More Egg Layers Break Over Weekend in PA
The H5N1 "Viral Cloud" is there and expanding
3 Layer breaks over the weekend in SE Pennsylvania significantly accelerated their HPAI issues over the weekend, with over 5.5 million birds now affected, plus the count pending on another table egg layer in Dauphin County. The affected area remains in SE PA, but the outbreak control and surveillance areas have significantly increased with the new outbreaks:
Once again, here is a reference to an older column describing livestock concentration in this part of the Keystone State:
Bulletin: First 2026 HPAI Million Bird+ Layer Infection Reported in Lancaster County PA
It’s likely safe to say that H5 is not finished with poultry in PA, and the state might want to keep an eye on bulk milk samples and swine herds in the affected area as well. Cats and people are a given, if officials choose to proactively test them! Wildlife? Of course!! And can we share sequences please, Pennsylvania?
John
I do not understand why the Michigan findings, that a dairy worker from one of the infected dairies also worked on one of the layer farms that was infected, was never followed up on. They could have tested the worker for antibodies since they obviously knew who they were, and they could have compared the viral sequences from that dairy to the one that infected the layer farm, but they did not even though it was known from the first Texas dairy worker to be infected that humans could shed live virus once infected. They made the research line of the virus cultured from the eye swabs of that Texas dairy worker. It was well understood where the virus was coming from by the time the Utah layer flock was infected with the dairy virus, and they found multiple infected dairies in the same county. Millions of layer chickens would not have had to be depopulated if they had started testing and restricting dairy workers from working on poultry farms. Look at how many commercial layer flocks California lost, and they knew the virus was coming from the dairies. Changing clothing and even showering into a clean facility will not stop a worker shedding live virus from infecting the animals at another farm.
If the Dairy infection taught us anything it should be that farm workers are a major vector for spread of the virus. The first studies in Michigan and Texas noted that dairy workers from infected farms also worked on Poultry farms. The Missouri antibody study pretty much concluded that cattle were routinely infected by human influenza A, and farm workers would have been the vector of infection. They needed to start contact tracing and testing of dairy workers early in the dairy epidemic, but it was never done. California once claimed that they were going to start dairy worker testing, but that never happened. They were already contact tracing and finding a boat load of infected dairies. Hot spots like PA are likely caused by farm workers spreading the virus to other farms.
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influenza-bird-flu/study-finds-influenza-antibodies-not-uncommon-us-cattle
Farm workers are likely a major vector for infecting farm animals.