Are we at the edge of another pandemic? H5N1

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I read an article from Hawaii that said "Hawaii is the only U.S. state in which H5N1, also known as highly pathogenic avian influenza, has not yet been detected, according to state and federal officials — not in wild birds, domestic poultry or mammals, including cows. There have been H5N1 cases detected in wild birds in every U.S. state except Hawaii."

State works to keep bird flu out of Hawaii

So what makes Hawaii unique and different? I have said that, in my humble opinion, the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1 bird flu is being transmitted by mosquitoes. Does Hawaii not have mosquitoes?

Mosquito bites are only regarded as irritants in Hawaii, but elsewhere, they are the cause of serious diseases and deaths. Diseases transmitted by infected bites of mosquitoes are West Nile Virus, encephalitis, yellow fever, dengue, malaria, and filariasis. Although Hawaii has none of these human diseases at present, our dogs acquire heartworms from infected mosquito bites, and native birds often die from bird malaria and bird pox in forest areas where infected mosquitoes are prevalent.

The five pest species of mosquitoes can be divided into two types based on their biting habits:

Day-biting Mosquitoes The three species, Aedes albopictus (Asian Tiger Mosquito), Aedes aegypti (Yellow Fever Mosquito), and Wyeomyia mitchelli (Bromeliad Mosquito), are active only during the daylight. Because of a short migratory range of only 100-150 yards, their presence at your home usually indicates a nearby breeding source. Day-biting mosquitoes breed in relatively clean water found in tree holes, plants, rock holes, and all types of manmade containers. They do not breed in ground pools or in water that contains soil. Wyeomyia mitchelli breeds almost exclusively in leaf axils of bromeliads (pineapple lilies). Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegyptiare black mosquitoes with white markings. Wyeomyia mitchelli is brown with an abdomen that is white on the lower half. Aedes albopictus is the most common day-biting mosquito. Aedes aegypti is found only on the Big Island and Molokai.

Night-biting Mosquitoes The two species, Culex quinquefasciatus (Southern House Mosquito) and Aedes vexans are active only at night. Their presence at your home may not indicate a nearby breeding site. They have a migratory range of several miles. Culex quinquefasciatus will breed in all types of manmade containers, but prefers ground water containing rotting organic matter. Aedes vexans breeds exclusively in flood waters. Its eggs, laid in dry, lowland soil, remain dormant until flooding causes them to hatch. Both Culex quinquefasciatus and Aedes vexans are brown mosquitoes, but only Aedes vexans has white stripes around its leg joints. Culex quinquefasciatus is found on all islands and is the most common nigh-biting mosquito in Hawaii.

Vector Control Branch: Hawaii Department of Health: Mosquitoes

So perhaps the reason why Hawaii has not been affected by an H5N1 outbreak thus far is because they are shielded by ocean and only have a few breeds of mosquitoes on the island chain.

I came across a historical perspective. It is attempting to reach far back into time, over 100 years ago and explain a global pandemic that brought an end to the First World War.

For decades, medical scientists have warned of the potentially cataclysmic dangers of variants of so-called avian flu. From antiquity to as recently as 15 years ago, outbreaks of bird flu have wreaked havoc on a global scale. The pandemic of 1918, which killed more than 50 million people and sickened 500 million others worldwide, was caused by a virus that began with infected birds directly sickening humans.

Dr. Catharine Paules, an infectious diseases physician at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, discusses why bird flu isn’t something to be taken lightly, why experts are watching H5N1 so closely and what you can do to help stop its spread.

Influenza A viruses, which cause the flu, have many different subtypes and can infect multiple species, including humans. A natural reservoir, though, is wild aquatic birds. Since 1900, influenza A viruses have caused four pandemics. Each of them was caused by an animal virus that changed (mutated) and started infecting people. That can happen directly from a bird ― like in the pandemic of 1918.

While H5N1 primarily infects birds, various strains have caused nearly 900 human infections, approximately half of which have been fatal. So far, these infections are largely isolated, meaning a person gets sick from contact with the bird or an infected mammal but is then unable to easily spread the infection to other people. To cause a pandemic, H5N1 would need to develop changes in the virus that would allow it to spread easily among people.

In 2022, a new strain of H5N1 began to circulate among wild birds in the U.S. with lethal spillover infections in poultry flocks and adaptations allowing infections in mammals such as mink, foxes, ferrets and seals. In March, a substrain was reported among dairy cattle in the U.S. and appears to be spreading efficiently among herds. As of July 12, 151 herds in the U.S. have been infected. Widespread transmission of H5N1 in cows gives the virus opportunities to develop mutations that may make it easier to infect and then spread efficiently between humans. At this point several human infections have occurred in people exposed to infected dairy cattle. While no person-to-person transmission has occurred, we are watching this virus carefully and need to prepare for that possibility.

Why experts are watching the H5N1 bird flu so closely

But what if this virus is not transmitted directly? What if mosquitoes are the transmission agent? That would explain how this virus travels so easily between different species. It is a blood to blood transmission using an insect designed to extract blood from the body.

I think I will dig a little deeper into the Spanish Flu. One article goes into a good deep dive.

Spanish Flu

The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1919 was the deadliest pandemic in world history, infecting some 500 million people across the globe—roughly one-third of the population—and causing up to 50 million deaths, including some 675,000 deaths in the United States alone. The disease, caused by a new variant of the influenza virus, was spread in part by troop movements during World War I. Though the flu pandemic hit much of Europe during the war, news reports from Spain weren’t subject to wartime censorship, so the misnomer “Spanish flu” entered common usage.

The first wave of the 1918 pandemic occurred in the spring and was generally mild. The sick, who experienced such typical flu symptoms as chills, fever and fatigue, usually recovered after several days, and the number of reported deaths was low.

However, a second, highly contagious wave of influenza appeared with a vengeance in the fall of that same year. Victims died within hours or days of developing symptoms, their skin turning blue and their lungs filling with fluid that caused them to suffocate.

One unusual aspect of the 1918 flu was that it struck down many previously healthy, young people—a group normally resistant to this type of infectious illness—including a number of World War I servicemen.

In fact, more U.S. soldiers died from the 1918 flu than were killed in battle during the war. Forty percent of the U.S. Navy was hit with the flu, while 36 percent of the Army became ill, and troops moving around the world in crowded ships and trains helped to spread the killer virus.

Although the death toll attributed to the Spanish flu is often estimated at 20 million to 50 million victims worldwide, other estimates run as high as 100 million victims—around 3 percent of the world’s population. The exact numbers are impossible to know due to a lack of medical record-keeping in many places.

By the summer of 1919, the flu pandemic came to an end, as those that were infected either died or developed immunity.

Almost 90 years later, in 2008, researchers announced they’d discovered what made the 1918 flu so deadly: A group of three genes enabled the virus to weaken a victim’s bronchial tubes and lungs and clear the way for bacterial pneumonia.

Since 1918, there have been several other influenza pandemics, although none as deadly. A flu pandemic from 1957 to 1958 killed around 2 million people worldwide, including some 70,000 people in the United States, and a pandemic from 1968 to 1969 killed approximately 1 million people, including some 34,000 Americans.

More than 12,000 Americans perished during the H1N1 (or “swine flu”) pandemic that occurred from 2009 to 2010. The COVID-19 pandemic, which started in December 2019, spread around the world before an effective COVID-19 vaccine was made available in December 2020. By May of 2023, when the World Health Organization declared an end to the global coronavirus emergency, almost 7 million people had died of COVID-19.

Each of these modern day pandemics brings renewed interest in and attention to the Spanish Flu, or “forgotten pandemic,” so-named because its spread was overshadowed by the deadliness of World War I and covered up by news blackouts and poor record-keeping.

Another article provides some more detail. In-Flew-Enza: Spanish Flu in Columbia

The Spanish influenza was usually deadly, in part because of the accompanying bacterial pneumonia that opportunistically affected those who contracted the virus. Those who contracted the flu complained of muscle and joint pain, headache, dry throat, chest pains, and an unproductive cough. Temperatures were usually elevated and ranged from about 100 to 104°F and the fever lasted for a few days. The onset could be very sudden; people would be at work or at home and would suddenly be struck by illness, dizziness, and weakness.

The Spanish influenza, it is now known, caused a "cytokine storm," an immune system overreaction in which cytokines activate immune cells to fight the infection. The immune cells then signal more cytokines to active yet more cells. In some diseases, this can start an unending feedback loop where more and more cells are sent to fight the infection and they in turn signal more cells to come. Because young people have more robust immune systems, they disproportionately suffered from this complication. Cytokine storms caused viral pneumonia, severe Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), and heliotrope cyanosis, in which the patient turned blue due to lack of oxygen in the bloodstream. It could also render the patient vulnerable to opportunistic diseases such as bacterial pneumonia.

Once the disease took hold, patients would frequently get nosebleeds, and their mucous membranes would be red and swollen. A low pulse and constipation were also common. If the victim was lucky, the influenza would be uncomplicated, and after a forty-eight to seventy-two hours the fever would resolve and the patient would be on the mend. For those who were unlucky, the influenza would proceed in one of two ways; the patient would either succumb in the first few days to viral pneumonia and ARDS, or would survive the early infections but would develop bacterial pneumonia, in which the lungs would fill with fluid and would start to hemorrhage, blood pressure would collapse, and septicemia would develop. Fatal cases would become septic and death would usually follow, given the lack of antibiotics for treatment.

Autopsies of Spanish influenza victims revealed extensive pneumonia, usually in both lungs. The lungs were filled with fluid, showing pulmonary consolidation (fluid where there would normally be air), and sometimes the entire lobe would be affected. Hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, swelling of the liver and kidneys, and splenitis (inflammation of the spleen) were also present. The severe septicemia that resulted would affect the walls of the blood vessels and result in hemorrhaging in the organs and cause severe hemorrhaging in the lungs, and from the nose, mouth, ears, eyes, and mucous membranes.

One of the earliest traits observed in H5N1 in people who contracted the disease in the U.S. this year was Pink Eye.

Why Bird Flu Is Infecting People’s Eyes

Three U.S. dairy workers have been infected with H5N1 after contact with sick cows, and all of them developed eye symptoms. All three developed symptoms of eye infections known as conjunctivitis.

Pink eye is an inflammation of the transparent membrane that lines the eyelid and eyeball. This membrane is called the conjunctiva. When small blood vessels in the conjunctiva become swollen and irritated, they're more visible. This is what causes the whites of the eyes to appear reddish or pink. Pink eye also is called conjunctivitis.

So is there a relationship between H5N1 and the Spanish Flu of 1918?

According to, The Spanish Flu

The symptoms of the Spanish Influenza were
weakness, pain in the eyes, earls, head, or back, soreness all over, chills, fever, cough, and in some cases dizziness, vomiting, and bloodshot eyes which come on quite suddenly.

Some mosquitoes are considered to be vectors, or insects that spread germs to people and animals that can cause illnesses. A mosquito can become infected with a disease after taking blood from an infected person or animal, and just a few mosquitoes can carry an illness throughout a community.

There are more than 3,700 types of mosquitoes in the world and 200 in the U.S. Of the 200 types, about 12 spread germs that can cause illnesses in people.

Mosquito bites can cause anaphylaxis, which is a medical emergency that can lead to difficulty breathing and a drop in blood pressure.

Most mosquitoes are only annoying, but some types can spread certain diseases, including West Nile and Zika. If a mosquito bites an animal or human that has a certain disease, the infected blood goes into the mosquito’s body. The infected mosquito can then spread that disease to the next animal or human it bites through its saliva. If an infected mosquito bites you and you become sick, you have a mosquito-borne disease.

West Nile Virus Most people who get West Nile virus don't have symptoms. About 1 in 5 will have a fever and other flu-like symptoms. Feeling worn out could take months to go away completely. A few people get a more serious infection that causes brain swelling, or meningitis. There's a very small chance you could die.

Encephalitis Mosquitoes can pass along viruses that cause encephalitis, which is inflammation around your brain and spinal cord. Symptoms usually come on suddenly and can include headache, fever, dizziness, upset stomach, and overall tiredness. There is no effective antiviral medication for encephalitis from mosquito bites. You'll need emergency care right away for serious symptoms, such as confusion, seizures, and muscle weakness to prevent brain damage and other complications.

Zika Virus Discovered in Africa in the 1940s, this virus has spread to South and Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. Most people don't know they have Zika. The symptoms are mild and usually go away in less than a week. You may have a fever, joint or muscle pain, pinkeye, or a rash. The virus has been linked to Guillain-Barre syndrome and a birth defect called microcephaly.

Chikungunya Virus Found mostly in the Caribbean and South America, chikungunya has been spreading in the U.S. It causes serious joint pain that may last several weeks.

Dengue Fever With dengue fever, you'll likely get a sudden high fever and may bleed a little from your nose or gums. It can be very uncomfortable. Rest and treating the symptoms are the only things you can do for dengue. Some people get a more severe form, known as dengue hemorrhagic fever. If your small blood vessels become leaky and fluid starts to build up in your belly and lungs, you'll need medical care right away.

Yellow Fever Most people who get yellow fever won't notice anything, but some may feel like they have a mild case of the flu. If you get symptoms, rest, fluids, and medication can help, although you could feel weak and tired for several months. Some people who have mild symptoms develop severe symptoms after they start feeling better, which could cause death. Serious symptoms include a high fever, yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice), bleeding, and liver and kidney failure.

Malaria No one has gotten sick with malaria in the U.S. since the early 1950s. But this oldest mosquito-borne disease recently caused 619,000 deaths worldwide, with a 10% increase happening during the pandemic due to delays in needed malaria services. Countries around the equator in Africa and tropical islands in the Pacific, such as Papua New Guinea, have the most cases of malaria.

Source: Mosquito Bites

What I have been exploring in this post is the possibility that a serious threat to the bird and animal species called H5N1 may be one of the diseases transmitted by mosquitoes. They may be the transition agent. If true, then it may explain how this infection is being transmitted to humans.

Many plagues are transmitted by insects. The extremely deadly Bubonic Plague is an infectious disease caused by a specific type of bacterium called Yersinia pestis. Y. pestis can affect humans and animals and is spread mainly by fleas. Bubonic plague deaths exceeded 25 million people during the fourteenth century. This was about two-thirds of the population in Europe at the time. Bubonic plague is one type of plague. It gets its name from the swollen lymph nodes (buboes) caused by the disease. The nodes in the armpit, groin and neck can become as large as eggs and can ooze pus. The other types of plague are:
-- Septicemic plague, which happens when the infection goes all through the body.
-- Pneumonic plague, which happens when lungs are infected.

I came across an interesting discussion of H5N1 that occurred in humans in Colorado.

How extreme heat in Colorado may have contributed to an extraordinary outbreak of bird flu in people

According to the article:

Colorado health officials tested at least 69 workers who showed flu-like symptoms, out of more than 150 workers who were at the farm. Of those, only six have tested positive — three of those cases were confirmed initially by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while three others were confirmed later, most recently on Friday. Combined with another human case reported in the state this month — a dairy worker who had contact with infected cattle — as well as the state’s worst-in-the-nation outbreak of bird flu cases on dairy farms, Colorado has become the epicenter of bird flu in the U.S.

The CDC says that workers who have contact with infected animals should wear a thick suit of personal protective equipment, or PPE. Head covering, goggles, mask, water-resistant coveralls, apron, gloves and boots. In a drawing of the outfit on the CDC website, only slivers of a worker’s forehead and cheekbones are uncovered. But there are no requirements for workers to wear PPE. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued only recommendations. The state has no requirements, either. The result is that workers may not be wearing PPE in bird flu hot zones.

“My understanding is that PPE is available to workers, but there’s not been 100% uptake in the use of PPE,” Dr. Rachel Herlihy, the state epidemiologist, said in an interview last week. “We’ve been working very closely with the producer to ensure improvements are made in uptake of PPE in workers. There’s been significant work to train workers on the use of PPE.”

This is where the weather comes in. All that PPE — designed to be fairly un-breathable, in order to keep pathogens out — is hot. While temperatures outside were scorching, it was likely even hotter inside the barns where the workers were culling birds. Workers may have chosen to forego PPE or taken it off. Sweat running down faces made goggles fog up and masks slip. Large fans pushed around air, likely laden with virus, and ruffled PPE. Every crack in the protective armor provided an opportunity for the virus to slip through. “It’s really difficult to try and control the weather right now,” Herlihy said.

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Why is this article interesting? On 10 Jul 2024, 12:07 pm, I discussed the following article:
How Mosquitoes Sniff Out Human Sweat To Find Us
So if this breakout of H5N1 in workers (humans) of two species Chickens and Cows (birds and animals) in Colorado in the past few days, then perhaps it is not related to the protective equipment they were wearing but rather to their sweat that attracted bites from a mosquito. Mosquitoes are the primary transmission agent for H5N1 to humans. Their bites pass blood directly from an infected bird/animal/human to an unaffected bird/animal/human and pass this disease to others.

I came across another interesting article on H5N1.

One point that it made was, "The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."

Between March 2024 and now, H5N1 surveillance has entailed monitoring about 1,570 people who have been exposed to infected animals and testing at least 62 people, CDC spokesperson Jasmine Reed wrote in an email to Undark.

How to Pinpoint the H5N1 Mortality Rate in Humans

So in general, the United States is not seriously looking for cases. They have limited themselves to observing only a small number of people that may have been infected, farm workers. So the disease may be spreading in the population but we have decided to walk blindly into the night.

I came across one recent article about H5N1 from The Atlantic and thought I would comment on it.

There Are No Good Options Left With Bird Flu

Since the current strain of bird flu, known as “highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1,” began spreading around the world in late 2021, it has become something like a “super virus” in its spread among animals, Richard Webby, an influenza expert at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, told me. Wild birds have been decimated, as have poultry farms: The virus has been detected in more than 100 million birds in 48 states. H5N1 has been around for longer than 25 years, but only recently has it regularly jumped to mammals, infecting cats, sea lions, and bears. In March, it was detected for the first time in American cattle and, since then, has already spread to 163 herds in 13 states.

According to the article two things are needed for this bird flu to become a human pandemic.

The first warning sign. Researchers are keeping an eye out for two red flags. The bigger one would be the virus’s ability to spread between people.

The second warning sign is how the virus itself is changing. So far, H5N1 isn’t very good at getting into human cells and then replicating inside them, abilities that would enable the virus’s spread among people. But that may be changing. In a lab study, virus particles from infected cows showed signs that they were capable of binding to human receptors in the upper respiratory tract.

So the first warning sign may be a false flag. It can be transmitted person to person through an intermediary. An infected animal/human can be bitten by a mosquito and the infected blood can be passed onto an uninfected animal/human when it bites them. It is a direct blood to blood transfer.

The current strain of H5N1 has already mutated to infect mammals, and a few genetic changes could be all it takes for the virus to spread more efficiently to humans—or, worse, between them. “We’re at the highest risk of the virus” since the early 2000s, when a different strain of H5N1 led to numerous deadly human infections in East and Southeast Asia, Webby said. Not because the virus itself is necessarily more infectious but because it is spreading among so many different animals, and especially mammals—giving it more opportunities than ever to find a way to replicate in humans.

The above is the whole key. If it stays limited to animal to human while not good it will be seen as something people worried about too much because it followed COVID. If it can spread human to human via blood the spread will resemble AIDS. If a variant spreads like the flu or COVID it will be worse then COVID because a lot of people won’t vaccinate or mask up, never mind lockdown.

Covid is spread from person to person. The virus remains in the air for hours/days in indoor environments. An infected person can pass the virus onto others 50 feet away indoors. That is why it was so dangerous. It was very, very deadly at the beginning of the pandemic but it was also in a state of flux, constantly changing. It became more contagious but at the same time less deadly.

I believe H5N1 is a different beast. It is not passed from one person to another person. It is passed by insects, primarily mosquitoes. A person who is infected cannot directly pass it onto another person. The person must be bitten by a mosquito that is infected. It takes a blood to blood transfer. If this is correct, then a very deadly pandemic can be avoided. We have a variety of methods available to protect ourselves from this infection. I have listed some of them in this thread. A variant of the H5N1 virus is capable of killing a large number of humans. They can die within days of becoming infected, hours after they exhibit symptoms.

I would not expect a variant to change how it spreads that much. A lot of this talk about the next bad or worse pandemic being just around the corner is probably clickbait. The bad pandemics occurred in 1918, 1957, 1968, and 2020. The 1957 and 1968 pandemics were a lot milder than COVID. Anything is possible(bioweapon?) but a repeat of COVID or worse soon is not likely.

I came across an interesting article that investigates how H5N1 is transmitting among different species.

Study confirms mammal-to-mammal avian flu spread

Using whole genome sequencing of characterized viral strains, modeling and epidemiological information the researchers determined cases of cow to cow transmission when infected cows from Texas were moved to a farm with healthy cows in Ohio. Sequencing also showed that the virus was transmitted to cats, a raccoon and wild birds that were found dead on affected farms. The cats and raccoon most likely became ill from drinking raw milk from infected cows. Though it isn’t known how the wild birds became infected, the researchers suspect it may have resulted from environmental contamination or aerosols kicked up during milking or cleaning of the milking parlors.

Whole genome sequencing of the virus did not reveal any mutations in the virus that would lead to enhanced transmissibility of H5N1 in humans.

To sum this up, an H5N1 outbreak occurred in one dairy farm in Ohio. The same sequence of H5N1 was found in cows, cats, raccoons and wild birds at that site. As a result, the study theorizes the deadly H5N1 flu can be transmitted directly between different species of animal. The study does not negate the theory that insects, such as mosquitoes (and other insects) may transmit the virus between birds/animals/humans.

On 08 June 2024, I posted:

In the United States they have been tracking this H5N1 outbreak in animals since 2022. Thus far it has affected the following species:

Aburt's squirrel, American black bear, American marten, American mink, Amur leopard, Amur tiger, Bobcats, Bottlenose dolphin, Coyote, Domestic cat, Fisher, Gray seal, Grizzly bear, Harbor seal, House mouse, Kodiak bear, Mountain lion, North American river otter, Polar bear, Red fox, Raccoon, Striped skunk, Virginia opossum,

The first case of H5N1 in domestic cats appeared on 03/25/2024
The first case of H5N1 in house mouse appeared on 05/24/2024

Thus far there has been 348 reported cases of H5N1 in animals in the U.S. This breakout in cats and mice bring this threat right into our homes and directly at the feet of humans.

Source: Detections of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Mammals

Comparing the number of cat & mice cases during the beginning of June to the latest update 23 July 2024, the total reported cases more then doubled:

Domestic Cats: then 17 cases now 34 cases.
House Mice: then 11 cases and now 65 cases.

H5N1 has infected chickens and cows in the U.S. There is one other animal that should be tracked, horses. If H5N1 has a connection to the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, then we should immediately scan to see if horses in America are coming down with the virus.

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So I decided to look a little deeper in order to determine if a virus can crossover to horses.

Equine Influenza

Equine influenza viruses belong to the species influenza A virus (genus Alphainfluenzavirus, family Orthomyxoviridae), a large group of highly variable viruses that are adapted to circulate in particular hosts, but can occasionally infect other species. Most influenza A viruses are maintained in birds (avian influenza viruses), but a few circulate in mammals. In addition to horses, mammalian reservoir hosts include people (human influenza A viruses), pigs (swine influenza viruses) and dogs (canine influenza viruses). Additional viruses circulate in bats, but do not seem to be transmitted to other species. On rare occasions, influenza viruses can adapt to a new host species, either “whole” or after reassorting with another influenza virus.

... Mutations cause gradual changes in a virus’s HA and NA genes, a process called ‘antigenic drift.’ If the hemagglutinin and neuraminidase proteins change enough, a host’s existing immune responses against that virus may no longer be protective.

Influenza viruses of other mammals and birds can also infect horses occasionally. A novel H3N8 virus from birds (A/eq/Jilin/89) virus caused an extensive outbreak among horses in China in 1989. It circulated for a few years before disappearing, but it is not known to have spread outside China. An H9N2 avian influenza virus was found in a horse, and horses were experimentally infected with an H3N2 human influenza virus. There are also sporadic reports of antibodies to various avian influenza viruses (e.g., H1, H3, H5, H7, H9, H10) and, rarely, human influenza viruses in domestic or wild equids. The H3N8 canine influenza virus, which originated from a Florida lineage equine influenza virus, no longer seems to infect horses efficiently: although they can be infected experimentally, its ability to replicate in this species appears to be greatly reduced, and horses did not become infected when kept in close contact with experimentally infected dogs. A study from Asia found antibodies to the (avian origin) H3N2 canine influenza virus in a small number of horses, and these antibodies correlated with dog contact; however, cross-reactivity with avian influenza viruses could not be ruled out.

So on rare occasions, viruses can spread between a variety of different species evolving as it transitions across efficient breakpoints that normally provide an effective shield.

Equine influenza viruses mainly affect horses. They can also affect dogs, and one H3N8 equine virus became established in dogs as a canine influenza virus. An H3N8 equine influenza virus was found during surveillance of healthy Bactrian camels (Camelus bactrianus), another H3N8 virus was isolated from sick pigs in China, and a reassortant between swine and equine influenza viruses (H1N7) was detected in pigs in Europe. Experimental infections have also been established in cats, ferrets and mink. Cattle were susceptible in an older experiment.

So at the moment we are transitioning across cats and minks and cattle. There have also been a few cases observed in humans. So we could be at the brink of a pandemic of deadly proportion.

It appears that the U.S. is about to launch a Wastewater tracking system for the H5 virus.

WastewaterSCAN dashboard/Influenza H5

In my opinion, this can be a very useful tool. But sometimes governmental leaders fail to provide funding to important tools. An article from 23 July 2024 provides the following insight:

As the CDC came under fire at the July 23 congressional hearing, Daniel Jernigan, director of the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, noted that testing is just one tool. The agency needs money for another promising area — looking for the virus in wastewater. Its current program uses supplemental funds, he said: “It is not in the current budget and will go away without additional funding.”

INTERESTING. We may be at the brink of a major pandemic, but let us go blindly into the night.

I came across a recent article that discusses the evolution of H5N1 around the world with great depth and details. I would almost call it a Gold Standard Review.

Destruction of H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus in Meat and Poultry Products

It doesn't really explore the possibility that H5N1 might be transmitted from birds/animals/people via a transmission agent such as mosquitoes. But it does come close when it sites:

Consumption of fresh duck blood and under-cooked poultry has been implicated in some cases of human illness.

This was cited from: Hayden F and Croisier A. 2005. Transmission of avian influenza viruses to and between humans. J Infect Dis 192:13111314.