The bird flu virus strain that infected a Texas dairy farm worker in March was lethal to ferrets in experiments designed to mimic the disease in humans, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Friday.
Seasonal flu, by contrast, makes ferrets sick but does not kill them, the CDC said.
Ferrets are considered the best small mammal for studying influenza virus infection and transmission and are commonly used as a tool to inform public health risk assessments of emerging influenza viruses, according to the CDC.
The strain of the (A)H5N1 avian influenza virus found in Texas spread easily among healthy ferrets when they were placed in direct contact with infected ferrets, the researchers found.
The virus was less efficient than other influenza strains at spreading by respiratory droplets, however.
This suggests that viruses like this one “would need to undergo changes to spread efficiently by droplets through the air, such as from coughs and sneezes,” the CDC said.
Bird flu has been reported in more than 80 dairy herds across 11 US states since late March. Scientists are on alert for changes in the virus that could signal it is adapting to spread more easily among humans.
Reuters reported earlier on Friday that US federal and state agencies are planning research into potential respiratory spread of bird flu among dairy cattle in a move aimed at guiding efforts to contain the virus and reduce exposure to humans. Respiratory spread could give the virus more opportunity to evolve, they said.
The US, Mexico and Australia have reported a total of five human cases of different versions of H5 bird flu since March. The three US cases were mild, with two dairy workers — one infected in Texas — experiencing just conjunctivitis, or pink eye, while a third case involved some respiratory symptoms.
The man in Mexico, who had other chronic conditions, died from multiple factors, the WHO said on Friday.
The new findings in ferrets “are not surprising and do not change CDC’s risk assessment for most people, which is low,” the agency said.
“The results do reinforce the need for people who have exposure to infected animals to take precautions and for public health and agriculture communities to continue to work together to prevent the spread of the virus to additional dairy herds and people.”
Texas bird flu strain kills ferrets used to mimic disease in humans, US CDC says
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Texas bird flu strain kills ferrets used to mimic disease in humans, US CDC says
Meeting diplomats, pope highlights inequality, injustice
The 69-year-old, who became the first US head of the Catholic Church on May 8, also highlighted climate change, migration and artificial intelligence as some of the world's key challenges.
"In this time of epochal change, the Holy See cannot fail to make its voice heard in the face of the many imbalances and injustices that lead, not least, to unworthy working conditions and increasingly fragmented and conflict-ridden societies," the pontiff said.
"Every effort should be made to overcome the global inequalities -- between opulence and destitution -- that are carving deep divides between continents, countries and even within individual societies."
The son of a father of French and Italian descent and a mother with Spanish origins, the Chicago-born pontiff recalled how "my own story is that of a citizen, the descendant of immigrants, who in turn chose to emigrate".
"All of us, in the course of our lives, can find ourselves healthy or sick, employed or unemployed, living in our native land or in a foreign country, yet our dignity always remains unchanged: it is the dignity of a creature willed and loved by God."
The pope, who spent around two decades as a missionary in Peru, added that "my own life experience, which has spanned North America, South America and Europe, has been marked by this aspiration to transcend borders in order to encounter different peoples and cultures".
He highlighted as "challenges of our time" issues including "migration, the ethical use of artificial intelligence and the protection of our beloved planet Earth".
Leo has made several calls for peace in his first week as pontiff, echoing his late predecessor, Pope Francis.
Within this context, he said there was "a need to give new life to multilateral diplomacy and to those international institutions conceived and designed primarily to remedy eventual disputes within the international community".
Citing traditional Catholic values, he emphasised the importance of "investing in the family, founded upon the stable union between a man and a woman".
He also encouraged "respect for the dignity of every person, especially the most frail and vulnerable, from the unborn to the elderly, from the sick to the unemployed, citizens and immigrants alike".
Although the audience was private, the audio of Leo's speech was relayed to journalists in the Vatican press office, with an official transcript provided.
Iran, European powers to hold nuclear talks in Turkiye
TEHRAN: Iran is set to hold talks with Britain, France and Germany in Turkiye on Friday, after US President Donald Trump said a nuclear deal with Tehran was "getting close".
The Istanbul meeting follows Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi's warning of "irreversible" consequences if the European powers move to reimpose United Nations sanctions on Iran that were lifted under a 2015 deal.
The so-called E3 were parties to that agreement along with China, Russia and the United States.
But Trump effectively torpedoed the deal during his first term in 2018, by unilaterally abandoning it and reimposing sanctions on Iran's banking sector and oil exports.
A year later, Iran responded by rolling back its own commitments under the deal, which provided relief from sanctions in return for UN-monitored restrictions on Iran's nuclear activities.
The three European powers have been weighing whether to trigger the 2015 deal's "snapback" mechanism, which would reinstate UN sanctions in response to Iranian non-compliance -- an option that expires in October.
Such a stance "risks provoking a global nuclear proliferation crisis that would primarily affect Europeans themselves, Iran's top diplomat warned.
However, writing in the French weekly Le Point, he also noted that Tehran was "ready to turn the page" in its relations with Europe.
Friday's meeting with the European powers comes less than a week after a fourth round of Iran-US nuclear talks which Tehran called "difficult but useful", and after which a US official said Washington was "encouraged".
Araghchi said Friday's talks will be at deputy foreign ministers level.
Ahead of the talks, China, which held recent talks with Iran on its nuclear programme, said it remained "committed to promoting a political and diplomatic settlement of the Iran issue."
It also "valued Iran's commitment to not develop nuclear weapons, respected Iran's peaceful use of nuclear energy and opposed all illegal unilateral sanctions," according to Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian.
Speaking on a visit to Qatar Thursday, Trump said the United States was "getting close" to a deal with Iran that would avert military action.
"We're not going to be making any nuclear dust in Iran," he said.
The Oman-mediated Iran-US talks were the highest-level contact between the two foes since Washington abandoned the nuclear accord in 2018.
Since returning to office, Trump has revived his "maximum pressure" policy on Tehran, backing nuclear diplomacy but warning of military action if it fails.
On Thursday, US news website Axios reported that the Trump administration had given Iran a "written proposal" for a deal during the fourth round of talks on Sunday.
Araghchi denied the report, saying "we have not been given anything".
He added however that "we are ready to build trust and transparency about our nuclear programme in response to the lifting of sanctions."
Trump has said he presented Iran's leadership with an "olive branch", adding that it was an offer that would not last for ever.
He further threatened to impose "massive maximum pressure", including driving Iranian oil exports to zero if talks failed.
Iran currently enriches uranium to 60 percent, far above the 3.67 percent limit set in the 2015 deal but below the 90 percent needed for a nuclear warhead.
Tehran insists its right to continue enriching uranium for peaceful purposes is "non-negotiable" but says it would be open to temporary restrictions on how much uranium it enriches and to what level.
On Wednesday, Iran's atomic energy agency chief Mohammad Eslami reiterated that Tehran "does not seek nuclear militarisation", adding that enrichment was under the supervision of the UN nuclear watchdog.
"The dismantling of enrichment is not accepted by Iran," he stressed.
EU chief vows to 'increase pressure' until Putin ready for peace
TIRANA: EU chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed Europe would "increase the pressure" until Russia's Vladimir Putin is ready for peace, as the first talks in three years between Moscow and Kyiv got underway in Turkey.
"We will increase the pressure," von der Leyen told reporters at a gathering of European leaders in Tirana, saying work was underway on a new package of sanctions. "We want peace and we have to increase the pressure until President Putin is ready for it," she said.
Putin made ‘mistake’ sending ‘low-level’ team to Ukraine talks: NATO chief
TIRANA: NATO chief Mark Rutte said Vladimir Putin had made a “big mistake” sending a lower-rank Russian delegation to conduct Friday’s first direct peace talks with Ukraine in three years.
“He knows extremely well that the ball is in his court, that he is in trouble, that he made a big mistake by sending this low-level delegation,” Rutte told reporters at a gathering of European leaders in Tirana. “He has to be serious about wanting peace. So I think all the pressure is now on Putin.”
Rubio meets top Turkiye, Ukraine officials ahead of war talks
ISTANBUL: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was meeting with top Turkish and Ukrainian officials in Istanbul Friday, ahead of the first direct Russia-Ukraine talks in three years, officials on both sides said.
Rubio had on Thursday played down hope of progress at the meeting, saying "we don't have high expectations," but has nonetheless flown in to throw his weight behind the effort.
After landing in Turkey's largest city, Rubio went straight into talks at Dolmabahce Palace with his Turkish and Ukrainian counterparts, Hakan Fidan and Andriy Sybiga, respectively.
Also present at the meeting were Washington's envoy to Turkiye Tom Barrack and the US envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg as well as Ukraine's presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak and Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, a Turkish foreign ministry source said.
Official photos from the meeting showed that Turkiye's spy chief Ibrahim Kalin was also present as was its former Moscow envoy, Mehmet Samsar.
Rubio himself was not expected to join the peace talks.
A source at Turkiye's foreign ministry had initially said the Russia-Ukraine talks would begin at 0930 GMT, although other officials said the exact timings appeared to be in flux.
Also ahead of the talks, Michael Anton, the State Department head of policy planning, was to hold a meeting with the Russian delegation at Dolmabahce, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.
Zelensky sent a pared-down team to the Istanbul talks after Russia showed up with a relatively low-level delegation.
Neither Sybiga nor Yermak are part of the Ukrainian delegation to the talks, which will be led by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov.
The Russian side is headed by Vladimir Medinsky, a hawkish adviser to Putin who has questioned Ukraine's right to exist and led failed talks at the start of the war.
