into the outbreak, only 45 people had even been tested; six weeks later, the total number of people tested had grown only to “230+.” [...] Most farms aren’t supplying N95 masks, goggles or aprons to protect workers, either, and when Amy Maxmen of KFF News surveyed farm workers to ask why they weren’t getting tested, “no one had heard of bird flu, never mind gotten P.P.E. or offers of tests,” she reported. “One said they don’t get much from their employers, not even water. If they call in sick, they worry about getting fired.” Last month, a crew was deployed to slow the spread of the disease by killing every last chicken of 1.78 million on a large Colorado farm where H5N1 had broken out and six of the workers contracted the virus, partly because the gear they’d been provided was hard to use in the punishing 104-degree heat. In June, Robert Redfield, former director of the C.D.C., echoed many epidemiologists in predicting that “it’s not a question of if, it’s more of a question of when we will have a bird flu pandemic.” In July, Brown’s Jennifer Nuzzo warned that the steady beat of new cases “screams at us that this virus is not going away.” Tulio de Oliveira, a bioinformatician who studies global disease surveillance, marveled that the American effort to track the spread of the disease was absolutely amateurish and the country’s apparent indifference “unbelievable.”

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved in our archive

Won't someone think of the egg prices!

By John Lindt

KERN COUNTY – The price of eggs is often used as a barometer for the economy, but this fall’s high prices are not the work of market factors, but rather migratory flights.

Avian flu is spreading along the path of birds’ southern migration for winter across California. As of Nov. 12, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that a large egg ranch in Kern County has been impacted by bird flu resulting in the destruction of 2.15 million egg layers. This is the first case of HPAI in Kern County during the 2022-24 bird flu outbreak as it spread south heading into winter. Kern County is home to some of the state’s largest egg ranch operations.

The same day USDA also announced that avian flu hit two Fresno County poultry ranches, one a broiler ranch resulting in the killing of 237,700 chickens being prepped for meat and a turkey ranch requiring the destruction of 34,800 toms, or male turkeys. The news follows recent reports about avian flu spreading to Kings County poultry ranches resulting in the loss of over half a million birds and at another Fresno ranch. On Nov. 14, USDA added three more poultry ranches to the list of affected including one in Merced County, a turkey ranch with the loss of 53,200 birds and another one in Fresno County.

The locations of the poultry ranches are not far from the Pacific flyway, a major migratory route in the Western United States. In the case of Kern County, the egg ranch was close to the Kern Wildlife Refuge as well as nearby dairies. This is worrying observers that there appears to be a connection between all three vectors for the rapidly mutating virus.

Northern California poultry operations have been hard hit as well. Nationwide, outbreaks have claimed more than 21 million hens, so far in 2024.

Egg Prices In California the impact on egg prices has been significant.

On Nov. 13, the USDA reported that a dozen large, white cage-free eggs cost about $5.26 per dozen in California. This is according to USDA market data for the week of Nov. 8. USDA says this is a “benchmark” price. The price is up from $2.81 a month earlier. That is almost double the benchmark, but may not reflect retail.

The last time California eggs were this high was in February when California egg prices – cage-free egg prices – peaked at $5.59 per dozen.

The cases of infected birds correspond with fall bird migrations that are spreading the virus throughout the state. Detections are higher in fall and spring as wild birds spread the virus when they migrate. This year the bird flu has taken its toll with the outbreak of H5N1, a highly transmissible and fatal strain of avian influenza, or bird flu. The outbreak started in early 2022 and rapidly grew into the largest bird flu outbreak in U.S. history.

Most recently, outbreaks affecting more than 2.84 million egg layers were reported in October at commercial facilities in Oregon, Washington and Utah, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

As of Nov. 8, the virus has affected over 105.2 million birds in the U.S. since January 2022, according to the CDC. The California egg shortage will likely have a pocketbook impact on holiday baking activity as the nation prepares for Thanksgiving; however, a recent USDA analysis suggests consumers may not see a huge jump.

“Large volume grocery retailers across the nation have launched their shell egg feature campaigns targeting holiday demand at relatively attractive price levels. Much of this is attributable to changes in the way shell eggs are being marketed with an increasing share (estimated at over half of all shell egg volume sold at retail) tied to production cost agreements not prone to fluctuation common in formula trading.”

There are about 378.5 million egg-laying chickens in the US. As of last year, there were 9.4 billion broiler chickens and 218 million turkeys processed, according to the USDA. Advocates note the high cost of the influenza just in the egg market. “With domestic sales of shell eggs and products amounting to seven billion dozen, consumers paid an incremental $15 billion as a result of the prolonged and uncontrolled infection.”

While bird flu is impacting poultry farms, another strain of the virus has impacted Central Valley dairies as well, spreading quickly since September to 291 dairy farms as of press time. Unlike poultry, dairy cows typically survive the virus, although milk production is expected to be impacted.

Avian flu is a worldwide phenomenon. In the past two weeks, the first cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) of the fall season have been reported in Albania, Great Britain, Romania, and now regions of Germany and Ukraine.

Despite the increase in US egg prices this holiday season, turkey prices are down from last year when supply was also affected by bird flu. Across the country, a 15-pound turkey costs an average of $31.16 ($2.08 per pound) in 2024, compared with $35.40 ($2.36 per pound) in 2023. That price reduction represents a price decrease of 12% from last year to now,” a report said. The lower price comes even as a U.S. Department of Agriculture report showed turkey production dipped more than 6% compared to this time last year.

Hen and Hoof The spread of this strain of the virus appears to be affecting both the Central Valley poultry and dairy industries at the same time.

Just before Sept. 1 there were no reports of the virus in the Valley’s dairy industry. But as of Nov. 15, there are almost 300 diaries, mostly in Tulare and Kings Counties, impacted with new ones being added every day.

The Valley poultry industry has been on a similar viral timeline which coincides with the annual bird migration along the Pacific flyway that happens each fall. H5N1 largely infects wild birds, with waterfowl such as ducks and geese being the natural reservoirs for H5N1 viruses. Most H5N1 viruses are highly pathogenic avian influenza, meaning spillovers into other bird populations can lead to high mortality rates, including domesticated poultry.

A compounding factor for the spread of the virus is that both livestock are often on land located right next door or just down the road. The Central Valley is home for both industries with animals, transported in and out, and service vehicles going in and out of these large facilities every day.

The industry website Egg-News this week pointed out that research shows that the infections can be transmitted over a distance of up to a mile while attached to dust particles. Fall is harvest for a number of crops, including the nut industry, sending up plumes of dust in the Valley sky, at times associated with winds.

Egg-News points out that dairy cow-associated H5N1 viruses have jumped back into wild birds, and recent outbreaks in domestic poultry resembled H5N1 in dairy cows.

In an editorial Egg-News said “APHIS Needs a New Approach to Control HPAIr.” They recommend that USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) adopt vaccination as a disease control strategy for bird flu, with promising results from clinical trials. In May 2023, the U.S. authorized the vaccination of California condors against a type of avian flu.

Also, the USDA has approved field trials to test vaccines that could prevent dairy cows from getting the H5N1 strain of bird flu. The USDA approved the first field trials for the vaccine in September 2024. The USDA’s Center of Veterinary Biologics (CVB) is overseeing the trials. At least 24 companies are working on the vaccine, including Zoetis and Merck Animal Health.

If vaccines can save the U.S. poultry and dairy industry over the next year, the industry may have to worry about who heads up the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the agency which authorizes vaccines for animals and humans. Nominee Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has made it clear he is anti-vaccine but has yet to comment on the use of vaccines in agriculture if he is confirmed for the role.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil confirms first Newcastle disease case in 18 years

Officials at Brazil’s Agriculture Ministry have confirmed an outbreak of Newcastle disease at a commercial poultry farm in Anta Gorda, a municipality in Rio Grande do Sul, the country’s southernmost state. 

The government said the farm was immediately quarantined once the case was under investigation. “A complementary investigation will also be carried out within a 10-kilometer radius around the outbreak area, in addition to other necessary measures as per the epidemiological assessment,” the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.

Newcastle disease is a highly contagious and often severe disease found worldwide that affects birds, including domestic poultry, according to the World Organization for Animal Health. The last confirmed cases in Brazil were recorded in 2006 in the states of Amazonas, Mato Grosso, and Rio Grande do Sul.

Control measures include strict isolation or quarantine of outbreaks and the destruction of all infected and exposed birds.

Continue reading.

[darkmaga-returns]

By Jacob M. Thompson November 21, 2024

Could lockdowns return because of purported cases of avian influenza spreading across the United States?

Well, that’s what mainstream media would have people to the believe. As both zoonotic and human cases continue to climb, the media and other cited health ‘experts’ are sounding the alarm that a full-blown bird flu pandemic is nearing the horizon.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claim as of Monday, November 18th, 53 Americans have been infected with bird flu, the majority of them reportedly coming from California.

15 states are now reported to have some sort of bird flu outbreak in cows, and 49 states with an outbreak in poultry. As of the 19th, over 108,412,000 poultry have been affected.

Hawaii is reportedly the latest state to purportedly have bird flu. Ducks and geese dwelling on a backyard farm on the island of Oahu reportedly tested positive for the virus. Susan Wilkinson, who had all of her rescue birds culled as per protocol, posted a sorrowful message on Instagram warning others to take this seriously.

I don’t want this to happen to anybody else. If you live on Oahu or any of the islands, I need you to take this seriously. This is not a government conspiracy, it is not a joke, it is so bad, it is so bad.  Please quarantine everything, please bleach down everything, be so extra cautious, because this disease comes quick and fast. She tearfully warned.

Oregon also reported its first human case of bird flu last week.

Just over a week ago, a child was hospitalized in Canada – the country’s first confirmed case of the disease – and was in severe condition.

[meret118]

A farm is recalling two brands of eggs after 65 people in nine states came down with salmonella poisoning.

Wisconsin-based Milo’s Poultry Farms LLC is recalling eggs branded “Milo’s Poultry Farms” and “Tony’s Fresh Market” due to a salmonella outbreak that sickened people across the U.S.

Twenty-four of those people have been hospitalized and no deaths have occurred, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The eggs were distributed to restaurants and stores in Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, but the outbreak also spread to the states of Iowa, Colorado, California, Utah, Minnesota and Virginia.

The CDC is urging people to throw away or return eggs sold under the recalled brands. The agency is also encouraging those who had the recalled eggs in their possession to clean items and surfaces that came into contact with the contaminated product.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration classified a recently recalled egg brand as a high-risk “Class I” recall. According to the agency, a “Class I” recall is the highest possible risk category of recall classified by the FDA.

. . .

The strain of salmonella involved is antibiotic-resistant, meaning that it may be more difficult to treat severe bacterial infections.

[infohorizon00]

First Severe Human Case of H5N1 Bird Flu in the U.S. and California's State of Emergency

In a significant development, the United States has reported its first severe human case of H5N1 avian influenza. A resident of southwestern Louisiana has been hospitalized after exposure to sick and dead birds in a backyard flock. This case marks the first known severe human illness linked to the bird flu virus in the country.

Details of the Louisiana Case

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the case on December 18, 2024. The patient is experiencing severe respiratory illness and is currently in critical condition.

Genomic analysis revealed that the virus belongs to the D1.1 genotype, previously identified in wild birds and poultry in the U.S., as well as in human cases in British Columbia and Washington state. This instance is notable for being the first linked to backyard, non-commercial poultry in the U.S.

California's State of Emergency

READ MORE

[mariacallous]

This year in the United States, 14 people have tested positive for avian influenza, or bird flu. Nine of those became infected after coming into contact with poultry, and four got the virus from exposure to dairy cows. The source of the remaining, most recent case remains a mystery.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the case on September 6. Initially detected by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, it is the first known case of human bird flu in the country with no known exposure to a sick or infected animal. On Thursday, health officials said they hadn’t determined how the person acquired the virus.

“Right now, evidence points to this being a one-off case,” said Nirav Shah, the CDC’s principal deputy director, during a news briefing.

Yet the case is troubling, because it raises the possibility of an alternate source of transmission, either from a person or an unknown source. Health officials say there is no evidence of person-to-person spread at this time. The CDC says its surveillance system has not picked up any unusual flu activity in the country, and the risk to the general public remains low.

“Our influenza surveillance system is designed to find needles in haystacks,” Shah said in the briefing. “In this case, we found such a needle, but we don’t know how it got there.”

The Missouri case is the first to be detected through the country’s national flu surveillance system as opposed to targeted testing of animals. This year, the H5N1 flu virus has been responsible for wiping out poultry flocks across the country and infecting 200 dairy herds in 14 states—the latest in California. It is increasingly spilling over to other mammals, including foxes, mice, raccoons, and domestic cats. With more animals harboring the virus, there is greater potential for human infection.

It’s not known whether that happened in the Missouri case, but it is one avenue health officials say they are investigating.

“Regardless of the source, it’s concerning, because it suggests that there’s a lot of the virus out there,” says David Boyd, a virologist at UC Santa Cruz who studies influenza. “This indicates that there is widespread transmission among animal sources.”

On August 22, an adult patient was hospitalized in Missouri for reasons related to underlying medical conditions and happened to also test positive for influenza. The patient’s specimen was then sent to the Missouri State Public Health Laboratory, which determined that it didn’t match the currently circulating seasonal flu viruses.

That triggered additional testing by the CDC, which last week confirmed it was a type of bird flu, or H5. The agency was conducting additional testing to determine the virus subtype—the “N” part of H5N1. On Thursday, health officials said the patient had a very low concentration of viral genetic material and, because of this, they have not been able to generate a full genome, including the N part of the virus. However, their data shows that the specimen is closely related to the H5 virus circulating in dairy cows.

Having a full genome sequence of the virus can be helpful in making an epidemiological link to an animal source. Because viruses change and mutate when they are transmitted to new hosts, the genetic sequence of the virus can give clues about where it’s been. Scientists would also be able to use a full genome sequence to identify potential genetic mutations that could make human-to-human transmission more likely.

The patient has since recovered and has been discharged. Hospital staff and state epidemiologists conducted contact tracing of potentially exposed individuals, and no additional cases have been identified.

Missouri’s health department says there has been no increase in emergency room visits for flu and no increase in lab-confirmed human flu cases in the state. Bird flu outbreaks in cattle have not been reported in Missouri, but outbreaks have been reported in commercial and backyard poultry flocks this year. Wild birds in the state have also tested positive for bird flu.

Health officials are considering several potential routes of exposure, including contact with wild or agricultural animals, consumption of milk or undercooked meat, household travel, and attendance at public gatherings. Shah says the CDC’s investigation is also looking into the use of bird feeders, recent yard work, gardening, and lawn mowing.

Stephen Morse, an epidemiologist and influenza researcher at Columbia University, says that this case being identified underscores the importance of the country’s influenza surveillance. “But the fact that this case was found fortuitously and took several weeks to identify shows that our surveillance system still needs to be more agile and systematic,” he says.

The US has limited capacity for bird flu testing, but that could soon get a boost. On Thursday, the CDC also announced that it is partnering with five commercial laboratories and has awarded them an initial $5 million to start developing their own bird flu tests.

[farmerstrend]

The Truth About Animal Vaccines: Debunking Myths in Livestock Health

In today’s fast-paced agrospace, misleading information can spread quickly, both online and offline. One particular misconception that has emerged is the concept of “organic vaccines” for livestock. While plants have valuable pharmacological properties, they cannot be transformed into vaccines. It’s important for farmers and livestock owners to separate fact from fiction to protect their…

[follow-up-news]

A salmonella outbreak linked to recalled eggs has sickened 65 people in nine states, U.S. health officials said. As of Friday, 24 people had been hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. No deaths were reported. The recalled eggs came from Milo’s Poultry Farms and were distributed to Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan, the CDC said. Eggs labeled “Milo’s Poultry Farms” and “Tony’s Fresh Market” are subject to the recall, which was announced on Friday, because they may be contaminated with salmonella, a bacteria that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections, the Food and Drug Administration said. The recall includes all carton sizes and expiration dates. People fell ill between May 23 and Aug. 10. Most of the illnesses are concentrated in Wisconsin and Illinois. People also reported illnesses in California, Utah, Colorado, Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan and Virginia. The actual number of sicknesses in the outbreak is likely much higher than the number reported, and may extend to other states, the CDC said.

[plethoraworldatlas]

Community, social justice and wildlife conservation groups delivered a letter today urging the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to dramatically increase its response to the outbreak of the H5N1 variant of avian influenza in U.S. dairy cattle herds.

The groups are asking the CDC to quickly ramp up testing around the deadly H5N1 variant spreading in industrial dairy herds, which has also infected at least two farm workers. They are also calling for the agency to protect farm workers and do a better job of keeping the public informed about its findings.

The request follows the spread of the disease to at least 51 dairy herds in at least nine U.S. states.

“It’s critical we learn from the mistakes of the early COVID-19 response and aggressively address industrial animal agriculture’s key role in spreading these highly contagious viruses,” said Hannah Connor, environmental health deputy director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The CDC must ignore the pushback from big agribusiness interests and ramp up its work to protect communities and prevent the avian flu outbreak from becoming the next pandemic.”

Avian influenza, also called bird flu, refers to diseases often spread among bird species, including wild birds and domestic poultry. It is not known to have spread to cattle until recent months, leading to concerns about evolution in the spread of this disease.

Because of lax oversight of the dairy industry, it is unclear when H5N1 started circulating among cattle populations. But recent genomic analyses of U.S. Department of Agriculture data indicate that it probably began in December or January and had been spreading for four months before it was detected. But a shortage of data is hampering efforts to pin down the source, according to researchers.

Some industrial dairy operators and state officials have opposed federal efforts to track and contain the virus, telling the CDC to “back off.”

Before spreading among domestic cattle populations, the virus spread first from birds into wild mammal populations, leading to significant concerns about the disease’s threats to imperiled wildlife. Since this outbreak started, the virus has been found in federally threatened and endangered species like polar bears, grizzly bears and fishers. Outbreaks in South America have killed tens of thousands of seals and sea lions, demonstrating H5N1’s ability to cause mass mortality in mammals

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved on our archive

By Rob Wallace

From summer into fall, SARS-CoV-2, the COVID-19 virus, ran up another epidemiological spike just as the feds sunset their pandemic control program.

While the virus continues along a loop of boom and bust repeatedly reset by its capacity for evolutionary escape, putting people in the hospital and out of work at a steady clip, U.S. officials and well-connected epidemiologists have abandoned public health in both practice and concept.

Alongside entrapping millions of Americans in a Long COVID vortex, such dereliction of duty places the U.S. in danger should other diseases arise, including, but not limited to, an avian influenza strain that even now is moving beyond cow herds and poultry flocks and beginning to spread in humans.

The COVID-19 pandemic that some of our most august epidemiologists pretend is over portends a broader decline in the very notion of the public commons upon which any functional society depends.

The State of the COVID Nation What’s the present state of the U.S.’s COVID-19 outbreak?

The National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) reports a large majority of its data set of viral load in sewage plants tracked from September 9 to 23 to be in the orange and red zone of 60 percent or more of all the samples taken nationally since December 2021. That is, all those hot points on the NWSS map tell us the viral load in populations across the U.S. is now as high (and widespread) as any previous COVID peak.

On the other hand, the more acute NWSS measure of changes in SARS-2 sewage loads over the 15 days leading up to September 23 shows a mosaic of declines and increases, indicating differences at the sewershed level we still don’t understand.

NWSS tracks only 1,479 of the 16,000 publicly owned wastewater plants, which together serve at best 80 percent of the U.S. population. So, consider the NWSS map of SARS-CoV-2 loads just a snapshot.

The Walgreens COVID-19 Index of national test positivity covers both rapid tests and the more gold-standard polymerase chain reaction tests little available at this point. As of September 29, we see a decline to 21.8 percent of all tests Walgreens processes nationally from 40 percent earlier in the summer, but still as high as most points in the pandemic. The number of tests remains comparatively high, which at this late date in the pandemic may in itself serve as a measure of incidence. People are getting tested because they’re feeling sick.

There’s a geography to this. For late September, we see increases in test positivity in order of sizes of increase, in New Hampshire, Idaho, Oklahoma, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, among other states, with New York presently hovering at 35.9 percent positive. These numbers were once available down to the county level until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) abandoned such mapping.

Syndromic surveillance offers another view of the pandemic. We see from Epic Research hospital reports of ICD-10 codes mapped between August 25 and September 7 for COVID infections per 100,000 hospital tests, states in the South and Appalachia are getting hit relatively hard, with the national hospital positivity rate at 16 percent. Hospitals across the U.S. were once required to report in such incidences on a weekly basis. Now only a few voluntarily report.

With such reporting now blacked out, infectious disease modeler J.P. Weiland is using wastewater data from Biobot Analytics and available CDC seropositivities to project COVID cases per day in the U.S. He reports we were at over 589,000 new COVID infections for the single day of September 19.

This summer’s peak isn’t the 5 million infections a day of the first Omicron wave that Weiland estimated in late 2021, but nearly a million infections a day in early August is well within the range of nearly every other COVID peak so far. COVID isn’t tailing off one peak to the next.

Weiland hasn’t released a detailed methodology, which makes the projection’s validity unconfirmed, although the general gestalt of his time series is probably on point. If these estimates are anywhere close to reality, much more forgiving global and U.S. data should now be rated “junk” and the pandemic considered still at strength — especially, as we previously described, as the virus has been given the public health green light to continue to explore its evolutionary possibilities.

Indeed, we see the outbreak stateside continuing to evolve, with a broad mix of 22 sublineages in play, and, as projected September 28, varieties of global variant of concern KP.3 and LB.1 leading the way.

Molecular biologist Raj Rajnarayanan’s 30-day mosaic shows all the genetic sequences of detected sublineages in the U.S. as of September 27, including their geographic origins. We see the near entirety of the country hosting variant JN and its infectious FLiRT offspring, the LBs and KPs 1, 2 and 3. We see the arrival of yet another new lineage, the highly transmissible XEC.

The Real Damage of Long COVID Remains A pandemic’s outcome is a matter of pathogen and host alike. So, while we see the SARS-CoV-2 virus still chugging along, the host population it infects has largely chosen to drop out of the pandemic fight.

While COVID death rates aren’t approaching those of 2020, we are nowhere near a 2019 world as the near entirety of the U.S. establishment pretends. The Swiss Re Institute reports U.S. and U.K. excess mortality rates still at 3 percent and 2.5 percent above pre-pandemic levels.

But here we have both U.S. political parties — and both presidential candidates — placing the ongoing pandemic behind us for good, save for scoring electoral points. The feds are sunsetting bridge funding for COVID antivirals and vaccines, the latter suddenly costing $200 for the uninsured. No wonder, as Science Communications Director Lucky Tran posts, half the Americans in a recent Ipsos poll incredibly expect never to get infected again.

The mass leap away from the reality of a still deadly infection is more from a push from a government that ostensibly holds the monopoly on national health intervention. The U.S. population would likely respond otherwise if signaled so from its elected leadership. Tran reminds us that a 2022 CDC report showed people are more likely to mask when alerted about local outbreaks by public health authorities. Without alerts, on the other hand, Americans are erring on the side of little to no masking.

The resulting health toll continues to beat up the population. Health analyst Mike Hoerger of the Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative — whose models for daily COVID incidences typically run hotter than Weiland’s at 669,000 as of September 30 — projects 1 million to 4 million new Long COVID cases coming out of infections this past month alone.

Previous work showed and estimated that between 5 percent and 30 percent of people infected enter the whirlpool of a Long COVID syndrome for which few tests are available for diagnosis, and there are few prophylaxes available or in development to treat current patients.

A Patient-Led Collaborative Group preprint reporting the results of a survey of 3,300 participants found that increasing the number of SARS-CoV-2 infections a person gets increases the risks of Long COVID, worse Long COVID symptoms and greater overall impairment. Reinfections also appear to diminish the protective effects that vaccination may offer against Long COVID. Few of the surveyed reported Long COVID remission.

The damage extends beyond bodily health. The Wall Street Journal, focusing on the professional-managerial class, ran a story headlined “Long Covid Knocked a Million Americans Off Their Career Paths.”

Understandably, the article was widely retweeted by professionals who lamented their previous 60-hour work weeks and personal bests and marked how far they had fallen. Their work ethic proved no prevention against Long COVID’s siege of microclots, brain damage, cognitive collapse and post-exertional malaise that made some unable to get out of bed for weeks.

Long COVID also impacts many on the other end of the socioeconomic spectrum. A new survey of 7,000-plus adults found low-income Long COVID patients suffered greater food insecurity, especially those who didn’t participate in public food assistance programs.

It isn’t just adults suffering. New research out of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) RECOVER program found similar but distinguishable differences in symptoms between children and adolescents among the 5,300 youth it studied, leading RECOVER to declare Long COVID “a public health crisis” for a population some epidemiologists expediently presented as little affected by the infection.

Acknowledging Failures to Keep Them Going Noting that recent COVID deaths in the U.S. were double those of last spring, this New York Times piece from August took a meta view of the failure to see, observing that we no longer observe: “We Have Largely Moved on From Covid, but Covid Isn’t Done With Us” reads the print edition.

But such a gesture at the gap in reality that the newspaper itself helped condition offers the ruling class that effectively ended the COVID campaign permission to continue to ignore the duly noted failure.

The Times interviewed epidemiologists at the highest professional levels about the gap:

"Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said the newfound complacency can as much be attributed to confusion as to fatigue. The virus remains remarkably unpredictable: Covid variants are still evolving much faster than influenza variants, and officials who want to “pigeonhole” Covid into having a well-defined seasonality will be unnerved to discover that the 10 surges in the United States so far have been evenly distributed throughout all four seasons, he said. Those factors, combined with waning immunity, point to a virus that still evades our collective understanding — in the context of a collective psychology that is ready to move on. Even at a meeting of 200 infectious disease experts in Washington earlier this month — a number of whom were over 65 and had not been vaccinated in four to six months — hardly anybody donned a mask."

And how did officials and the public arrive at such a confusion? After all, other scientists and practitioners standing outside the establishment’s umbrella of respectability debunked the notion that all was well and repeatedly alerted the world to the broader system’s complicit silence.

I wrote in August 2022 that Osterholm himself helped inculcate the confusion:

"Mike Osterholm, who the Times failed to identify as part of the administration’s COVID Advisory Board, converged on this courageous line: “I think [the CDC] are attempting to meet up with the reality that everyone in the public is pretty much done with this pandemic.” A reality the administration worked hard to help manufacture by deft incompetence."

The Times also interviewed epidemiologist Bill Hanage to the effect scientists were themselves confused and that allowed him the freedom of an argument by ex falso quodlibet, a principle from which any proposition can be derived from a contradiction:

"Epidemiologists have long predicted that Covid would eventually become an endemic disease, rather than a pandemic. “If you ask six epidemiologists what ‘endemic’ means, exactly, you’ll probably get about 12 answers,” said Bill Hanage, associate director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. “But it certainly has a sort of social definition – a virus that’s around us all the time – and if you want to take that one, then we’re definitely there.”"

Ugly sophistry. In actuality, the time series of COVID outbreaks stateside in no way represent the kind of evolutionarily predictable seasonal variants we find in endemic influenza.

And the “socially defined” endemicity to which Hanage alludes was in part of his own making. In one CNN report, we find Hanage alongside Osterholm providing Biden’s CDC cover for dropping recommendations for quarantining at home and testing people without symptoms, brandishing another fallacy:

"Bill Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, agrees that the new guidance shows that the CDC is trying to meet people where they are. “I think that this is a point where you actually have to sort of get real and start giving people tools they can use to do something or not. Because otherwise, people will just not take you seriously,” Hanage said."

An appeal to popularity is no epidemiological principle on which to base a response to a pandemic that’s killed anywhere from 1.2 to 1.5 million Americans.

Public Health Rebellion From Below In other words, Osterholm and Hanage and others aren’t the neutral observers they pretend to be, along with the Times.

Rather, they track disease only up to the point the political class can bear, helping bury the problem when it’s inconvenient. Liberals who are upset that science is met with public distrust might ask whether anyone concerned about outbreaks would listen to these brilliant scientists without suspicions they’re catering to other (well-funded) objectives.

How many times will these “men who stare at vaccines” ask us to run into our epidemiological walls — to reference the George Clooney movie about the Pentagon’s First Earth Battalion — as if our reductionist atoms can just pass through those of SARS-CoV-2, avian influenza, mpox, and the queue of other pathogens emerging out of an alienated nature and expropriated circuits of global production?

Vaccines are always only a part of any public health campaign, and their successful deployment depends on the very nonpharmaceutical interventions and structural changes the feds have insisted we abandon.

Figures of authority across local jurisdictions have similarly blanched. Political leaders — turning now to punishing people who continue to mask — are feeding their own health into the COVID maw held agape by establishment epidemiologists.

The best way to contact the dead in the data, these scientist “seancists” signal, is to help usher a public of biased optimists they’ve cultivated to their graves. The CDC continue to invite Americans “just this way, please,” once again adjusting down its color code scheme for its maps to imply we’re in less danger than we are.

Bipartisan rounds of strategic obfuscation follow each new COVID wave as if set as an algorithm. At this end of the U.S. cycle of accumulation, when capital cashes out and disinvests from the public commons, it’s only such manipulation that’s now endemic.

As the Pandemic ThinkTank described early in the pandemic, abandoned by the feds, we need to pursue a revolt from below. Community groups and local public health departments need to work together to reconstruct our public commons to handle the diseases and other disasters already here or on their way.

This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license.

[kris-tong]

Exploring the future of organic fertilizer makers: the key to sustainable agriculture

Organic fertilizers are becoming increasingly important in modern agriculture. As an environmentally friendly and sustainable solution, organic fertilizers not only improve soil fertility, but also reduce the use of chemical fertilizers, which is important for environmental protection. Today, we will take an in-depth look at the innovative technology of the Organic Fertilizer Maker to see how it contributes to sustainable agriculture and, in particular, the contribution of the LANE Group in this field.

What is an organic fertilizer maker? An organic fertilizer maker is a machine designed to convert various organic wastes into organic fertilizers. These wastes include livestock and poultry manure, straw, garden waste, etc. Through a series of treatment processes, these wastes are converted into nutrient-rich organic fertilizers for crops.

Working Principle of Organic Fertilizer Making Machine The working principle of organic fertilizer manufacturing machine mainly includes the following steps:

Raw material collection: various organic wastes are collected. Crushing treatment: Crush the large pieces of waste into small particles through the crusher for subsequent processing. Fermentation treatment: the crushed waste is piled up and fermented to decompose it into organic fertilizer through the action of microorganisms. Drying and granulation: The fermented organic fertilizer is dried and then made into granules by a granulator for easy storage and use. LANE Group's organic fertilizer production line

LANE Group is a leader in the field of organic fertilizer manufacturing machines, and its production lines have significant advantages in terms of technology and efficiency. Below are some of the key features of LANE Group's lines:

High-performance equipment: LANE Group's organic fertilizer manufacturing machines are equipped with the latest technology to ensure high production capacity and stable operational performance. Fully automated operation: The production line is equipped with a fully automated control system, which automates the entire production process from raw material handling to the final product, greatly reducing labor costs. Environmentally friendly design: LANE Group focuses on environmental protection, and each piece of equipment has been strictly designed for environmental protection to ensure that the impact on the environment is minimized during the production process. Customized service: According to the specific needs of customers, LANE Group can provide customized production line design and solutions to meet the needs of different scales and types of organic fertilizer production.

Advantages of Organic Fertilizer Manufacturing Machine Environmental protection: Using organic waste to manufacture fertilizer reduces the accumulation of waste and pollution to the environment. Improve soil fertility: organic fertilizers are rich in organic matter and trace elements, which can improve soil structure and enhance the soil's ability to retain water and fertilizer. Reduce costs: Compared with chemical fertilizers, organic fertilizers are widely available and inexpensive. Improve crop yield and quality: long-term use of organic fertilizers can improve crop yield and quality, and enhance its resistance to pests and diseases. Development prospect of organic fertilizer manufacturing machine With the global emphasis on sustainable agriculture, the market demand for organic fertilizer manufacturing machines is increasing. More and more farmers and agribusinesses are beginning to realize the advantages of organic fertilizers and are gradually adopting organic fertilizer manufacturing machines for their production.LANE Group has become a key player in the market by virtue of its advanced technology and quality services. In addition, government policy support and subsidy measures also provide a strong guarantee for the development of organic fertilizer manufacturing machines.

Organic fertilizer manufacturing machine, as an innovative agricultural technology, is gradually changing the production method of traditional agriculture.LANE Group has made remarkable achievements in this field with its high performance, full automation, environmentally friendly design, and customized services. It not only provides farmers with an environmentally friendly and efficient fertilizer solution, but also makes an important contribution to the development of sustainable agriculture. In the future, with the continuous progress and promotion of technology, the organic fertilizer manufacturing machine will surely play an even more important role in the agricultural field.

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