USDA reports spread of bird flu to other animals; Canada buys additional vaccine

As confirmations of the spread of bird flu in dairy herds and poultry flocks in the United States continue to mount, the Public Health Agency of Canada has secured 500,000 additional doses of a human vaccine to protect people most at risk of contracting the virus.

People most at risk include workers at dairies and commercial poultry farms. The public health announcement stated: “This vaccine will be used as part of Canada’s contingency planning to protect people who may be at increased risk of being exposed to the virus through animals infected with avian influenza.”

The United States and the European Union have stockpiled avian flu vaccine for people, and the United Kingdom recently ordered 5 million doses of H5 vaccine from CSL Seqirus. Finland is already vaccinating people at high risk, including workers at fur farms.

The Canadian announcement comes as the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports the first finding of the virus in rats at a poultry facility. The finding follows confirmation of the virus in mice at the affected farm.

Also, the USDA has found the virus in other mammals, including a harbor seal in Massachusetts, a fox in North Dakota, a bobcat in Washington state, and a domestic cat in Oregon that likely relates to a recent report of two pets from Multnomah County that were sickened after eating raw pet food contaminated with the virus.

The virus is mutating, as evidenced by the finding of a new strain of it in a Nevada dairy herd. Since March 2024 there have been more than 900 dairy herds infected in the United States. More than 21 million poultry have been destroyed because of the virus being found at commercial operations. 

There have been about 30 cases of human infections in the United States, with one resulting in a death in Alabama.

Following terminations over the weekend of USDA employees who are working on the avian flu response, the agency is working quickly to restore the positions, NBC News reported, citing a statement from a USDA spokesperson.

The spokesperson added that USDA Food Safety and Inspection Services frontline positions are considered public safety positions and that the agency is continuing to hire the workforce needed to protect the nation’s food supply according to its statutory mission. The official added that several positions were already exempted from cuts and that the USDA continues to prioritize the response to highly pathogenic avian flu.

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