By Jessica Rodriguez
The United States is currently grappling with the impact of the H5N1 avian influenza spilling over into dairy cows, poultry, and humans, raising concerns about public health, animal welfare, and food security (1). This has led to a national effort to monitor and survey dairy and poultry farms specifically for H5N1. However, as human and livestock populations continue to grow, the risk of undetected pathogens replicating in livestock and potentially spilling over to humans increases.
In the absence of an obvious epidemic, many farmers are hesitant to collaborate with government agencies for surveillance programs due to past negative experiences or fears of economic losses. For this reason, early detection programs for zoonotic diseases in livestock farms are typically conducted by trusted organizations with established relationships within farming communities. UTMB One Health is one such trusted group, working closely with livestock farms to provide real-time surveillance of pathogens circulating among livestock and farm workers.
The UTMB One Health Laboratory is working on an ongoing epidemiological study of respiratory viruses on livestock farms across the United States and Mexico, which is supported by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant from the American Rescue Plan Act (award number 2023-70432-39558) through USDA APHIS and from USDA-ARS Agreement 58-3022-4-048. Recently, this study has found evidence of a novel rodent coronavirus-like (RCoV) that was associated with respiratory disease in cattle. In February 2024, the One Health team, in collaboration with researchers from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL), visited four beef cattle farms near Monterrey, Mexico. Their findings were recently published in the scientific journal Viruses as a brief report (2) outlining the detection of a novel RCoV. The recent report was led by Ismaila Shittu, MSc, PhD, Dean Gustavo Hernández Vidal, DVM, PhD (UANL), Judith Oguzie, DVM, PhD (UTMB), Professor Gustavo Moreno Degollado, DVM (UANL), and Professor Gregory Gray, MD, MPH, FIDSA (UTMB). Rodents tend to congregate in areas where food is abundant, making livestock farms an ideal environment for their presence. While it may be tempting to attribute this finding to rodent-contaminated feed, the virus was detected only in sick cattle and in the air from a single farm. This suggests that RCoV is likely contributing to the respiratory illness observed in these cattle. Given that previous reports indicate RCoV's ability to cross species barriers, this study may represent an unprecedented spillover event. More interesting, a very similar virus was recently found to be associated with a child’s severe illness in South Korea (3).
While the immediate threat of H5N1 remains a priority for public health, this study underscores the importance of continued surveillance for novel coronaviruses and other emerging viruses in livestock. Previous investigations by Professor Gray’s teams have identified a number of spillover events between humans and animals. These findings reinforce the need to closely monitor the animal-human interface to better prepare for future pandemics. Such will require close partnerships and trust between human health, animal health, and agricultural professionals.
Source : utmb.edu