Swedish Consulate – A new study strengthens concerns that the number of livestock workers infected with bird flu may be higher than previously reported. As bird flu cases remain underreported, health officials may be slow to detect if the virus becomes more transmissible. A significant increase in infections outside of farming communities could activate the government’s flu monitoring system. It might be too late to control the outbreak by then.
“I am highly confident that there are more infections than we currently know about,” said Gregory Gray, an infectious disease expert from the University of Texas Medical Branch, who led the study. The study was posted online on Wednesday and is under review for publication in a prominent infectious disease journal. “This is largely because our surveillance has been inadequate.”
Detection of Bird Flu Antibodies in Farmworkers from Texas Dairy Farms
Gray’s team found evidence of past bird flu infections in workers from two dairy farms that experienced outbreaks in Texas earlier this year. They analyzed blood samples from 14 farmworkers who had not been tested for the virus and identified antibodies in two of them. This represents nearly a 15% positive rate from just two dairy farms among over 170 farms with bird flu outbreaks in 13 states this year.
“We need to determine how to stop this,” Gray said. “It’s not going away on its own.”
One worker with antibodies had been taking medication for a persistent cough when he agreed to let researchers test his blood in April. Another worker had recently recovered from a respiratory illness but was unsure of its cause. She mentioned that other untested farmworkers around her had also been ill.
Richard Webby, director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Influenza at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, stated that these findings confirmed his suspicions that the 13 human cases of bird flu reported by the CDC this year are likely an undercount.
“What we see may not be the tip of the iceberg, but it certainly isn’t the full picture,” Webby said.
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Limited Testing of Farmworkers
Though small, the study highlights the urgent need to address undiagnosed illnesses among farmworkers and veterinarians. The CDC has cautioned that if individuals contract both seasonal flu and bird flu simultaneously. The two viruses could exchange genes, potentially enabling bird flu to spread among people as easily as seasonal strains.
There is no evidence suggesting this is currently happening. Asymptomatic cases of bird flu appear to be rare. According to a Michigan antibody study described by the CDC on July 19. Researchers tested blood samples from 35 workers at dairy farms with outbreaks in Michigan. And none showed signs of missed infections. Unlike the Texas study, these workers had not fallen ill.
“It’s a small study, but it’s a start,” said Natasha Bagdasarian, Michigan’s chief medical executive. She noted that the state is increasing efforts to test farmworkers. Though these efforts are complicated by systemic issues such as precarious employment, which makes workers reluctant to report illness for fear of losing their jobs.
Without more support for farmworkers and better collaboration between the government and the livestock industry. Gray warned that the U.S. may remain unaware of the full extent of this virus.
“There’s a lot of genomic and laboratory research, but the real activity is on the farms,” Gray said, “and we’re not monitoring it adequately.”
