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If Many Dairy Farm Workers Contract H5N1, We Risk a Pandemic
The discovery of bird flu virus particles in milk has moved the federal government to take more aggressive action to prevent the further spread of H5N1 on dairy farms. The Agriculture Department has rightly issued new testing recommendations meant to keep the virus from spreading across state lines.
But this additional testing will do little to address the primary threat that H5N1 poses to humans: the infection of farm workers. Our failure to protect them threatens their health and gives the virus an opportunity to evolve into a greater threat to people, including those who live far from dairy farms.
The discovery of viral material in milk sold in American stores is not in itself alarming. Pasteurization, though it doesn’t remove pathogens, destroys their ability to infect people. Follow-up testing has confirmed this: Researchers have not been able to isolate and grow the virus from pasteurized milk.
But H5N1 poses risks to dairy workers, who may be exposed to infected cows and to milk before it is pasteurized. So far, only one dairy worker in the United States is known to have been infected, and fortunately, this person experienced only mild eye inflammation. But there are reports that other dairy workers have gotten sick at the same time that cows have. Veterinarian Barb Peterson told Bovine Veterinarian, “There’s been underreporting of the virus. Understandably, there’s been a lot of fear. But every dairy that I’ve worked with has — with the exception of one — had sick human beings at the same time they had sick cows.”
These reports are concerning, not because the infections are severe but because any rise in human infections boosts the chances that the virus will find its way to someone who has more medical conditions and may have a worse disease outcome if infected. And H5N1 has not historically been mild in humans. Of the almost 900 known cases of H5N1 infection in humans worldwide, the virus has killed about half.
U.S. CDC Asks States to Make Worker Protective Gear Available to Combat Bird Flu
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Monday it had met with state health officials and asked them to facilitate distribution of protective gear for farm workers to avoid infection against H5N1 bird flu.
The CDC said it asked state health departments to work with their agriculture department counterparts and partners in communities to prioritize the distribution of personal protective equipment from their stockpile to workers on farms where dairy herds have been known to be infected with bird flu.
Principal Deputy Director Nirav Shah said while the risk to the U.S. public remains low, states should act to protect people with work exposures including people on dairy farms, poultry farms and slaughterhouses. The CDC urged farmers, workers and emergency responders last week to wear appropriate protective gear when in direct or close physical contact with sick birds, livestock, feces, raw milk or contaminated surfaces.
Studies Yield More Clues About H5N1 Avian Flu Susceptibility, Spread in Dairy Cows
Two new preprint studies shed more light on why high H5N1 avian flu viral loads have been seen in the milk of infected dairy cows and what the genetic sequences say about transmission among cattle and to other species, with one suggesting cows could be an influenza mixing vessel.
In other H5N1 developments, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) reported two more outbreaks in poultry, both of them on commercial farms — in Michigan and Minnesota.
The scientists found that duck and human-type influenza A receptors were widely expressed in the bovine mammary gland, with chicken-type influenza receptors common in the cow respiratory tract. They saw only low expression of influenza A receptors in the brain tissue samples.
Taken together, the authors wrote that the findings suggest a mechanism for high H5N1 loads in dairy cow milk and suggest that cattle have the potential to be a mixing vessel for novel influenza viruses.
Sam Scarpino, PhD, director of artificial intelligence and life sciences at Northeastern University, on X said, “The new pre-print shows convincingly that cows harbor both human-flu and avian-flu receptors in their mammary glands. As a result, dairy cattle *may* have similar potential as pigs to serve as evolutionary intermediaries between avian and human flu.”
Panera Is Dropping Charged Lemonade, the Subject of Multiple Wrongful Death Lawsuits
Panera Bread is eliminating Charged Lemonade from its menu, the caffeinated beverage that has sparked multiple lawsuits and caused a public relations nightmare for the company.
The Charged Lemonades will come off the menu in the next two weeks, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the news. The chain declined to comment to CNN on the timeline of the drinks’ removal.
Panera has faced at least three separate lawsuits over the lineup of controversial drinks in recent months, claiming that the high levels of caffeine in the product has led to the deaths of two customers and irreversible health complications in another.
Panera kept the Charged Lemonades on the menu, despite the controversies, because experts say removing the drink immediately could have come across as an implied admission that something was wrong with it in the first place.
FAU Doctors Believe Ultra-Processed Food a ‘Silent Killer’ Plaguing U.S. Diet
We’ve been told innumerable times by health and nutrition experts that, whenever possible, we should avoid eating or drinking “processed” foods. But of course, that’s proven virtually impossible for the vast majority of Americans over the last several decades.
As a research report from Florida Atlantic University published in February in The American Journal of Medicine noted, there are now “hundreds of novel ingredients never encountered by human physiology found in nearly 60% of the average adult’s diet and nearly 70% of children’s diets in the United States.”
Physicians from Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt College of Medicine are so concerned about the myriad dietary chemicals so many of us consume, that they believe that the ultra-processed foods in the standard American diet have become a “silent killer” in much the same way that unrecognized high blood pressure was in the late 20th century.
Although the nation’s health field is flush with advice for the public to choose “minimally processed foods” over “ultra-processed foods,” the message can still be confusing. As the American College of Cardiology noted with its 2021 guidelines, there’s no universally accepted definition of what constitutes “ultra-processed,” and depending on the definition in play, some healthy foods might land in that category.
The Hour After Leaving Daycare Is a Nutritional Fail for Kids, Study Finds
Kids eat fewer healthy foods and take in 22 percent of their day’s added sugar intake in the single hour after they’re picked up from childcare, a recent study found. The analysis looked at children’s food consumption during two periods that can be among the most stressful for caregivers and kids — the transition between home and daycare.
Published in the journal Children’s Health Care, the study used dietary intake data from 307 children attending 30 child-care centers in Hamilton County, Ohio, between 2009 and 2011. The children were an average of 4.3 years old, and 57% were eligible for subsidized meals through the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program, which reimburses child-care centers for providing nutritious food.
The hour after pickup from child care was the least healthy, the researchers note, with kids eating more added sugar, snack foods and sugar-sweetened beverages. The children in the study took in an average of 290.2 calories during that hour — 20% of their average daily caloric intake and about 22% of the day’s average intake of added sugar.
6 Misleading Food Label Terms and What They Really Mean
When it comes to filling your grocery cart with the healthiest foods, careful label reading is critical. Yet even the savviest shoppers can be confused by some of the claims found on the front of food packages. And that is intentional.
“If the marketing is done well, it slips through the radar of critical thinking,” says Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition and food studies at New York University. “It’s designed to make you think emotionally, and before you know it, you’ve picked up a box of junk masquerading as health food.”
Some of the terms on the front of food packages aren’t regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, which oversees nutrition and health labels and claims. “Manufacturers use colorful images, product names and claims that give the food a ‘health halo,’” says Amy Keating, a Consumer Reports nutritionist. “In some cases, the claims are factually true but still can be quite misleading.”
Can Yogurt Reduce the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes?
Sharp-eyed grocery shoppers may notice new labels in the dairy aisle touting yogurt as way to reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes.
That’s because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently said it’s OK for producers of yogurt to make that claim — even though the agency acknowledged that it’s based on limited evidence.
Danone North America, the U.S. branch of the French firm that makes several popular yogurt brands, asked the FDA in 2018 for clearance to make what is known as a “qualified health claim.” FDA gave Danone the nod in March.
The way the FDA sees it, there’s some support — but not significant scientific agreement — that eating at least 2 cups of yogurt per week may reduce the risk of developing the disease that affects about 36 million Americans.
Study: Pesticides, Toxic Heavy Metals Lower in Hydroponic Vegetables Than in Conventional Samples
Food Safety Magazine reported:
A recent study comparing the presence of chemical contaminants in conventionally and hydroponically grown produce found pesticide residues in a larger number of conventional samples than in hydroponic samples, as well as significantly higher levels of lead and cadmium in conventionally grown produce. Phthalate levels were consistent between conventional and hydroponic samples.
The study tested 177 samples across four vegetable commodity groups — lettuce, celery, tomatoes, and cucumbers — taken from conventional and hydroponic farming operations. The samples were assessed for 120 pesticides, 18 phthalates, and two toxic heavy metals (lead and cadmium).
Of the total 177 samples, 53% contained at least one pesticide residue, and, while 84% of conventionally grown vegetables contained pesticides, residues were detected in only 30% of the hydroponic samples. Additionally, 51 percent of the conventionally grown samples contained two or more pesticide residues, compared to 7 percent in the hydroponic samples.
The frequency of detection of insecticides was significantly higher for conventional samples (57%) than that of hydroponic samples (12%), as well as for fungicides (40% of conventional versus 5% of hydroponic samples). The researchers explain that this is due to the decreased need for pesticides, insecticides, and fungicides in hydroponic operations, as the absence of soil in the cultivation of hydroponic crops means there are no soilborne hazards to control.
