H5N1 remains infectious on milking equipment
Even as the Atlanta-based CDC has cautioned people to avoid drinking raw milk, especially in the States where H5N1 has been reported in cattle herds, there has been increased demand for raw milk. From the day H5N1 (bird flu) was confirmed in cattle in mid-March this year to mid-May, the sales of raw milk has […]
Will cattle be the next lab for flu host-switching?
Cattle have so far not been associated with being infected on large-scale, and as a result, cattle have not been well studied as domestic hosts for influenza A virus species. In contrast to the notion that cattle are considered to be almost resistant to infection with influenza A virus, H5N1 virus, which was first detected […]
The evolution of lumpy skin disease virus
Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) is a viral disease that predominantly affects cattle. First identified in an outbreak in Zambia in 1929, the disease is caused by the LSD virus (LSDV), a poxvirus of the genus capripoxvirus. Until the 1980s. multiple outbreaks of LSD were confined to the African continent. The first reports of infections outside […]
Lumpy skin disease virus different from 2019 version
The lumpy skin disease (LSD) virus that has killed at least 50,000 cattle in India this year may be structurally different from the version of the virus prevalent in India in 2019, raising questions on whether the new vaccine being developed for safeguarding cattle may be adequately protective. Scientists at the Council of Scientific and […]