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An increase in flu viruses detected at wastewater treatment plants in California in recent weeks has sparked concern that the H5N1 bird flu may be spreading more rapidly than anticipated, potentially putting the state’s 1.7 million dairy cows at risk for infection. Health officials have observed multiple spikes in influenza A viruses, which include the H5N1 avian flu strain that has killed millions of birds worldwide and infected dozens of dairy cow herds across nine U.S. states. (Vaziri, 5/28)

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) today announced that tests have confirmed highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in alpacas at an Idaho farm where the virus had struck a poultry flock. The detection marks the first positive findings in alpacas, which are members of the camelid family. Detection of the virus in the alpacas isn't unexpected due to the high amount of virus in the environment and the comingling of multiple livestock species on the farm, APHIS said. (Schnirring, 5/28)

More than 4 million chickens in Iowa will have to be killed after a case of the highly pathogenic bird flu was detected at a large egg farm, the state announced Tuesday. Crews are in the process of killing 4.2 million chickens after the disease was found at a farm in Sioux County, Iowa, making it the latest in a yearslong outbreak that now is affecting dairy cattle as well. Last week, the virus was confirmed at an egg farm west of Minneapolis, Minnesota, leading to the slaughter of nearly 1.4 million chickens. (5/28)

Bird flu vaccines for laying hens are effective in practice, the Dutch government said on Tuesday, while confirming plans to vaccinate poultry against the virus that ravaged flocks around the world and is raising fears about human transmission. Research in the laboratory of Wageningen Bioveterinary Research (WBVR) early last year had already shown that two vaccines against bird flu, produced by France's Ceva Animal Health and Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim, were effective against the virus but there had been no experiment on a farm. (De La Hamaide, 5/28)

Even a peep of news about a new flu pandemic is enough to set scientists clucking about eggs. They worried about them in 2005, and in 2009, and they're worrying now. That's because millions of fertilized hen eggs are still the main ingredient in making vaccines that, hopefully, will protect people against the outbreak of a new flu strain. (Allen, 5/29)

Â鶹ŮÓÅ Health News: Farmworkers Face High-Risk Exposures To Bird Flu, But Testing Isn’t Reaching Them 

Farmworkers face some of the most intense exposures to the bird flu virus, but advocates say many of them would lack resources to fall back on if they became ill. So far, only two people in the United States have tested positive after being exposed to a wave of bird flu spreading among cows. Those people, dairy farm workers in Texas and Michigan, experienced eye irritation. (Leys and Maxmen, 5/29)

China has reported a fatal H5N6 avian flu infection in a 52-year-old woman from Fujian province in the southeastern part of the country. Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said the woman's symptoms began on April 13, and she was hospitalized on April 20, where she died on April 30. An investigation found that she had been exposed to backyard poultry before she became ill.  Highly pathogenic H5N6 is known to circulate in poultry from China and other Asian countries, but so far, China and Laos are the only nations that have reported human cases. Human cases are rare and mostly occur in people who have contact with poultry or poultry environments. The infections are often severe or fatal. (Schnirring, 5/28)