USDA Adds 3 New Species (Deer Mice - Prairie Vole - Desert Cottontail) to Mammals with H5N1 List

#18,216

Seven weeks ago the USDA added the common house mouse (Mus musculus) to their list of wild mammals affected by H5N1, after dozens were found infected at a New Mexico poultry farm.  Since then, the number of mice infected has grown to more than 80.  

Today, they've added three new species - deer mice (n=13) and a prairie vole (n=1) & Desert cottontail (n=1) - all collected in Weld, County, Colorado which is the site of recent human, poultry, and dairy outbreaks. 

Additionally, Larimer County, CO. has added 2 domestic cats, bringing the total reported since March to 36.  Details on where these new species were detected, and likely source of their infection are not provided. 

Over the past 60 days over 110 new cases have been added to the USDA's list (n=373), although this is likely a significant undercount as wild animals often die in remote and difficult to access places, and it appears that some states are looking a lot harder for cases than others.

Given the detection now in deer Mice, a rabbit, and a vole, it would be useful to know exactly where - and under what circumstances - these samples were collected. 

Sadly, we continue to get disappointingly few details on these discoveries, and while genetic sequences are being (slowly) uploaded to GISAID, they continue to report:

This collection includes many virus sequences from dairy cows, but also closely related viruses detected in poultry and wild birds and in mice, cats and other mammals as well as the recent human infections. Although metadata such as sampling date and location are unfortunately missing from recent datasets, the available data allow a close watch on mutations that may arise as a consequence of virus adaptation to new hosts.