Utah Mink Farm Bird Flu Outbreak Draws Experts' Criticism

An avian flu outbreak at a mink farm in Utah has drawn concern from infectious disease experts, who say the handling of the case raises doubts about how the Trump administration manages such viruses.

For two months the virus has spread at a farm about an hour from Salt Lake City that raises thousands of mink for their fur, ProPublica reported earlier this week. State veterinarian Amanda Price handled the response and asked the US Department of Agriculture for help. Federal officials told her they did not regulate mink and had no approved vaccine for the animal, according to messages ProPublica obtained under the state's public records law.

CDC officials spoke with Utah health department staff but not with Price.

Culling questions

In other countries where such outbreaks have occurred, governments have ordered farms to kill their mink. Veterinarians told ProPublica the Utah owners should already have done so. A fur trade representative told Price that culling the animals at C&T Fenn Farms would kill the business and the industry.

Tom Peacock, an avian influenza researcher at the Pirbright Institute, said depopulation normally happens quickly, and that the delay here is "very concerning".

Officials also did not monitor farm workers for symptoms, despite CDC guidance to do so. ProPublica found two people who worked at the farm, one of whom had a red eye, a symptom the agency says should prompt testing. Farm owner Chad Fenn said the worker had dust in his eye and that the state health department did not recommend testing.

Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiology professor who directs the pandemic center at Brown University School of Public Health, said sick mink are unlikely to produce a "tidal wave of human infections". She called the apparent lack of transparency from officials very troubling. "No animal or human will be protected from the toll of this virus through secrecy," she said.

Nuzzo said she sees no signs that the virus is spreading. Her worry is farm workers who are exposed to the animals and could fall ill, and she pointed to vaccines that other countries use to protect such workers. The virus could also become a pandemic threat if it combined with an influenza virus, a concern she said grows with each human flu season.

This is not the first outbreak at a Utah fur farm. During the Covid-19 pandemic nearly 10,000 mink in the state died from the coronavirus, and nine farms were quarantined. A report in Emerging Infectious Diseases said the virus most likely reached the animals from infected workers.

Nuzzo said that in Donald Trump's second term the federal government appears to monitor farms less than earlier administrations did. His administration fired federal employees who were responding to a bird flu outbreak among dairy cows shortly after he took office. Officials used to hold regular calls with disease experts, she said, and that no longer happens.

Source: The Guardian