(Beth Clifton collage)
Trump administration meanwhile continues to suppress H5N1 updates
BALDWYN, Mississippi; WASHINGTON, D.C.––For the second time in two weeks Showing Animals Respect & Kindness is appealing for calls to Lee County, Mississippi sheriff Jim Johnson, asking Johnson to stop an alleged scheduled cockfight, but this time––because of the increasing likelihood of the H5N1 avian flu spreading into humans––the stakes appear to be much higher than the cost to the fighting roosters and the stack of money wagered at the pit.
“We understand that an illegal cockfight is planned for the D.L. Parker home in Mississippi this Saturday, during the day. We are hoping to keep it from happening again,” Showing Animals Respect & Kindness emailed to supporters.
“We will check out his home, the pit, and the surrounding areas for any illegal activities,” Showing Animals Respect & Kindness pledged.
(Beth Clifton collage)
SHARK “will let you know what we find,” but where is USDA-APHIS?
“Thank you as always for your continued support, and we will let you know what we find.”
A cockfight scheduled for January 25, 2025 at the D.L. Parker cockpit near Baldwyn, Mississippi was cancelled, Showing Animals Respect & Kindness founder Steve Hindi told ANIMALS 24-7, after a similar campaign to pressure Sheriff Johnson into enforcing the law.
(See SHARK alert led to bust of cockfighter now charged with triple murder.)
Hindi did not mention the Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA-APHIS], which has jurisdiction over both enforcing the federal Animal Welfare Act prohibition of cockfighting and combatting H5N1.
Transportation of gamefowl in connection with cockfighting ranks second only to wild waterfowl migration as a vector for spreading H5N1 to domestic poultry, cattle, cats, and humans, among the most commonly infected of many other species know to be vulnerable to it.
(Beth Clifton collage)
A second strain of H5N1 hits dairy cattle
Meanwhile an understated February 5, 2025 announcement from USDA-APHIS belatedly acknowledged that, “On January 31, 2025, the National Veterinary Services Laboratories confirmed by whole genome sequence the first detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b, genotype D1.1 in dairy cattle.”
Translation: the risk of H5N1 jumping into a form transmissible from human to human just got worse, after causing the deaths of nearly 150 million poultry over the past three years.
“All previous detections in dairy cattle have been HPAI H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b, genotype B3.13,” USDA-APHIS acknowledged, hiding the real news in jargon.
“Genotype D1.1 represents the predominant genotype in the North American flyways this past fall and winter and has been identified in wild birds, mammals, and spillovers into domestic poultry, USDA-APHIS said.
(Beth Clifton collage)
CBS News revealed what USDA-APHIS did not
Though this is now the second H5N1 strain to mutate to infect dairy cows, “The detection does not change USDA’s HPAI eradication strategy,” which forgoes vaccination in favor of attempting to “stamp out” H5N1 by killing all poultry from infected flocks,” USDA-APHIS continued, “and is a testament to the strength of our National Milk Testing Strategy.”
Alexander Tin and Jordan Freiman of CBS News promptly updated the bad news from USDA-APHIS with the worse news that USDA-APHIS under Donald Trump administration control apparently tried to suppress.
“That bird flu strain, called D1.1 by scientists, was also linked to a fatal human case in Louisiana last year after exposure to sick birds,” Tin narrated. “Symptoms seen in humans infected by D1.1 have been more severe than the previous bird flu strain that has been spreading in cows.”
(See Biggest Kentucky cockfighting bust upstaged by first U.S. death from “bird flu”.)
(Beth Clifton collage)
Official silence about identity of Louisiana victim
USDA-APHIS has not released the identity of the Louisiana victim.
The Louisiana Department of Health announced the death on January 6, 2025.
“The patient was over the age of 65,” the Louisiana Department of Health said then, “and was reported to have underlying medical conditions,” but also offered nothing specific about the victim’s identity.
“The patient contracted H5N1 after exposure to a combination of a non-commercial backyard flock and wild birds,” the Louisiana Department of Health continued.
Left unclear was whether the victim was simply someone who kept backyard hens or pet ducks, or was a cockfighter.
“Non-commercial backyard flock” is a frequent euphemism used among public health personnel to describe the facilities of cockfighters and gamefowl breeders, to avoid disclosing the identities and pastimes of people whose cooperation is needed to trace disease outbreaks to source.
(Beth Clifton collage)
USDA-APHIS reassurances were wrong
Resumed Tin for CBS News, “The discovery of the D1.1 bird flu strain’s spread in cows upends previous theories floated by U.S. health and agriculture officials that the spillover of the virus into cows from wild birds was a rare, one-off event. All cases of bird flu in cows since a spillover in
Texas in late 2023 had previously been linked only to [H5N1 variant] B3.13, which officials have cited as evidence that new variants of the virus were not repeatedly spreading into cows from birds.”
The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention meanwhile on February 6, 2025 resumed publishing the weekly Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report after an unprecedented two-week pause in publishing ordered by Donald Trump soon after his January 20, 2025 inauguration, “but information about the bird flu virus that was supposed to appear remained on hold even as the outbreak spreads,” the Washington Post reported.
(Beth Clifton collage)
CDC withholds three H5N1 studies
“Three studies about the H5N1 bird flu virus were scheduled to be released in the weekly Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report on January 23, 2025,” the Washington Post said, “according to multiple CDC officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. But release of the results was abruptly halted when the Trump administration instructed federal health agencies to pause all external communications on January 21, 2025, the administration’s first full day in office.”
(See “Getting ducks in a row,” Trump team silences agencies about H5N1.)
“During his first term,” the Washington Post remembered, “Donald Trump’s political appointees tried to gain control over the weekly Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report, which had published information about the coronavirus pandemic that conflicted with messaging from the White House,” specifically by repeatedly revealing the soaring COVID-19 death toll while Trump insisted the pandemic was under control.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Tested the blood of 150 cattle veterinarians
“One of the [suppressed] bird flu studies is aimed at whether cattle veterinarians have been unknowingly infected with the H5N1 avian influenza that has sickened hundreds of dairy cow herds in 16 states,” the Washington Post reported. “Since the virus was first confirmed in dairy cows last spring, agriculture and health officials have been trying to better understand how the pathogen infects humans.
“While federal health officials say the risk from bird flu remains low for most people, the risk is higher for those who have more direct contact with sick animals, including farm workers, veterinarians, animal care workers and staff at public health departments, the CDC has said.
Merritt & Beth Clifton with Henry the rooster.
“The study involving cattle vets tested the blood of 150 veterinarians who had treated cattle to look for indicators that they may have had previous infections,” the Washington Post added, citing a previously published description of the CDC methodology.
Please donate to support our work:
www.animals24-7.org/donate/
The post Again SHARK tries to stop a cockfight as new H5N1 strain hits dairy cows appeared first on Animals 24-7.
