#Pasteurisation #temperatures effectively inactivate #influenza A viruses in #milk, MedRxIV, https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.30.24308212v1
At pasteurisation temperatures, viral #infectivity was rapidly lost and became undetectable before times recommended for pasteurisation. We then showed that an #H5N1 #HPAIV in milk was effectively inactivated by a comparable treatment, even though its #genetic #material remained detectable.
In late 2023 an H5N1 lineage of high pathogenicity avian influenza virus (HPAIV) began circulating in American dairy cattle[1][1]. Concerningly, high titres of virus were detected in cows’ milk, raising the concern that milk could be a route of human infection. Cows’ milk is typically pasteurised to render it safe for human consumption, but the effectiveness of pasteurisation on influenza viruses in milk was uncertain. To assess this, we evaluated heat inactivation in milk for a panel of different influenza viruses. This included human and avian influenza A viruses (IAVs), an influenza D virus that naturally infects cattle, and recombinant IAVs carrying contemporary avian or bovine H5N1 glycoproteins. At pasteurisation temperatures, viral infectivity was rapidly lost and became undetectable before the times recommended for pasteurisation. We then showed that an H5N1 HPAIV in milk was effectively inactivated by a comparable treatment, even though its genetic material remained detectable. We conclude that industry standard pasteurisation conditions should effectively inactivate H5N1 HPAIV in cows’ milk, but that unpasteurised milk could carry infectious influenza viruses. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement We acknowledge support for this research consortium from the Medical Research Council (MRC), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra, UK) as FluMAP [grant number BB/X006204/1, BB/X006166/1], FluTrailMap [grant number BB/Y007271/1, BB/Y007298/1] and FluTrailMap-One Health [MR/Y03368X/1]. We also acknowledge funding from the MRC to E.H. [MC\_PC\_21023 for the Influenza Virus Toolkit and MC\_UU\_00034/1 to the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research] and from the BBSRC to P.D. [Institute Strategic Programme grant BBS/E/RL/230002D and Evolution & Ecology of Infectious Disease grant BB/V011286/1]. J.S. is supported by an Edinburgh Clinical Academic Track fellowship from the Wellcome Trust, and the Centre for Open Science via Flu lab. APHA staff were funded by the UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the devolved Scottish and Welsh governments under grants SE2213, SV3400 and SV3006. The Pirbright Institute staff are funded by the BBSRC via Institute Strategic Programme Grants (ISPGs) [BBS/E/PI/230002A, BBS/E/PI/230002B]. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors. [1]: #ref-1
Florida #dolphin found with highly pathogenic #avian_flu: Report.
https://phys.org/news/2024-04-florida-dolphin-highly-pathogenic-avian.html
The case of a Florida bottlenose dolphin found with highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, or HPAIV—a discovery made by University of Florida researchers in collaboration with multiple other agencies and one of the first reports of a constantly growing list of mammals affected by this virus—has been published in Communications Biology.
The case of a Florida bottlenose dolphin found with highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, or HPAIV—a discovery made by University of Florida researchers in collaboration with multiple other agencies and one of the first reports of a constantly growing list of mammals affected by this virus—has been published in Communications Biology.
Disease outbreaks can drastically disturb the environment of surviving animals, but the behavioural, ecological, and epidemiological consequences of disease-driven disturbance are poorly understood. Here, we show that an outbreak of High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza Virus (HPAIV) coincided with unprecedented short-term behavioural changes in Northern gannets (Morus bassanus). Breeding gannets show characteristically strong fidelity to their nest sites and foraging areas (2015–2019; n = 120), but during the 2022 HPAIV outbreak, GPS-tagged gannets instigated long-distance movements beyond well-documented previous ranges and the first ever recorded visits of GPS-tagged adults to other gannet breeding colonies. Our findings suggest that the HPAIV outbreak triggered changes in space use patterns of exposed individuals that amplified the epidemiological connectivity among colonies and may generate super-spreader events that accelerate disease transmission across the metapopulation. Such self-propagating transmission from and towards high density animal aggregations may explain the unexpectedly rapid pan-European spread of HPAIV in the gannet.
Mass mortality was observed among colony-breeding seabirds in the German Wadden Sea area of the North Sea during the summer months of 2022. Several species' colonies were affected, most notably sandwich terns (<i>Thalasseus sandvicensis</i>), common terns (<i>Sterna hirundo</i>) and Germany's only n …
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