by A new unit set up to tackle H5N1 is testing imported samples of the virus at the high-security laboratories at Porton Down, in a race to understand whether it poses a significant risk to British livestock.
A virus extracted from sick cattle in the US has been sent to three secure laboratories in the UK in Porton Down, London and Weybridge, said Professor Ashley Banyard of the Agency for Plant and Animal Health (APHA). The Telegraph.
The task force is trying to determine whether the H5N1 outbreak in America, which has so far been linked to outbreaks in 49 dairy herds across nine states, is a one-off event, or whether the virus has adapted to replicate in cattle – meaning that it may affect UK livestock.
An outbreak in the UK could have a significant impact on the dairy industry as it already has in the US. It would also increase the risk of the virus ‘jumping’ to people, through contact with agricultural workers or through food products such as meat and dairy. In the US at least one farm worker has been infected and several species of mammals including farm cats, feral possums and foxes.
“The result of events in America is to take preparatory measures and to have a sharper eye,” said Professor Banyard.
“Samples have been shared with our high-security labs, and we’re looking to see if there really is something different about this virus strain.”
APHA is also working to develop new diagnostic tests that can detect H5N1 in milk, where the highest viral load in sick US cows has been found. Current tests in the UK are designed to identify the virus in respiratory samples such as nasal and throat swabs.
“We are doing this so that if something were to happen – and I don’t think it will – we could diagnose [H5N1] quickly,” said Professor Banyard.
Despite these measures, the government is still not testing British cattle for highly pathogenic bird flu, which has killed millions of birds and animals since it began spreading in 2020, a decision scientists have criticized as “short-sighted”.
The Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has insisted that there is “no reason to suspect that the virus is circulating in British cattle,” but scientists say they are unlikely to find something they haven’t testing him.
Professor Banyard admitted that much of the work done by the government unit is “reactionary”.
“This reminds me a lot of how we handled Covid-19 from the beginning,” said Dr Krutika Kuppalli, spokeswoman for the Infectious Diseases Society of America and former WHO medical officer.
“When Covid was in China, it was hard for other governments to understand that it could reach their countries – but it did.
“If you wait until there are reports of sick cows you will be behind the ball,” said Dr Kuppalli.
DEFRA’s involvement in particular has raised concerns among some experts as its main role is to promote British farm produce.
The agency lobbied to stop the press calling the 2008 H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic “pigs not to blame” and presided over the salmonella and BSE scandals of the 1990s, the latter of which killed 176 a person
“The financial implications for the agricultural industry are important and should be taken into account, but surveillance and early detection not only help contain an outbreak but prevent less economic risk in the long term,” said Dr. Kuppalli.
Professor Banyard said part of the reason the UK is not yet testing for H5N1 in cows is that there have been no clinical signs of illness in the animals reported to the authorities.
Cows sickened with H5N1 in the US have been found to have about 10-20 percent less milk than normal, which would indicate they have the virus.
Since “no mysterious milk loss” has been reported to DEFRA or APHA, the agencies do not consider it necessary to start testing, so they are “very confident that we do not have the virus. [UK] cattle,” said Professor Banyard.
Scientists have said that this argument is not false, however.
“This virus has always surprised us – we’re still learning and we don’t know if it’s spreading in asymptomatic cows, so the prudent approach would be to be proactive and test to confirm that there are no cases,” said Dr Kuppalli.
“We know the virus can spread from infected birds to cattle – it’s a question of when not and when they should be testing cattle,” said Professor Devi Sridhar, a global public health expert at the University of Edinburgh and former scientific adviser to the Scotsman. Government on Covid-19.
While it is still unclear how the virus first jumped to cattle, US health authorities believe the most likely route of infection is via H5N1-positive wild birds – thousands of which have been detected in the UK over the past three years .
Professor Banyard admitted it was “possible” that infected birds could act as a route of transmission to cows in Britain.
“If you had a dead duck in a water tank that leached the virus there, and a cow drank it directly, there is a chance – but we have no evidence of any cattle showing clinical signs of disease,” he said.
“How can they be sure? The UK government cannot say for sure that the cows do not have H5N1, as they could be asymptomatic,” said Dr Kuppalli.
So far this year, there have been two confirmed cases of H5N1 in humans.
In Vietnam, a man died in March after direct contact with an infected bird, and in Texas a farm worker contracted the virus from sick cattle – although his symptoms were mild.
The US Centers for Disease Control is monitoring another 300 people exposed to the virus through cattle for signs of infection.
The WHO considers the risk to humans to be low but has urged countries to share information quickly to enable real-time monitoring of the situation to ensure preparedness as the virus continues to spread.
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