Category: 8. Health

After a month with no H5N1 avian flu detections in dairy cattle, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) today reported a positive test involving a herd from Texas, raising the nation’s total since early 2024 to 1,079 infected herds in 17 states.

The detection is Texas’s first since May.

Also, APHIS reported another H5N1 outbreak at a commercial turkey farm, the second recent detection in South Dakota. The new report involves a facility in Beadle County that houses 52,600 birds. Other outbreaks in turkeys over the past week occurred in flocks in Faulk County, South Dakota, and in Dickey County, North Dakota.

Source of California child’s H5N1 infection still a mystery

In related news, investigators from California and their partners at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday published their investigation findings into one of two unexplained H5N1 infections in California children. They published the details in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The school-age child’s symptoms included fever, muscle pain, abdominal pain, and conjunctivitis (“pink eye”). They began on December 13, 2024, lasting 1 week and involving two healthcare visits. 

The first visit was at a local emergency department, where staff collected a nasopharyngeal sample that tested positive for influenza A and was sent to the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s lab as part of enhanced surveillance. Further subtyping identified H5N1 on January 9, and follow-up sequencing revealed that the virus belonged to the B3.13 genotype that had been circulating in dairy cattle, other mammals, poultry, and wild birds.

No other family members had been sick, and polymerase chain reaction and serology testing of some of the child’s close contacts revealed no evidence of human-to-human spread. A sample collected from the child on January 10 was still positive, but specimens collected 4 days after that were negative.

Poultry not likely the cause

The family lived in an urban environment and had a pet dog. A family member had bought raw poultry at a live-bird market more than 2 weeks before the child’s symptoms began. It was cooked and eaten the same day. Investigators wrote that poultry wasn’t the likely source, given that poultry-market testing was negative, the child wasn’t exposed to raw poultry, and the parents weren’t sick. The investigators said the child spent time outdoors at school and may have had environmental exposure to the virus.

The researchers said continued surveillance and real-time subtyping at public health labs is a key part of novel flu surveillance and that detection of B3.13 serves as a reminder that the virus continues to transmit across susceptible species, requiring a strong One Health approach.

French Polynesia, located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, has been a dream vacation destination for decades.

However, these islands are also home to dengue fever, which is transmitted by the bite of infected mosquitoes.

According to Bulletin de surveillance sanitaire de Polynésie française n°34, published on September 2, 2025, there were 22 new dengue cases (19 confirmed last week.

And the blue alert for DENV-1 remains in effect.

Since November 2023, a total of 2,577 cases have been recorded.

To alert international travelers of this health risk, the U.S. CDC’s Travel Health Advisory issued on August 21, 2025, included French Polynesia.

The CDC identified the island groups of the Society Islands (Tahiti, Moorea, and Bora Bora), the Marquesas Islands (Hiva Oa and Ua Huka), and the Austral Islands (Tubuai and Rurutu).

The CDC reported that these countries are experiencing higher-than-usual numbers of cases and have identified a higher-than-expected number of dengue cases among U.S. travelers returning from those countries. 

While a second-generation dengue vaccine is available in various countries, it is not offered in the USA.

Fortunately, several dengue vaccine candidates are conducting late-stage research focused on preventing all four virus types from infecting people.

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Federal health officials are warning that certain lots of raw cat food may be contaminated with H5N1 bird flu after a pet cat in San Francisco that ate the food became infected with the virus and had to be euthanized.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that two lots of RAWR Raw Cat Food Chicken Eats tested positive for the virus. Analysis by San Francisco health department officials showed that the same strain of the H5N1 virus was present in the pet food and in the cat that died.

The incident is the first reported case of an H5N1 infection from raw food in pet cats since March. Dozens of domestic cats, including nearly 70 this year, have been infected with H5N1, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. Many of the animals became infected after consuming raw milk or raw pet food contaminated with the virus.

The affected lots of RAWR food include CCS 25 077, with a sell-by date of Sept. 18, 2026, and CCS 250 093, with a sell-by date of Oct. 3, 2026. RAWR raw pet food is sold frozen and must be thawed before use. No recall was posted for the products, but representatives for the Grass Valley, California, company said they had removed the lots in question from circulation weeks ago.

RAWR Raw Cat Food Chicken Eats are sold in frozen 2.5-pound resealable bags containing 40 1-ounce sliders of food. The product is sold in stores nationwide and online.

The U.S. Agriculture Department’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories confirmed the virus in samples from the food and the cat. Genetic sequencing showed that they contained a virus lineage that was detected in November and December and is no longer circulating. The virus is the same type that has been circulating widely in birds and in U.S. dairy cattle, including those in California.

H5N1 infections can cause illness and death in birds, poultry and mammals such as cats. The virus has not been detected in dogs in the U.S., but there have been fatal cases in other countries. Animals that are very young, very old or have weakened immune systems are at risk of becoming seriously ill from an infection.

No human infections from H5N1 bird flu have been identified in people who handled raw pet food, but humans can become infected and sick if active virus gets into their eyes, nose or mouth.

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