Quick Takes: H5N1 in Dairy Cows and Poultry, Polio in 5 Nations

May 19, 2025

By Lisa Schnirring

Over the past 2 days, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) reported 12 more H5N1 avian flu detections in dairy cattle, including 2 in Texas, its first since December 2024. The new detections push the number of affected herds in Texas since March 2024 to 29. The other 10 detections, reported yesterday, involve dairy herds in Idaho, which push the state's total to 100. Officials have now recorded 1,065 detections in dairy cattle from 17 states. In poultry developments, APHIS reported a few more detections, including a backyard flock in Maryland’s Anne Arundel County, a live bird market in New Jersey, and a commercial turkey farm housing 30,900 birds in Hutchinson County, South Dakota. The New Jersey health department said H5N1 was found in routine domestic poultry samples collected May 6. About 1,400 birds were depopulated at the market, which is temporarily closed.
Brazil has reported its first H5N1 avian flu outbreak in commercial poultry, which began on May 12 near the city of Montenegro in Rio Grande do Sul, the country’s southernmost state, according to a notification today from the World Organization for Animal Health. The virus killed 7,389 of the 17,025 breeder poultry on the farm. Lab analysis found that the H5N1 virus belongs to the 2.3.4.4b clade, but the report did not list the subtype.
Four countries reported more polio cases this week, all involving circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2), according to the latest weekly update from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Burkina Faso reported its first case of the year, in a patient from Fada whose acute flaccid paralysis onset occurred on March 30. Ivory Coast's case involves a patient whose illness was reported in July 2024 and is recorded as the only case for that year. Ethiopia reported 5 cases in three states, bringing its total for the year to 21. Sudan reported 2 cases, 1 with a 2024 paralysis onset and 1 with a January 2025 onset. The cases mark the country's first for both years. Separately, Papua New Guinea's health ministry reported a polio outbreak after routine screening identified the virus in two healthy children, Euro News reported today. Wastewater sampling had detected the virus in Lae, the country's second-largest city.

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