Health
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- The U.S. Department of Agriculture is studying pigs, cows and other animals at Iowa’s National Animal Disease Center in an attempt to stop the burgeoning bird flu outbreak.
- Scientists were surprised to suddenly discover infections in the udders and milk of dairy cows this year, as the influenza virus is typically considered a respiratory disease.
- Bird flu was first identified in 1959. Since then, it has been detected in a growing number of animals ranging from dogs and cats to sea lions and polar bears, and now dairy cows.
At first glance, it looks like an unassuming farm. Cows are scattered across fenced-in fields. A milking barn sits in the distance with a tractor parked alongside. But the people who work there are not farmers, and other buildings look more like what you’d find at a modern university than in a cow pasture.
Welcome to the National Animal Disease Center, a government research facility in Iowa where 43 scientists work with pigs, cows and other animals, pushing to solve the bird flu outbreak currently spreading through U.S. animals — and develop ways to stop it.
Particularly important is the testing of a cow vaccine designed to stop the continued spread of the virus — thereby, hopefully, reducing the risk that it will someday become a widespread disease in people.
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture facility opened in 1961 in Ames, a college town about 45 minutes north of Des Moines. The center is located on a pastoral, 523-acre site a couple of miles east of Ames’ low-slung downtown.
It’s a quiet place with a rich history. Through the years, researchers there developed vaccines against various diseases that endanger pigs and cattle, including hog cholera and brucellosis. And work there during the H1N1 flu pandemic in 2009 — known at the time as “swine flu” — proved the virus was confined to the respiratory tract of pigs and that pork was safe to eat.
The center has the unusual resources and experience to do that kind of work, said Richard Webby, a prominent flu researcher at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.
A large animal containment building is seen on the campus of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Animal Disease Center research facility in Ames, Iowa, on Aug. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
“That’s not a capacity that many places in the U.S. have,” said Webby, who has been collaborating with the Ames facility on the cow vaccine work.
The campus has 93 buildings, including a high-containment laboratory building whose exterior is reminiscent of a modern megachurch but inside features a series of compartmentalized corridors and rooms, some containing infected animals. That’s where scientists work with more dangerous germs, including the H5N1 bird flu. There’s also a building with three floors of offices that houses animal disease researchers as well as a testing center that is a “for animals” version of the CDC labs in Atlanta that identify rare (and sometimes scary) new human infections.
About 660 people work at the campus — roughly a third of them assigned to the animal disease center, which has a $38 million annual budget. They were already busy with a wide range of projects but grew even busier this year after the H5N1 bird flu unexpectedly jumped into U.S. dairy cows.
“It’s just amazing how people just dig down and make it work,” said Mark Ackermann, the center’s director.
The virus was first identified in 1959 and grew into a widespread and highly lethal menace to migratory birds and domesticated poultry. Meanwhile, the virus evolved, and in the past few years has been detected in a growing number of animals ranging from dogs and cats to sea lions and polar bears.
Despite the spread in different animals, scientists were still surprised this year when infections were suddenly detected in cows — specifically, in the udders and milk of dairy cows. It’s not unusual for bacteria to cause udder infections, but a flu virus?
“Typically we think of influenza as being a respiratory disease,” said Kaitlyn Sarlo Davila, a researcher at the Ames facility.
Much of the research on the disease has been conducted at a USDA poultry research center in Athens, Georgia, but the appearance of the virus in cows pulled the Ames center into the mix.
Amy Baker, a researcher who has won awards for her research on flu in pigs, is now testing a vaccine for cows. Preliminary results are expected soon, she said.
USDA spokesperson Shilo Weir called the work promising but early in development. There is not yet an approved bird flu vaccine being used at U.S. poultry farms, and Weir said that while poultry vaccines are being pursued, any such strategy would be challenging and would not be guaranteed to eliminate the virus.
Baker and other researchers also have been working on studies in which they try to see how the virus spreads between cows. That work is going on in the high-containment building, where scientists and animal caretakers don specialized respirators and other protective equipment.
The research exposed four yearling heifers to a virus-carrying mist and then squirted the virus into the teats and udders of two lactating cows. The first four cows got infected but had few symptoms. The second two got sicker — suffering diminished appetite, a drop in milk production and producing thick, yellowish milk.
The conclusion that the virus mainly spread through exposure to milk containing high levels of the virus — which could then spread through shared milking equipment or other means — was consistent with what health investigators understood to be going on. But it was important to do the work because it has sometimes been difficult to get complete information from dairy farms, Webby said.
“At best we had some good hunches about how the virus was circulating, but we didn’t really know,” he added.
USDA scientists are doing additional work, checking the blood of calves that drank raw milk for signs of infection.
A study conducted by the Iowa center and several universities concluded that the virus was likely circulating for months before it was officially reported in Texas in March.
The study also noted a new and rare combination of genes in the bird flu virus that spilled over into the cows, and researchers are sorting out whether that enabled it to spread to cows, or among cows, said Tavis Anderson, who helped lead the work.
Either way, the researchers in Ames expect to be busy for years.
“Do they (cows) have their own unique influenzas? Can it go from a cow back into wild birds? Can it go from a cow into a human? Cow into a pig?” Anderson added. “Understanding those dynamics, I think, is the outstanding research question — or one of them.”
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After a season of bingeing and drinking, your body may feel like it needs a break from the party.
Dry January — a modern trend that challenges people to abstain from drinking for the first month of the year — has become a popular way to “detox” from the holidays and start the new year on a healthy note.
Research has linked alcohol to a variety of health conditions, ranging from hangovers to higher cancer risk.
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In a recent podcast episode of “The Dr. Mark Hyman Show,” Dr. Mark Hyman, chief medical officer of Function Health, shared how 30 days of not drinking alcohol can transform health.
Hyman, who is based in Massachusetts, called Dry January a “powerful way to see in real time how alcohol affects nearly every system of your body and how quickly those systems can recover.”
Dry January has become a popular way to “detox” from the holidays and start the new year on a healthy note. (iStock)
Alcohol’s toll on the brain and body
Hyman acknowledged that most people drink to feel happier and more comfortable in social situations. This effect is caused by the main ingredient in alcohol, called ethanol, which can also have toxic effects.
Instead of stimulating the brain, alcohol slows it down and loosens inhibitions. “You feel more relaxed, more social, more confident, maybe you feel a little euphoric,” Hyman said.
Alcohol’s effect on the brain can also lead to poorer decisions and slower reflexes, the doctor cautioned.
Drinking alcohol can cause cognitive decline and brain fog, experts warn. (iStock)
Drinking also impacts the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which Hyman described as “the adult in the room,” responsible for judgment, planning and restraint. “It goes offline early in drinking, which explains why people feel freer or act impulsively when they drink,” he said.
Even moderate drinking can cause metabolic stress, inflammation, impaired detoxification and hormonal shifts, Hyman said, which can impact nearly every organ system in the body.
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Alcohol consumption has also been linked to an increased risk of cancer, metabolic dysfunction, gut microbiome disturbances and mitochondrial toxins.
It can also prevent the body from falling into REM sleep, which is the deep rest recovery period when the immune system cleans out the day’s toxins, according to Hyman.
Alcohol can impact deep rest and mental health, according to experts. (iStock)
Memory loss, cognitive decline, anxiety, sleep disruption, dementia and cardiovascular disease are all known risks of long-term alcohol use, as well as liver complications like fatty liver disease.
“Bottom line, alcohol taxes every major system in your body, especially your liver, your brain, your gut, your hormones,” Hyman said.
The effects of 30 days with no alcohol
The first week after your last drink, the body begins to detoxify and reset, according to Hyman. Blood sugar and cortisol stress hormones level out, and the liver begins to process a “backlog of toxins.” The body also re-hydrates and re-energizes.
The first 30 days with no alcohol allows the body to balance itself out. (iStock)
The second week, the gut and brain will begin to re-balance, as hormones like serotonin and dopamine stabilize, gut inflammation drops and the microbiome begins to heal. Cravings for sugar and alcohol will wane and mental clarity returns, the doctor said.
Week three is marked by further decreases in inflammation, fatty liver and blood pressure. This can be noticeable in the skin, as puffiness and redness are reduced. Mood also begins to stabilize, with lower anxiety levels.
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In week four, the body experiences additional metabolic and immune benefits, Hyman shared, including more insulin sensitivity, which makes it easier to lose weight.
“You have a stronger immune response. You’re not getting sick as much. You have better deep sleep, balanced hormones, especially cortisol and testosterone,” he said. “And you see a big change in energy, confidence and focus.”
Abstaining from alcohol can help restore energy, according to experts. (iStock)
Dr. Pinchieh Chiang, a clinician at Circle Medical in San Francisco, said that Dry January isn’t a “detox,” but rather provides “feedback” from the body.
“It gives the body time to show people how it feels without alcohol. For many, that insight alone changes their relationship with drinking,” she said. “The biggest surprise isn’t what people give up, it’s how much better they feel.”
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The doctor confirmed that the first few days of not drinking may feel harder than expected, sometimes causing restlessness, cravings or disrupted sleep, but Dry January can ultimately change drinking habits for the remainder of the year.
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After a full year without alcohol, Chiang noted that health improvements are more profound. “We see sustained improvements in blood pressure, liver function and inflammation,” she said. “Those changes directly affect long-term heart disease and stroke risk.”
The risks of ‘all or nothing’
Some experts warn that adopting the Dry January trend could strengthen the urge to drink more in the other months, noting that some drinkers may find more success by slowly consuming fewer drinks per week.
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Thomas Stopka, Ph.D., an epidemiologist and professor in the public health and community medicine department at Tufts University School of Medicine in Massachusetts, shared in a Futurity report that for some people, “damp January” may be more suitable.
One expert warned that not all drinkers should quit “cold turkey,” as it could lead to severe withdrawals. (iStock)
“Dry January is well-intentioned, and it may work really well for the people who can stick to it, maybe even beyond January,” he said. “Other people may be more inclined to cut down on alcohol consumption rather than quit drinking completely for the month.”
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Stopka noted that successful harm-reduction approaches “aim to be judgment free.”
“Substance use disorder is a disease,” he said. “It takes time to treat the disease and to stay connected to the continuum of care — from prevention to treatment initiation to sustained therapy, whether through medication, self-help, or individual therapy or group support.”
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Those struggling with signs of alcohol use disorder should consult a medical professional for personalized guidance.
Fox News Digital reached out to several alcohol industry associations requesting comment.
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