Xinhua News Agency, May 11 (Editor Liu Rui) recently, a highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, H5N1, is spreading wantonly in chicken and cattle farms in the United States.SwitchcrashteamracingThere has been a case of cow-to-human transmission.

With the gradual spread of the H5N1 epidemic, health officials in the United States have decided to invest more than 100 million US dollars to strengthen surveillance of cattle and humans infected with bird flu.

Us Health Department will invest $100m in H5N1 Surveillance

Us health authorities have recently stepped up surveillance of the virus because it has been widely criticized for inadequate early detection of emerging viruses. Although there has been only one case of human infection with H5N1 in the United States so far, scientists have warned that the virus could mutate into a more contagious and dangerous virus.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDC) recently announced that they would use more than $100 million to detect and track H5N1.

CDC will use $34 million to detect and analyze the virus sequence, and another $29 million will be used to track and monitor people who may have been exposed to the virus. Other funds will be used to develop vaccine candidates and wastewater treatment sites. At the same time, FDA is distributing protective equipment to farm workers, giving priority to those who have come into contact with infected cows.

FDA will also allocate an additional US $8 million to support milk supply monitoring and pasteurization. The agency said in April that 1/5 of milk samples in the United States contained fragments of the bird flu virus, but pasteurization could kill the virus. FDA also said it had tested negative for active viruses in 297 retail dairy samples across the United States.

At the same time, the USDA is providing funding for dairy farms in response to the bird flu epidemic, including financial incentives to distribute protective equipment. Over the next 120 days, each farm will get up to 2.SwitchcrashteamracingUs $.8,000, including reimbursement for veterinary and testing costs.

Potential infected people are unwilling to cooperate with surveillance.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States insists that H5N1 poses a low threat to humans. However, after 36 farms in nine states have already reported cattle infected with the virus, six new farms have reported cattle infection this week, raising concerns about the spread of the virus.

But the main problem with monitoring the virus is the reluctance of potentially infected people to cooperate: many dairy farms are hesitant to invite CDC to monitor because of the potential financial implications if sick cows are found, and farmers working on farms are skeptical of government officials, fearing they will lose their jobs if they show signs of exposure to the virus.

So far, no state in the United States has taken the initiative to invite CDC to carry out surveillance, which makes it difficult for US medical departments to know the specific scope of the epidemic.

So far this year, only about 30 people have been tested for H5N1 by CDC and 220 have been monitored for symptoms. CDC director Mandy Cohen (Mandy Cohen) said in an interview this week that the CDC is ready to deploy epidemiological teams, but is waiting for invitations from states.