Mutations are rare but have been reported in some cases in other countries and most often in extreme infections

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.

  • @Podunk
    21•1 day 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
      4•17 hours 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
        2•11 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
          1•7 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.