The influenza curbing campaign on the country’s farms was slowed due to the chaotic transition to a new administration designed to reduce costs, reduce federal workforce and reduce communications, according to interviews with more than ten federal scientists and officials.
In poultry farms, more than 168 million birds They were killed in an attempt to reduce the outbreak of the disease. Since the virus appeared for the first time on the American dairy cattle about a year ago, it spread to 17 states and wounded more than 1000 pieces.
In the first months, the Trump administration launched a decisive team of scientists to discover the spread of the virus, Eliminate important MeetingsAnd limited access to data even for federal scientists.
The Ministry of Health and Humanitarian Services has not made public news about bird flu since January, and has not responded to requests for suspension.
Robert F. Kennedy Junior, Minister of Health, allowing the virus to spread non -control through poultry herds to identify birds that may be immune, which is the idea that scientists It is called reckless and dangerous. His comments pushed democratic legislators to Open the investigation In the federal response.
The Trump administration also canceled the funding of programs at the Food and Agriculture Organization, an agency at the United Nations, which monitors and contains bird flu in 49 countries.
“It seems just like watching this textbook almost this of how the virus is spread through animals, mixes with different types of animals, then able to jump into humans,” said Linsi Mar, an air -portable virus expert in Virginia Technology.
“We get strong warning signs of animals and people, and we are just watching and not doing much about them,” she added.
Bird flu wounded dozens of mammals, including 150 local cats in 26 states and at least 70 people, which led to four hospitals and one death. After this winter calm, the migration season in the spring renewed the pace of infections.
Over the past thirty days, the Ministry of Agriculture, which regulates the livestock industry, has confirmed new infections in 47 pieces in three states.
The virus, called H5N1, does not seem to be yet able to spread from person to person. But with a modern mutation, it appears that it is close to becoming a human infection, and a disturbing development.
This week, an international group of virus doctors conclude The bird flu to the back requires continuous monitoring of milk from dairy farms, wastewater and people working with infected animals – which is long when federal and state officials do not have the legal authority to force the farms to test animals or people.
Officials test loose milk, which helped to identify the affected herds. But the Ministry of Agriculture’s plan to combat bird flu is now focused Reduce egg prices Not a few cows are mentioned.
Brock Rollins, Minister of Agriculture, suggested improving the vital security of the farm, which helped producers in 10 states to prevent the spread of the virus in their places.
The ministry said in a statement to the New York Times: “The initial expansion of these ongoing efforts will focus on egg laying facilities-as part of the concerted efforts of the US Department of Agriculture to treat egg prices-but we expect to include poultry producers and other dairy producers, where programs are expanded and implemented.”
In an early wave of federal workers’ demobilization, some veterinarians were launched in the Ministry of Agriculture in the influenza of birds and then rented again. So far, many work with government credit cards that have a single dollar, which makes it difficult for them to travel or buy the necessary supplies without pressing to obtain expanded credit – a “huge mission” that requires multiple approvals and long delays, according to one official.
The Ministry of Agriculture did not agree to this evaluation. A spokesman for the department said in an e -mail: “The boundaries of the government’s credit cards are automatically increasing as soon as the employees are on an accredited trip,” the department spokesman said in an email.
On April 1, the Trump administration launched veterinarians and other scientists in the Food and Drug Administration who were Investigate raw pet food Continued by H5N1, which was sick of cats, which was helping to examine Suggestions to develop Vaccines and treatments for affected animals.
The Center for Disease Control began to block the genetic analyzes of the viral samples that gathered from people, according to one official, who asked not to be identified for fear of revenge. Even some internal teams are no longer allowed to review them.
On average, federal agencies issue data after 242 days of assembly, according to one Modern analysis. The scientists said that the task should not take more than two weeks. This delay makes it difficult for scientists to track the spread of the virus and assess its threat to people.
A former official spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of revenge, said that important reports in agencies, including the weekly and sick report, have been completely late or stumbled.
In February, instead of a reported report on bird flu infections in home cats, agency scientists were requested to produce and publish a paper about the effect of Los Angeles fire on air quality.
The bird flu study appeared after weeks, but the agency’s employees said they were panic because it was delayed on the orders of the top.
The Biden Administration has held regular calls between influenza around bird flu that included dozens of external experts and state health officials, and continued with the latest results. These calls have ended, and they also have a lot of symptoms of disease control over monitoring.
All communications from the Disease Control Center must now be cleared by Federal Health officials in Washington. The agency has not imposed a news conference on bird flu since January.
“There is no great activity as there was or there should be an activity that suffers from a lack of coordination,” said Dr. Adam Laureng, the scientist of viruses and infectious pathologist at the University of Michigan.
The nation maintains a stock that contains millions of doses of human vaccine against bird flu. But amid peeling in the Ministry of Health, the agency, which supervised the stock and specialization in the distribution of fast emergency, was transferred to the Disease Control Center
“The amendment adds layers of bureaucracy instead of removing it.”
In the interviews, many employees at the Center for Disease Control and the Ministry of Agriculture said that morale is low and fell with each round of workers’ demobilization. At a meeting in the city hall on April 16, about a quarter of the present veterinarians present that they would sign the deferred resignation program that would provide them with full wages and benefits until September 30.
Last year, it was difficult to miss cows infected with H5N1. They had fever and produced sticky yellow milk. Some cows were automatic abortion.
But livestock can be reconfigured, as it turned out, and the second round of symptoms can be more strange, making it difficult to identify the affected cows and protect the people who work with them. (Fast test for the virus detection in cows or people is still not available.)
Nutrition indicates that the virus may be constantly firmly firmly in dairy cattle. At the same time, the virus continues to rotate in wild birds, and develops about twice the rate in birds as in cattle.
A new version believed to be believed to cause a more serious disease, called D1.1, in September and soon became the dominant alternative. The government’s response was not identical to this speed.
In Nevada, milk samples collected on January 6 and 7 were tested positive for bird flu on January 10.
Instead, more samples were taken on January 17, and the results were confirmed after an additional week.
The Ministry of Agriculture said in a statement that the delay in the test results did not affect its response to the outbreak of the disease. The administration said: “It is important to note that the response activities do not depend on the sequence and that they occur in the meantime.”
Michael Warboubi, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona, said he was not sure. “This seems to be the closing of the barn door after the departure of the cow,” he said.
He said that it may still be possible to extinguish the virus on American farms if the Ministry of Agriculture intensifies containment efforts.
For example, the fast test that can quickly discover H5N1 in loose milk will give officials more time to get rid of the outbreak of the disease, compared to a test that provides results after weeks.
“I think it is still a goal that we should lead for, and even, and what was not clear that it is not glorious,” Dr. Warbooi said about the deportation of the virus.
Currently, keeping the virus outside the farms is not easy.
When a infected duck, for example, fly on the farm and covered – is not unlikely when millions of birds are infected – there are dozens of methods that may start out of the disease. The farms can track the waste into a poultry fold. The infected rodents may sneak through a small gap.
The chicken is mobilized together, and it has weak immune systems. One sneezer that sneezes a virus can lead to hundreds or thousands of sick birds.
Over the past two years, the Ministry of Agriculture has worked with egg producers in four states – Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota – on efforts to prevent the virus from spreading on farms.
Federal officials have helped identify and remove near wildlife, including mice, and entry points for the virus that farmers might easily miss. Only two of 108 headquarters participated in the experimental project suffered from virus infections after that.
The project is now scheduled to expand this year to 10 states – including California, Texas, Ouhayu and Pennsylvania – and to all fifty states by 2027. The Ministry of Agriculture experts are expected to perform free audits to help farmers identify the smallest gaps in their influenza defenses.
This proposal was given the praise of the scholars, but some experts, including veterinarians in the Ministry of Agriculture, were not sure how the programs are implementing.
The employees in the department have worked extensively to retract the bird flu since early 2022.
“We started three years without a break, so we started to wear people,” said a veterinarian, without permission to speak to the media, without permission from the media.
Andrew decorolis, executive director of the invitation group, said, given how birds are currently raising on farms, the most stringent measures may not be sufficient to remove the virus.
“Until this industry changes radically, this fascism is destined to continue,” he said.
