CDC says bird flu viruses "pose pandemic potential," cites major knowledge gaps

Key Facts

• Epidemiologists from the agency were ultimately unable to access a Texas dairy farm where a human was infected with the virus in March, they disclosed in attachments to the report published Friday by the New England Journal of Medicine.
• They also were unable to collect follow-up samples from the dairy farm worker or their contacts, which could have revealed missed cases as well as tracking the virus and antibodies against it in the body after an infection.
• H5N1 was likely spreading through dairy farms via the high concentrations of the virus found in the raw milk of infected cows, authorities said previously.
• A mutation to the virus in wild birds, a specific "clade" of the virus that scientists call 2.3.4.4b, appears to have enabled bird flu to jump into cows.

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