Bird Flu Fears Worsen: US Provides $200M To Combat Threat And Increase Testing, Recommends PPE, Monitoring More Sick Americans, Warns Of Outbreak In Swine

The WinePress has been covering the growing pandemonium surrounding an international bird flu outbreak since 2021. You can read the full coverage here. These last few months have seen the U.S. government increase testing measures in states where Highly-Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) has been detected, requiring PCR tests to test for a strain of H5N1.

Mainstream media has also been on a blitz campaign to warn about bird flu and the strong potential for it to become the ‘next pandemic.’

In April, a veterinary company PetVet Dx announced they would make available avian influenza PCR test to poultry and people in the U.S. and Canada, the first company to do so. David Kutrucz, chief executive officer of PetVet Dx said in a statement: “Farmers can test their entire houses, so the next day, birds can go through their lifecycle and be transported to commercial packing plants.”

We can also test other livestock, including those on cattle and swine farms, as this outbreak extends to other species. Our FarmVet Dx telehealth services support rapid medical services for both humans and livestock. FarmVet Dx’s veterinary experts can save farms, lives and your annual bottom line. We promise you to ‘never say never’ in treating ailments that may be causing pets’ pain.

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Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) openly endorsed making PPE equipment available to workers who are in near proximity to livestock, like dairy and poultry farmers, slaughterhouses, and others who may be at higher risk of infection.

They said in their notice: “CDC asked that jurisdictions make PPE available to workers on dairy farms, poultry farms, and in slaughterhouses. Specifically, the CDC asked state health departments to work with their state agriculture department counterparts and partners in communities, such as farmworker organizations, that can help coordinate and facilitate PPE distributions.”

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also revealed they are closely monitoring the spread and impact of HPAI. Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf raised concerns during a Senate Appropriations hearing.

This virus, like all viruses, is mutating … So we’ve got to have testing, got to have antivirals, and we need to have a vaccine ready to go … if the virus does mutate in a way that jumps into humans on a larger level.

The real worry is that [the virus] will jump to the human lungs, where when that has happened in other parts of the world for brief outbreaks, the mortality rates have been 25%.

So, we have to be ready. And we have to do everything we can to limit the spread of the virus, which has gone around the world multiple times now in many different species.

We’re in an enviable position compared to any time in the history of the world. Viruses are relatively simple, so coming up with a matching vaccine is entirely possible in a short period of time.

Calif said, warning that this world be ten times worse than Covid-19

He also discussed the potential of ‘a mutation [that] could occur that would make the receptors in the lining of human lungs susceptible to the virus is “a mathematical probabilistic thing,” he added, but transmission through the airways “would be really bad,” ‘ Medpage Today reported…