CDC discovers bird flu antibodies in veterinarians working with cattle

Washington — Continued testing of cattle herds, milk tanks and anyone exposed to cattle may help protect veterinarians and other people who work with animals from exposure to bird flu, concludes a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study.

In September, public health officials conducted serology tests on 150 veterinarians who were exposed to cattle in the previous three months. At that time, bird flu had been detected in 14 states and 14 human cases had been reported.

Results show that three of the vets had evidence of a recent infection of bird flu even though they experienced no respiratory or flu-like symptoms. Two of the practitioners weren’t exposed to animals with known or suspected bird flu infections. The other didn’t practice in a U.S. state that had virus-infected cattle.

All three provided care to multiple animals, including dairy and non-dairy cattle, poultry, and those at a livestock market. Although none worked with cattle known or suspected to be infected, one provided care for virus-positive poultry.

“Since the time that this serosurvey was conducted,” CDC says, the bird flu “outbreak has expanded to include 67 confirmed human cases, including 40 with dairy cattle exposure. These data highlight the possible benefit of national seroprevalence assessments of recent [bird flu] infection among practitioners at increased risk for exposure, which might help assess occupational risk in states without confirmed [bird flu] virus detections in dairy cattle.”

The study was published in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.