Bird flu was probably circulating in dairy cows for at least four months before it was confirmed to be the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus, according to a new analysis of genomic data by scientists at the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal Disease Center.The research also found infected cattle that had no apparent connections, suggesting that “there are affected herds that have not yet been identified,” the study said.It adds to a growing pile of evidence suggesting that the H5N1 virus had a head start in the US dairy industry for months before it came to the attention of scientists and government regulators.The USDA’s study was published as a preprint, ahead of peer review, on the BioRXIV server on Wednesday.It follows a similar analysis by an independent international group of almost two dozen evolutionary and molecular biologists who quickly analyzed raw genome sequences uploaded by the government to a server maintained by the National Library of Medicine. Despite the lack of critical background information on those samples, that group came to nearly the same conclusion as the USDA: that the virus had crossed over from wild birds to cows between mid-November and mid-January, which means it was circulating for months before anyone knew.The USDA officially confirmed the presence of the H5N1 virus on March 25 in dairy cows in Texas. Since then, at least three dozen infected herds have been reported across nine states. At l …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnBird flu was probably circulating in dairy cows for at least four months before it was confirmed to be the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus, according to a new analysis of genomic data by scientists at the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal Disease Center.The research also found infected cattle that had no apparent connections, suggesting that “there are affected herds that have not yet been identified,” the study said.It adds to a growing pile of evidence suggesting that the H5N1 virus had a head start in the US dairy industry for months before it came to the attention of scientists and government regulators.The USDA’s study was published as a preprint, ahead of peer review, on the BioRXIV server on Wednesday.It follows a similar analysis by an independent international group of almost two dozen evolutionary and molecular biologists who quickly analyzed raw genome sequences uploaded by the government to a server maintained by the National Library of Medicine. Despite the lack of critical background information on those samples, that group came to nearly the same conclusion as the USDA: that the virus had crossed over from wild birds to cows between mid-November and mid-January, which means it was circulating for months before anyone knew.The USDA officially confirmed the presence of the H5N1 virus on March 25 in dairy cows in Texas. Since then, at least three dozen infected herds have been reported across nine states. At l …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
