Alpacas become infected with H5N1 bird flu virus for the first time.
In Idaho, animals that tested positive for the virus were discovered on a poultry farm. These animals included alpacas, which had contracted the disease on May 16th, as reported by the USDA in a recent news announcement.
Surprisingly, the presence of infected animals on the same farm as the affected birds does not come as a shock to the USDA. The virus found in the alpacas has been identified as being closely related to the H5N1 viruses that are currently affecting dairy cattle.
Alpacas may be of particular concern, as there are well over 260,000 registered alpacas in the United States, according to the Alpaca Owners Association.
The H5N1 virus has maintained a solely bird-based presence for nearly two decades. However, there has been a significant increase in the number of wild and farmed mammals affected by the virus over the past two years, causing anxiety that it might evolve into a more readily transmissible pathogen among humans.
In the meantime, human instances of the disease have been documented sporadically across the globe throughout the years. There have even been three reports of infected individuals in the US, although there remains no evidence of person-to-person transmission in the ongoing cattle outbreak.
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The USDA has suggested that the H5N1 virus in the affected alpacas and dairy cattle might share similarities. Despite the notice of infected alpacas on a poultry farm, the virus has not yet shown evidence of transmitting between humans.
Source: edition.cnn.com
