Dr. Seema Lakdawala
Appearances
Science Vs
The War Keeps Raging Against Science
Yeah, so it's not as though this order is coming down into something that is the equivalent of the Wild West. It's like, finally, regulations.
Science Vs
The War Keeps Raging Against Science
So it's maybe it's fixing something that's not necessarily broken.
Science Vs
Bird Flu: The Next Pandemic?
You wish it were a 90s band, Wendy. And here's Seema. When a cow is sick, like say with H5 or with any bacterial infection, it has to be milked, right? It's inhumane to not milk a lactating cow. And so it is this like yogurt, chunkety milk, right? The smesitis milk. So it does not make it into our drinking milk.
Science Vs
Bird Flu: The Next Pandemic?
It gets collected separately, and then it is poured into, typically on farms, into what's called a manure lagoon. Oh, no. And this manure lagoon is this large area where there's water, so there's always birds feeding at it. The milk is not treated, in most cases, before it is poured into the manure lagoon.
Science Vs
Bird Flu: The Next Pandemic?
And again, just to remind you, like I said, 10 million to 100 million infectious virus particles per small milliliter. Wow. This is one of the ways we think that peridomestic animals on farms, near farms, are getting infected, right? Because it's just in the environment. Oh, no.
Science Vs
Bird Flu: The Next Pandemic?
For the first time, bird flu has claimed a human life in the U.S.
Science Vs
Bird Flu: The Next Pandemic?
That's right, because this feels like it was a threshold, an alarm bell sounding.
Science Vs
Bird Flu: The Next Pandemic?
There has been no documented human-to-human transmission. Does that mean it hasn't happened? No.
Science Vs
Bird Flu: The Next Pandemic?
What we're allowing this virus to do is take a thousand shots on goal every day, maybe 10,000 shots on goal. When would you worry? I'm already worried. Sorry, if that's not coming across, let me make it very clear. I am worried. Given all of this, right, I asked Richard.
Science Vs
Bird Flu: The Next Pandemic?
I would say 2021, where like birds were just falling out of the sky dead.
Science Vs
Bird Flu: The Next Pandemic?
Yeah. Yeah, that's their description. We've had more birds fall out of the sky. Like, it is bad.
Science Vs
Bird Flu: The Next Pandemic?
Right. But here is SEMA. Every time a virus, like a bird virus, gets into a mammal, it can then adapt to that mammal, right? Because viruses change. We know this. COVID, right? Omicron, Delta. Like, you know, I'm saying things that people remember. Viruses change when they infect hosts.
Science Vs
Bird Flu: The Next Pandemic?
We've had sporadic spillover events from birds into seals in lots of different places, right? You might remember this. seal outbreaks.
Science Vs
Bird Flu: The Next Pandemic?
The biggest shift in my perspective happened in March and April of 2024. That was when it was first identified in cattle. Cattle? Why?
Science Vs
Bird Flu: The Next Pandemic?
Yeah. So I'll tell you two reasons why I think it's really important. The first one is that they're farm animals. They're domestic. Humans have a lot of interaction with these animals. Right. compared to, say, seals. She's like, cattle?
Science Vs
Bird Flu: The Next Pandemic?
So this is where like the milk from a cow becomes like yogurt-y and yellow-y and chunky. And it's typically caused by bacteria.
Science Vs
Bird Flu: The Next Pandemic?
Yeah. And so then a veterinarian went on the farm and noticed some dead birds and a neurologically sick cat, like a cat with neurological symptoms.
Science Vs
Bird Flu: The Next Pandemic?
And what they found was like massive amounts of virus in the milk. And when I talk about massive amounts, like it is scary how much virus is in the milk of a cow. And I'm talking 10 million to 100 million infectious particles in one milliliter. One milliliter of milk. Oh, gosh.
Science Vs
Bird Flu: The Next Pandemic?
So this is also one of the most interesting things that I've learned.