No indication of highly pathogenic avian influenza infections in Dutch cows

Authors:
Open Access
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Summary: After highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus was detected in dairy cows in the United States, concerns were that infections could have occurred in Dutch cattle despite having an effective monitoring and surveillance system. A total of 2,190 archived cattle serum samples from 367 different herds collected between January 2022 and February 2024 were selected risk-based for testing. Although 4 samples initially tested positive in an influenza A blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), a confirmatory Luminex H5/H7 assay showed that none of the samples had antibodies against H5, H7, and N1 to N9. The positive results in the ELISA were likely false positive. In conclusion, there is no indication that HPAI virus subtype H5N1 has circulated in cattle in the Netherlands between 2022 and 2024. This aligns with the absence of any indication for clinical cases in Dutch cattle over recent years in the national monitoring and surveillance system.
Funding Information
  • Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam

This publication has 28 references indexed in Scilit: