Amid an outbreak of bird flu in the United States in poultry and dairy cattle, the federal government on Friday announced $72 million in funding to three vaccine manufacturers to expand production of bird flu vaccines for humans, in case they are necessary.
The H5N1 virus has affected millions of wild and commercial birds across the country and, in March, made the jump to dairy cows for the first time. As the number of affected animals grows, so does concern about spread to people. In the past, H5N1 has had a high mortality rate in humans and scientists are closely monitoring the virus to determine if it poses a pandemic risk. The US government currently has a stockpile of approved H5N1 vaccines, but today’s awards, which will go to CSL Seqirus, GSK and Sanofi, will double that amount.
“We expect to have a total of just over 10 million doses, filled and finished by the end of the first quarter of calendar year 2025,” said David Boucher, director of infectious disease preparedness and response at the Strategic Preparedness Administration. and Response, at a news conference on Friday.
Moderna, Pfizer and GSK are also working on mRNA vaccines for bird flu, but they must undergo human testing and be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration before they can be used.
This year, a total of 16 people in the United States have been infected with bird flu. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the last two casesboth in California, on Thursday night. The individuals are agricultural workers who had contact with infected dairy cows at two different facilities in the Central Valley, the epicenter of the state’s livestock outbreak. Both had mild symptoms, including red eyes, and are being treated with antiviral medications. None reported respiratory symptoms or were hospitalized.
Nirav Shah, principal deputy director of the CDC, said the new cases do not change the agency’s risk assessment for the general public, which remains low. “Finding these two cases was not unexpected,” he said during Friday’s briefing. “As there are more herds that test positive, there are more workers exposed, and where there are more workers exposed, the chances of human infection increase.”
Both California cases are believed to be cases of animal-to-human spread, with no known link or contact between the two. California health officials are tracking close contacts of workers, including household members who also work in the dairy sector.
In the coming days, the CDC says it will conduct additional testing on virus samples, including genetic sequencing to monitor any changes in the virus. Scientists are particularly interested in whether the virus is developing new mutations that could increase the likelihood of human-to-human transmission. The agency says there is no evidence that the virus can be transmitted from person to person at this time.
Of the 16 confirmed human cases, six have been linked to exposure to sick or infected dairy cows, while nine had exposure to infected poultry. The source of infection for one case in Missouri has not been determined.
