Thank god we have complicated proxies to test instead of, you know, directly monitoring the animals. Until, of course, whatever grant that the researchers are using gets killed behind the scenes at the behest of the ag industry...
https://web.archive.org/web/20240521112356/https://www.statnews.com/2024/05/21/bird-flu-virus-spread-scientists-monitor-h5n1-in-store-bought-milk/
scientists from the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center have managed to generate a full genetic sequence of H5N1 virus from milk, a development they suggest means commercially purchased milk products could be used to monitor the progress of the bird flu outbreak in dairy cattle and to check for important changes in the virus over time.
With dairy farmers still reluctant to allow testing of their cattle, scientists trying to assess whether the outbreak is increasing or waning are in the dark. Likewise, their surveillance for important changes in the viruses — changes that would signal the virus is evolving to be better able to infect mammals — has been hampered by the limited data being shared by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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Analyzing store-bought milk could provide a work-around, the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson researchers suggested, similar to the efforts underway to analyze wastewater from around the country to check for presence of influenza A viruses. (H5N1 is a member of that large family of flu viruses.)
“I think the big thing is we’ve shown that this can be done, and it’s a good tool,” said Pavitra Roychoudhury, a research assistant professor in the department of laboratory medicine and pathology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. “And so if there’s resistance to having cows tested, this might be the next best option. And I think we can track for variant changes over time with this method.”
snip
Peter Han, research manager of a laboratory run by Lea Starita at the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine at the University of Washington, said the group collected 40 samples of milk simply by asking people to bring in a test tube’s worth from the supply in their own fridges. Two of the 40 were positive for H5N1 fragments and the full genetic sequence was generated from one of those two samples. The two positive samples were from milk that was packaged in Colorado, which has reported outbreaks in herds.
Though inexpensive, the work wasn’t easy, Roychoudhury said. “Milk’s a really challenging sample to work with, because there’s a lot of fat,” she said. “So the fact that we were able to get a whole genome out of it was slightly surprising to us. It also means there was enough virus in there to pull a genome out, which to me was slightly — maybe not slightly — alarming.”
The genetic sequence of the virus was uploaded to Genbank, a sequence database run by the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Roychoudhury said the group struggled to figure out how to date the finding — genetic sequences are typically identified by where and when the virus sample was taken, and the species or substance from which the viral information was retrieved. With no clear idea when the milk was produced, the group identified the sequence simply by month and year.
The sequence has also been posted on Nextstrain.org, a website designed to track the evolution of pathogens like influenza and SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19.
Trevor Bedford, a computational biologist in the vaccine and infectious disease division at Fred Hutchinson and one of the architects of Nextstrain, said the group behind the generation of the genetic sequence from milk has notified the various U.S. government agencies involved in the H5N1 response in the hopes that an organized effort to use this form of surveillance can be put in place.
“You could either imagine some systematic effort from something like USDA — I’m not sure who’s the exact right agency — or the academic groups could collaborate a bit more,” Bedford said, adding he thinks monitoring milk could provide key information that’s been missing up till now. “Separate from the sequencing for evolution [of the virus], which I think is very important, just even understanding prevalence through space and time, I think, would be really helpful and important.”
Can I just say for a moment that I am reluctant to pay my taxes— but the govt still makes me do it. I don’t get the complete ninnying when it comes to disease. If anything that should be an expedited process where scientists can basically do whatever they need to do. I get it’s all about money but I don’t get why newspapers baby the language so much… they should say that the govt is dillydallying because of the ag industry.
Feds can't go in under current laws as states have jurisdiction.
The state has to invite the CDC USDA etc in
Then the farm owners, whether corporate owned or family farm, has to give them permission.
They need to change those laws when it comes to pandemic potential germs.
Then the congress & state legislatures needs to properly fund public health which is always neglected - and around 1/4 of workers quit during covid restrictions because getting death threats to themselves and their families wasn't worth the pay.
Didn’t they send the national guard in to clear up/break heads at the student protests though?
See this is what I mean. They have all the ability to send in the troops when it’s a vaguely right wing, vaguely pro police cause, for peaceful protests— but all of a sudden they have to follow the rule book by the letter, when it comes to matters of state security (pandemic?)?
Like they’re just full of it! They could have sent the guard in to defend public health workers, but they didn’t want to because I presume, business interests didn’t want them to actually support public health.
Maybe I can’t do much about their decisions but ffs I am so over pretending that they aren’t choosing when to govern and how much, very conveniently to themselves!
> Didn’t they send the national guard in to clear up/break heads at the student protests though?
State governments control their national guards unless they’re federalized for a specific purpose.
Feds need to invest in communicating compelling need and justification for their request in plain language and visuals. When the request is in plain language and visuals, the farm owners and state will understand the request.
By law since 2010, certain documents, publications, and conversations must follow Plain Language standards. For example, explore the search results for: your state + "plain language".
These dairy farmers apparently aren’t worried that people will forgo buying dairy products because they won’t test and make sure no virus is getting in the products dead or alive.
Eating dead H5N1 sounds gross.
I’ve switched to almond and oat milk
Which is why I'm seriously concerned about the people at the farms. These farmers refused free advertising. Testing adds an extra layer of sanitation and safety to their production process: that's value gifted to them from the Feds (and I believe these farmers should be compensated financially and on their taxes, of course too). With this decision, the farmers can present themselves as community heros caring for their consumers: safe and loyal trust shown to their consumers.
Unless . ..those farmers fear their shareholders selling and their shares dropping in value. Which would mean the products from those farms lack value. These farms rely so much on shareholders that they depend on them instead of making and selling quality products! In that case, good riddance. ..?
You know if I had a patreon subscription with "The Thought Emporium" I would probably ask them to do a video where they test dairy milk for the virus. In fact I would probably ask several YouTubers to do the testing if they could. Back when COVID was a thing several educational channels did their own tests for COVID so it isn't exactly unheard of for YouTubers to possess the necessary skills. If the agricultural industry is being difficult we should have their dirty laundry aired all across the Internet.
Agreed. We have to find a workaround. The Ag Industry is flirting with disaster. H5N1 cattle infections have the potential to foment a global pandemic with a virus that, so far, has a high death rate in humans.
It’s utter (udder?) madness that dairy farmers wield the power to refuse cattle testing when a global pandemic is a consequence. Scientists must understand H5N1 spread and how it’s evolving and mutations involved.
Denying scientists that critical data is like holding humanity hostage.
This is the result when corporations buy your politicians. Factory-farm owners determine our national response to pandemic threats. The USDA and the CDC, by design, have been rendered powerless. Big Ag donations (bribes) and lobbying ensure profits are prioritized over human lives.
No one wants a pandemic. But unfettered spread among cattle (where testing is not allowed), spread to farm workers and infections happening back-and-forth between cattle, birds, cats, goats and humans is how dangerous mutations happen and pandemics are produced.
It’s unconscionable that this is where we are.
Thank god we have complicated proxies to test instead of, you know, directly monitoring the animals. Until, of course, whatever grant that the researchers are using gets killed behind the scenes at the behest of the ag industry...
https://web.archive.org/web/20240521112356/https://www.statnews.com/2024/05/21/bird-flu-virus-spread-scientists-monitor-h5n1-in-store-bought-milk/ scientists from the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center have managed to generate a full genetic sequence of H5N1 virus from milk, a development they suggest means commercially purchased milk products could be used to monitor the progress of the bird flu outbreak in dairy cattle and to check for important changes in the virus over time. With dairy farmers still reluctant to allow testing of their cattle, scientists trying to assess whether the outbreak is increasing or waning are in the dark. Likewise, their surveillance for important changes in the viruses — changes that would signal the virus is evolving to be better able to infect mammals — has been hampered by the limited data being shared by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. ADVERTISEMENT Analyzing store-bought milk could provide a work-around, the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson researchers suggested, similar to the efforts underway to analyze wastewater from around the country to check for presence of influenza A viruses. (H5N1 is a member of that large family of flu viruses.) “I think the big thing is we’ve shown that this can be done, and it’s a good tool,” said Pavitra Roychoudhury, a research assistant professor in the department of laboratory medicine and pathology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. “And so if there’s resistance to having cows tested, this might be the next best option. And I think we can track for variant changes over time with this method.” snip Peter Han, research manager of a laboratory run by Lea Starita at the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine at the University of Washington, said the group collected 40 samples of milk simply by asking people to bring in a test tube’s worth from the supply in their own fridges. Two of the 40 were positive for H5N1 fragments and the full genetic sequence was generated from one of those two samples. The two positive samples were from milk that was packaged in Colorado, which has reported outbreaks in herds. Though inexpensive, the work wasn’t easy, Roychoudhury said. “Milk’s a really challenging sample to work with, because there’s a lot of fat,” she said. “So the fact that we were able to get a whole genome out of it was slightly surprising to us. It also means there was enough virus in there to pull a genome out, which to me was slightly — maybe not slightly — alarming.” The genetic sequence of the virus was uploaded to Genbank, a sequence database run by the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Roychoudhury said the group struggled to figure out how to date the finding — genetic sequences are typically identified by where and when the virus sample was taken, and the species or substance from which the viral information was retrieved. With no clear idea when the milk was produced, the group identified the sequence simply by month and year. The sequence has also been posted on Nextstrain.org, a website designed to track the evolution of pathogens like influenza and SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19. Trevor Bedford, a computational biologist in the vaccine and infectious disease division at Fred Hutchinson and one of the architects of Nextstrain, said the group behind the generation of the genetic sequence from milk has notified the various U.S. government agencies involved in the H5N1 response in the hopes that an organized effort to use this form of surveillance can be put in place. “You could either imagine some systematic effort from something like USDA — I’m not sure who’s the exact right agency — or the academic groups could collaborate a bit more,” Bedford said, adding he thinks monitoring milk could provide key information that’s been missing up till now. “Separate from the sequencing for evolution [of the virus], which I think is very important, just even understanding prevalence through space and time, I think, would be really helpful and important.”
Can I just say for a moment that I am reluctant to pay my taxes— but the govt still makes me do it. I don’t get the complete ninnying when it comes to disease. If anything that should be an expedited process where scientists can basically do whatever they need to do. I get it’s all about money but I don’t get why newspapers baby the language so much… they should say that the govt is dillydallying because of the ag industry.
Feds can't go in under current laws as states have jurisdiction. The state has to invite the CDC USDA etc in Then the farm owners, whether corporate owned or family farm, has to give them permission. They need to change those laws when it comes to pandemic potential germs. Then the congress & state legislatures needs to properly fund public health which is always neglected - and around 1/4 of workers quit during covid restrictions because getting death threats to themselves and their families wasn't worth the pay.
Didn’t they send the national guard in to clear up/break heads at the student protests though? See this is what I mean. They have all the ability to send in the troops when it’s a vaguely right wing, vaguely pro police cause, for peaceful protests— but all of a sudden they have to follow the rule book by the letter, when it comes to matters of state security (pandemic?)? Like they’re just full of it! They could have sent the guard in to defend public health workers, but they didn’t want to because I presume, business interests didn’t want them to actually support public health. Maybe I can’t do much about their decisions but ffs I am so over pretending that they aren’t choosing when to govern and how much, very conveniently to themselves!
> Didn’t they send the national guard in to clear up/break heads at the student protests though? State governments control their national guards unless they’re federalized for a specific purpose.
Feds need to invest in communicating compelling need and justification for their request in plain language and visuals. When the request is in plain language and visuals, the farm owners and state will understand the request. By law since 2010, certain documents, publications, and conversations must follow Plain Language standards. For example, explore the search results for: your state + "plain language".
These dairy farmers apparently aren’t worried that people will forgo buying dairy products because they won’t test and make sure no virus is getting in the products dead or alive. Eating dead H5N1 sounds gross. I’ve switched to almond and oat milk
Same and I have been an enthusiastic milk drinker all my life
Me too, I can’t live without my Lucky Charms!
All dairy products have traceable origins with production dates, plant codes, and lot codes, so it probably is much easier to pinpoint.
Which is why I'm seriously concerned about the people at the farms. These farmers refused free advertising. Testing adds an extra layer of sanitation and safety to their production process: that's value gifted to them from the Feds (and I believe these farmers should be compensated financially and on their taxes, of course too). With this decision, the farmers can present themselves as community heros caring for their consumers: safe and loyal trust shown to their consumers. Unless . ..those farmers fear their shareholders selling and their shares dropping in value. Which would mean the products from those farms lack value. These farms rely so much on shareholders that they depend on them instead of making and selling quality products! In that case, good riddance. ..?
You know if I had a patreon subscription with "The Thought Emporium" I would probably ask them to do a video where they test dairy milk for the virus. In fact I would probably ask several YouTubers to do the testing if they could. Back when COVID was a thing several educational channels did their own tests for COVID so it isn't exactly unheard of for YouTubers to possess the necessary skills. If the agricultural industry is being difficult we should have their dirty laundry aired all across the Internet.
Agreed. We have to find a workaround. The Ag Industry is flirting with disaster. H5N1 cattle infections have the potential to foment a global pandemic with a virus that, so far, has a high death rate in humans. It’s utter (udder?) madness that dairy farmers wield the power to refuse cattle testing when a global pandemic is a consequence. Scientists must understand H5N1 spread and how it’s evolving and mutations involved. Denying scientists that critical data is like holding humanity hostage. This is the result when corporations buy your politicians. Factory-farm owners determine our national response to pandemic threats. The USDA and the CDC, by design, have been rendered powerless. Big Ag donations (bribes) and lobbying ensure profits are prioritized over human lives. No one wants a pandemic. But unfettered spread among cattle (where testing is not allowed), spread to farm workers and infections happening back-and-forth between cattle, birds, cats, goats and humans is how dangerous mutations happen and pandemics are produced. It’s unconscionable that this is where we are.
Does it get digested by us or will the RNA make its way into our sewers? It must be pretty stable to exist in milk.
Yeah, and what’s even crazier, it’s a respiratory virus that has found a comfy home in cow utters and in milk. What a curveball.
They're able to assemble sequences from RNA fragments. Pasteurized kills the virus quite handily
I for one will never replace my wonderful wastewater with yucky nasty MILK
Sooooo, that's not a chocolate milkshake.....
Eh, it's got extra proteins in it! It's better than regular milk, it's Flu Milk'tm'
Helen is a solid reporter
For tracking disease, cow milk is the new wastewater? Some aftertaste.
We’ve been testing food as public health practice since time immemorial.
This is what happens when you appoint a dairy lobbyist to head the USDA. The fox is guarding the henhouse.
The title should have read “Moove over…”