NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / World

Bird flu infects a third US farm worker, heightening concerns over dairy cattle outbreak

By Apoorva Mandavilli
New York Times·
30 May, 2024 09:38 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Holstein dairy cows at a farm near Muleshoe, Texas. A bird flu outbreak among US dairy cattle was first identified in March. Photo / Allison Terry, The New York Times

Holstein dairy cows at a farm near Muleshoe, Texas. A bird flu outbreak among US dairy cattle was first identified in March. Photo / Allison Terry, The New York Times

A third farm worker in the United States has been found to be infected with bird flu, heightening concerns about an outbreak among dairy cattle first identified in March.

The worker is the first in this outbreak to have respiratory symptoms, including a cough, sore throat and watery eyes, which generally increase the likelihood of transmission to other people, US health officials said on Thursday (Friday NZT).

The other two people had only severe eye infections, possibly because of exposure to contaminated milk.

All three individuals had direct exposure to dairy cows, and so far none has spread the virus to other people, Dr Nirav Shah, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news briefing.

That suggests that the virus, called H5N1, has not acquired the ability to spread among people and that the threat to the general public remains low, Shah said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“This newest case does not change the CDC’s H5N1 influenza risk assessment level for the general public,” he added. “We should remain alert, not be alarmed.”

But the case does highlight the ongoing risk to farm workers, Shah said: “Our top priority now across this response is protecting the health of farm workers.”

‘No excuse’

This case is the second in Michigan, but the individual worked on a different farm than the worker diagnosed last week. All three infected people so far have been treated with the antiviral medication oseltamivir, sometimes marketed as Tamiflu, officials said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

There were few other details available, disappointing some experts.

“There is no excuse for the lack of testing, transparency and trust,” said Rick Bright, CEO of Bright Global Health, a consulting company that focuses on improving responses to public health emergencies.

Discover more

World

Bird flu at second farm as Melbourne farmers on high alert

24 May 02:32 AM
World

Australia records first human case of bird flu, in a child

22 May 09:35 PM
World

The disease detectives trying to keep the world safe from bird flu

21 May 11:03 PM
New Zealand

Bird flu Q&A: A virologist answers your big questions

28 May 05:00 PM

He noted that federal officials are “months behind sharing virus sequence data”.

“This is how pandemics start,” he said.

The identification of a third case is not surprising because farm workers interact closely with dairy cows, experts said. New flu viruses often provoke respiratory symptoms without further spread to other people, Shah said.

This latest patient may have had different symptoms because of the exposure dose, a different exposure route, predisposing genetic or medical factors or a combination of those attributes, said Angela Rasmussen, a research scientist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.

Call for vaccines

Still, gaining more information about how the person was infected, and about whether the virus has evolved to infect people more readily, is crucial, she said.

Genetic analysis of the virus infecting the worker may be difficult because the amount obtained from the patient was very low.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“But every time the virus is able to replicate in a person, there is potential for the virus to adapt to humans and gain molecular features for replication in the respiratory tract and to spread person to person,” said Seema Lakdawala, a virus expert at Emory University in Atlanta.

Officials are monitoring about 350 people who may have been exposed, about 220 of them in Michigan alone. So far relatively few farm workers, about 40, have consented to testing.

The Agriculture Department announced on Thursday that it was setting aside US$824 million (NZ$1.34 billion) in new funding to quickly detect cases in poultry and livestock. The department is also starting a voluntary programme for producers to test bulk milk, enabling them to transport virus-free herds across state lines without having to test individual cows.

Federal researchers have completed their analysis of 109 beef samples and found the virus in just one, reported last week, officials said at the briefing.

Federal officials could be doing more to protect farm workers and the public, experts said.

“Vaccines from the national stockpile should be released for veterinarians and dairy farm workers willing to take it,” Lakdawala said. “We have an opportunity to reduce human infections, and we need to do it now.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Written by: Apoorva Mandavilli

Photography: Allison Terry

©2024 THE NEW YORK TIMES

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from World

World

Jury finds Erin Patterson guilty of murder

World

‘Inexplicable’: Woman attacked by lion in Australia knew animal for 20+ years

07 Jul 04:23 AM
World

Erin Patterson found guilty in mushroom poisoning murder trial

07 Jul 04:21 AM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from World

Jury finds Erin Patterson guilty of murder

Jury finds Erin Patterson guilty of murder

The Australian woman accused of murdering three people with poisonous mushrooms has been found guilty on all charges.

‘Inexplicable’: Woman attacked by lion in Australia knew animal for 20+ years

‘Inexplicable’: Woman attacked by lion in Australia knew animal for 20+ years

07 Jul 04:23 AM
Erin Patterson found guilty in mushroom poisoning murder trial

Erin Patterson found guilty in mushroom poisoning murder trial

07 Jul 04:21 AM
'Ridiculous': Trump scoffs at Elon Musk's new political party

'Ridiculous': Trump scoffs at Elon Musk's new political party

07 Jul 04:13 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP