States should open their stockpiles of personal protective equipment (PPE) for distribution to farmworkers, with top priority for dairy farms where cows are infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus, said a Centers for Disease Control official. Meanwhile, the Agriculture Department confirmed six additional cases of bird flu in cattle on Thursday, ending a 12-day pause in new cases.
It is crucial to protect farmworkers from exposure to the bird flu virus, wrote three disease experts in an essay in the Washington Post. “Our failure to protect them threatens their health and gives the virus an opportunity to evolve into a greater threat to people, including those who live far from dairy farms,” said Jennifer Nuzzo of Brown University, Lauren Sauer of the University of Nebraska, and Nahid Bhadelia of Boston University.
Nirav Shah, principal deputy director of the CDC, asked state public health officials to make PPE available to dairy farm, poultry farm, and slaughterhouse employees, working with state agriculture departments and farmworker groups to coordinate distribution of the materials. Priority should go to farms with infected dairy herds, Shah said in a call earlier this week.
“States were asked to use existing PPE stockpiles for this effort,” said a CDC summary. “Shah highlighted the importance of states acting now to protect people with work exposures, who may be at higher risk of infection.”
To date, the H5N1 bird flu virus has been found in 42 dairy herds in nine states, from Idaho to North Carolina. The new cases included four herds in Michigan, one in Colorado, and one in Idaho. Texas has the highest number of infected herds, 12. Michigan is second with 10 herds. Michigan is also home to five of the 10 most recent outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in domestic bird flocks, according to a USDA database.
The USDA requires dairy farmers to test lactating cows for the virus before transporting them across state lines.
“Wider testing of cows is challenging but essential, as is expanded testing of workers in the dairy industry,” wrote Nuzzo, Sauer, and Bhadelia. “Preventing farmworker infections and uncontrolled spread in mammals is key to stopping the virus from spreading more easily among humans.”
The CDC recommends that livestock workers, veterinarians, animal health workers, and slaughterhouse workers wear “appropriate personal protective equipment,” such as fluid-resistant coveralls, face shields, boots, and gloves in buildings with sick or dead birds and animals.