Trump cuts hurting bird flu studies

Politico -  Laboratories in a national network of 58 facilities responding to the spread of bird flu were notified Friday that 25 percent of the staff in a central program office coordinating their work were fired in the Trump administration’s mass layoffs of federal employees

NewsNation — More Americans could be unknowingly carrying bird flu, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report follows a series of random tests of 150 veterinarians, including some who did not work in areas with known flu outbreaks among cattle or flocks of chickens. The tests were conducted between January and September of last year and focused on detecting H5N1 antibodies, which would reveal recent exposure to bird flu.

Three veterinarians who specialized in cows tested positive for the virus and did not experience flu-like symptoms. Two of the three had no known exposure to animals infected with bird flu. One vet practiced in Georgia and South Carolina, where bird flu had not been reported in cows or humans.