Study confirms mammal-to-mammal avian flu spread

"It is therefore critical to continue to monitor the virus in affected animals and also in any potential infected humans, Diel said. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has funded programs for H5N1 testing, at no cost to producers. Early testing, enhanced biosecurity and quarantines in the event of positive results, would be necessary to contain any further spread of the virus, according to Diel."

Not mentioned is that it is also critical to reduce our meat consumption, for this and numerous other reasons. I posted awhile back about eating sprouted legumes; that's still a staple of my diet, and now that summer's here I eat a lot of greens from my yard, including dandelion and oxeye daisy, otherwise known as weeds here in the USA. I still eat meat as a rare, luxurious treat; one need not give up meat to reduce environmental impact. Nutritional yeast provides plenty B12 and other nutrients. One big "everything" salad a day, plus my child's leftovers throughout the day, is enough (I'm a male in my 40s averaging about 7k steps a day plus lifting 40+ pounds many times throughout the day; not strenuous activity, but consistent).

Humans and our livestock dominate the planet. I'm not proud of that. I'm not confident that our respective elected officials can enact toothy regulations quickly enough to put enough of a lid on our resource churn, so I appeal to you, dear reader, to find a way to live a rich and interesting life on a reasonable carbon footprint (what that is is up for argument, but certainly less than the US average), and to convince your family, friends, and neighbors to do the same.

Which mammals? Paragraph 1: "A new study provides evidence that a spillover of avian influenza from birds to dairy cattle across several U.S. states has now led to mammal-to-mammal transmission – between cows and from cows to cats and a raccoon."