Scientists react because of lack of avian flu data

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said it released new data on April 21 about avian influenza infecting livestock, but scientists could not find any information.

As of April 23, scientists still could not find information about the genetic sequence of the avian flu virus in livestock in the US, which the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said it had previously published. The available information is only raw data and not very useful, according to CNN .

H5N1 bird flu has been determined to infect livestock and is found in milk, causing concern among scientists. (Photo: Adobe Stock Images).

Scientists say the US government is very slow in releasing information about the avian flu outbreak, which was confirmed to have infected livestock after a month.

Dr. Rick Bright, an immunologist and vaccine researcher, reached out to influenza research parties, including the Global Initiative to Share All Influenza Data (GISAID), to see if there were any omissions. information or not.

GISAID data scientist Lucas Freitas confirmed no sequences were posted by the USDA . "We won't miss it. H5 influenza is the reason GISAID was born," said Freitas President Peter Bogner.

GISAID, a non-profit organization headquartered in Germany, is considered a reputable place to share genetic data in the world, and is used by scientists to exchange and update information about viruses, for example once monitored the evolutionary ability of the virus that causes Covid-19.

When the USDA confirmed that H5N1 had been detected in dairy cows in Texas and Kansas on March 25, the news put infectious disease experts on alert, as they sought more information to see if the virus had spread. How does it change when targeting a new host?

The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) said H5N1 has now been found in 32 herds in eight states. However, weeks passed and little data about the US outbreak was shared with the global scientific community.

Headquarters of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). (Photo: Federal News Network).

USDA says it regularly publishes research articles to GISAID. In an April 21 statement, the agency said it had shared 239 genetic sequences from the H5N1 outbreak, including cattle, cats, chickens, skunks, raccoons, some birds and geese.

However, regarding the latest H5N1 genetic data, scientists only found raw data, called FASTQ files , uploaded by the USDA to the US National Library of Medicine database.

These files are considered lacking in transparency, as they do not contain important information to help scientists track the evolution of the virus, for example, there is no exact sample collection date, only the number "2024". " , as well as the place of sample collection being "USA". The data also does not specify which part of the animal the sample was taken from.

USDA public affairs officials say APHIS often shares genetic data with GISAID. However, to post data as soon as possible, the agency posted unanalyzed data to the US National Library of Medicine. It is unclear whether the latest version contains the entire gene sequence announced by the USDA.

Scientists are closely monitoring the situation when the bird flu virus begins to spread in livestock. A case of cattle infected with H5N1 spreading to humans was recorded in the US in early April.