Summary

The CDC identified rare mutations in the bird flu virus from the first severe U.S. human case, found in a Louisiana resident over 65 with severe respiratory illness.

The mutations, located in the hemagglutinin (HA) gene responsible for cell attachment, differ from those in local backyard flock samples and align with severe cases seen abroad.

The patient was infected with the D1.1 genotype, recently found in U.S. wild birds and poultry, not the B3.13 genotype seen in humans and livestock elsewhere.

The CDC states no person-to-person transmission occurred, and public risk remains low.

  • leadore@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    This thing is on the way, dammit. I’ve been seeing a lot of reports on its spread, where they say the udders of cows have receptors for both human and bird flus, and if both are present they can exchange genes and mutate a lot. Only a matter of time for human to human. And it’ll likely be a lot more deadly than COVID. 😢

    • Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Yeah, something like this is pretty much inevitable. We have large, dense populations of humans living in close proximity with animals. Stuff of going to jump the species gap, and yeah it’ll probably be much worse than COVID, which was not that severe in terms of death rates.

    • Podunk@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      We should have vaccinated our poultry flocks instead of letting it proliferate for decades. But we had to protect our export market.

      Its in the wild populations so heavily now there is not stopping it with culls of any animal species.

      • Logi@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        It has been in wild birds world wide for years now. The birds having bird flu is not an American problem. The cows somehow all having bird flu is all yours though. Thankfully cows don’t fly and don’t migrate long distances.

        • Podunk@lemmy.world
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          21 hours ago

          Its all a problem. But you missed the important part.

          We didnt vaccinate our domestic flocks because it would hurt our export market. We allowed high population sites to become reservoirs for the bird flu, instead. when the virus was detected, we torched the whole flock. But it always spread because we were not willing to remove a vital link in its spread through vaccine protocols. Now it is too big of a problem, and we get multiple spillover events.

          There is a vaccine for birds, and we didnt use it. There is no vaccine for cattle.

          • Logi@lemmy.world
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            17 hours ago

            Sure, all of that should have been done. I’m just commenting on

            It’s in the wild populations so heavily now

            It always was and it’s doing great damage to wild birds throughout the world. Regardless of US paultry farms. So you could have had healthier domestic birds, but there is nothing you could have done to avoid the virus being present in the environment.

    • Zahille7@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      At least this one’s kicking off right as he’s about to start, instead of 2.5 years into his presidency.

      Now we can only hope if it gets out of hand like last time, he’ll be just as stupid and catch it again. And not go to the ER.

  • jaybone@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Soon RFK will be in charge of the CDC, then you won’t hear about any of these so-called reports.

  • some_designer_dude@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Nothing to see here. Back to work, everyone! Just eat some horse tranqs and wash it down with some bleach and you’ll be strong as an ox.

    • Americans, probably