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Over 40 cattle herds across nine states have confirmed cases of the H5N1 virus, also called bird flu. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched a wastewater tracking dashboard Tuesday to monitor the disease. The virus usually spreads in birds but can also infect humans if they come in contact with an infected animal’s body fluid.(NewsNation) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched a wastewater tracking dashboard Tuesday in an effort to monitor and stop the rapid spread of bird flu, which has been detected in cattle in nine states.
Over 40 cattle herds across the country have confirmed cases of the H5N1 virus, also called bird flu.
The CDC dashboard will track all influenza A viruses from 600 wastewater treatment sites around the country in order to help public health officials pinpoint where the viruses show up most aggressively.
Flu viruses that cause human disease circulate at very low levels during the summer months, so the presence of high levels of influenza A in wastewater during this time could be a “reliable indicator that something unusual is going on in a particular area,” reported STAT.
As of May 4, data from 189 of the agency’s wastewater sampling sites showed that an influenza A virus had been detected at higher-than-average levels in sites, including some in Illinois and Alaska.
Concerns around the spread of bird flu have heightened as the virus becomes more widespread in dairy cows.
What is bird flu and how does it spread?
Avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, is an........