The United States Department of Agriculture confirmed cases of avian flu in alpacas. The animals are on a farm where there were poultry that tested positive for the virus.
Bird flu continues to cause concern in the United States. After two cases were confirmed in humans – one in Texas and another in Michigan– confirmed the detection of the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus in several alpacas from a farm Idaho.
He Department of Agriculture USA was where the cases were made official, while the National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL, in English) issued a statement indicating that the animals tested positive on a farm where there were poultry that had been slaughtered after having tested positive for the virus.
For the first time, avian flu is detected in alpacas on a US farm
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The alpacas tested positive for bird flu last May 16. The important thing is that it is the first time that this pathogen has been found in mammals. However, they explain that “it is not unexpected” due to the infection that existed in the poultry and the “mixing of multiple species of livestock on the farm.”
The NVSL confirmed that the viral genome sequence that was found in the alpacas is the same one that currently circulates in dairy cattle and the one that has infected farm workers.
Avian flu: what risk do humans run?
Due to the confirmed cases and the circulation of the virus in different mammals, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned about “the possibility of a increased risk to human health“of avian flu infections.
Although, they explained that the H5N1 virus that is currently circulating does not have the capacity to spread easily between people, this “You can change“and start infecting humans more easily.
In any case, the laboratory stated that there is still no evidence of transmission from person to person, so The risk of bird flu in humans is “currently low.”
Source: Ambito
