Avian flu found in dairy cows

Cigarettes and coffee

Well, I am not very fond of shorter e-mails, but I will need to make shorter e-mails today and tomorrow to keep a central theme to each “article”. I also feel obligated to share this amazing artist with you.

If you were not paying attention in the last few days events that most likely will dictate the next 18 months took place, but this is not the place to discuss these.

If you want a quick reminder though, terrorists killed over a hundred Russians, Ukrainians sabotaged Russia's infrastructure, Russia cut oil production drastically (which will affect global prices), and someone drove an IED-car (a car carrying a lot of explosives) into a vehicle carrying Chinese citizens (mimicking how years ago someone assassinated Western spies in a similar fashion), and a ship destroyed a critical infrastructure point in the US, which will affect shipping, energy exports to Europe, chemical transport inside the US.

And these are just the physical events, weather and geopolitical occurrences would make this a substantially big list.

And on the other side… *sneezes

For quite a long while I followed the Avian Flu pandemic very closely, but I decided to stop writing about this at every event because I was getting bored, not bored following and reading about it, but bored with meaningless updates. So far the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) strain circulating the world killed, roughly over 25% of the world’s commercial flocks.

And while I stopped updating every single event, it jumped species. It has infected different mammals for a while around the world, with the poor sea lions taking the brunt of it, most likely because they live in large communities.

A list that is routinely updated can be found here

No, did need not to write this shorter article because it killed a few more mammals here and there. I did because it jumped to something closer to home.

Bird flu discovered in U.S. dairy cows is ‘disturbing’

Scientist who tracks infections on cattle farms discusses implications of recently announced virus detections

Three U.S. states—Texas, Kansas, and New Mexico—on 25 March reported cows sickened with what scientists are presuming is the same H5N1 strain of influenza that has killed hundreds of millions of poultry and wild birds.

The cattle infections are spoiling milk and causing limited disease in mostly older animals. Dead birds have also been found on some of the farms, which may explain the source of the virus. Public health officials have stressed that the risk to humans from the virus remains low.

The so-called highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus spreading in birds has already been documented to infect dozens of other mammalian species, but rarely spreads between them. Earlier this month, HPAI was found in a goat in Minnesota, the first case in U.S. livestock.

A: In some ways. These influenza viruses are changing all the time, and there’s pretty good evidence that all four types have been infecting cattle for a number of years. In fact, there’s a very nice report published in 2019. But in that same report, the authors said that maybe there’s something about the cattle that makes them sort of immune to serious disease and transmission? Well, something has changed, because there’s a multiple state epizootic with animals becoming ill, and the likelihood that the transmission is from cow to cow and farm to farm is much higher than before.

While I am not entirely aligned with the editorial word choice, this is another important change in variables and turn of events that is worth mentioning. As the article itself states, cows are often resistant to this form of infection and disease, and while the cows didn’t die, they got symptomatically sick, which isn’t common.

A factory farming scenario is horrible precisely because it is a breeding ground for adaptation and mutations, especially for something like Influenza, which mutates absurdly fast (losing only for now to SARS-CoV-2, it may get its first place back in the near future).

Researchers and scientists alike are still discussing the transmission route but to me is self-evident. Aerosols like most respiratory viruses, dropping from birds may help, and so would sharing food or water. Some of you may remember that one of my existential dreads is a specific strain of Avian Flu, H10N3, which has all the hallmarks of gain of function. H10N3 infects avians and mammals alike, but it causes no symptomatic disease in birds and devastates mammals.

There is a twofer here. SARS-CoV-2 co-infections with influenza cause super-infections, which is already a problem, and Omicron infections themselves shift the long-term immune response against influenza, which explains all the weird epidemiological patterns and stronger (but not fatal) influenza waves in the past 18 months.

There is another mechanism by which each SARS will enhance Influenza, but I will discuss it separately because it plays a significant role in, basically every mechanism I ever wrote about. The second part of this is the US government shipping and funding Gain of Function research in China on Avian Influenza.

Another mild bumpy ride in our future is the endless insanity of using a platform that has been thoroughly categorized as almost useless to provide mucosal immunity, the one necessary to stopping respiratory infections. Using mRNA to vaccinate animals, with the first project being avian flu. Months ago a group of researchers proposed genetically engineering chickens using CRISPR to make them resistant to the flu, it took a few months but criticisms can now be found online.

Should you be worried ? No. But knowing is half the battle, and being prepared is better than being surprised. But, to end this on a high note, if there is ever a pandemic of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, may I suggest you start smoking at that time ?

Source

Mice were exposed to cigarette smoke (Peace®, 28 mg of tar, 2.3 mg of nicotine/cigarette, Japan Tobacco Inc., Tokyo, Japan)

First, smoking is vehemently bad for you, nicotine isn’t, but smoking industrialized cigarettes is. In simplistic terms, exposure to cigarette smoke provides what I will call “inflammatory interference”, it augments the expression of inflammatory proteins, and when the mice are exposed to the virus, while theoretically possible for even greater production of inflammation, it is milder and lower compared to other mice. In a great irony, the smoke causes damage that hinders the virus's life cycle.

Nicotine itself may also play a role here, since nicotine is an immuno-suppressive and potent anti-inflammatory, especially with chronic use. Of course, the same supplements and substances one took or takes for Covid will work with many Influenza viruses, the trick is a proper, optimal immune function to avoid disease progression. With my favorite amino acid, NAC disrupting many strains. Berberine and Metformin too, and most likely many other supplements.


And just as a means to add meaningful information.

Genetic investigation into the broad health implications of caffeine: evidence from phenome-wide, proteome-wide and metabolome-wide Mendelian randomization

Results

Higher levels of genetically predicted circulating caffeine among caffeine consumers were associated with a lower risk of obesity (odds ratio (OR) per standard deviation increase in caffeine = 0.97, 95% confidence interval (CI) CI: 0.95—0.98, p = 2.47 × 10⁻⁴), osteoarthrosis (OR = 0.97, 95% CI: 0.96—0.98, P=1.10 × 10⁻⁸) and osteoarthritis (OR: 0.97, 95% CI: 0.96 to 0.98, P = 1.09 × 10⁻⁶). Approximately one third of the protective effect of plasma caffeine on osteoarthritis risk was estimated to be mediated through lower bodyweight. Proteomic and metabolomic perturbations indicated lower chronic inflammation, improved lipid profiles, and altered protein and glycogen metabolism as potential biological mechanisms underlying these effects.

Conclusions

We report novel evidence suggesting that long-term increases in circulating caffeine may reduce bodyweight and the risk of osteoarthrosis and osteoarthritis. We confirm prior genetic evidence of a protective effect of plasma caffeine on risk of overweight and obesity. Further clinical study is warranted to understand the translational relevance of these findings before clinical practice or lifestyle interventions related to caffeine consumption are introduced.

*sips coffee

Thank you for your support !