Report: A Utah mink farm is rife with bird flu

Between the lines: Humans have contracted bird flu, but none have spread it to others.

• If that happens, the virus could cause a pandemic that's deadlier than COVID, flu experts say.

The other side: In a statement to Axios, a state agriculture spokesperson wrote that the CDC says "the current risk to the general public remains low" and that the department "takes (bird flu) seriously."

• "UDAF has worked with state and federal partners to evaluate the situation, implement disease-control measures, and assess available response options."

• The spokesperson confirmed there's no plan to kill the mink.
• The farm owner and state health department didn't immediately respond to Axios' messages.

Catch up quick: State agriculture officials learned in August that mink at a farm northwest of Payson were dying from a bird flu strain that, when detected at a poultry farm, triggers the mandatory culling of the entire flock, ProPublica reports.

Yes, but: When farms have to kill poultry flocks, the federal government reimburses them. No such provision is funded for mink farmers.

Instead, Utah adopted a "sit and wait" approach, the state veterinarian told ProPublica.

• Federal ag officials said they had no protocols or vaccines for bird flu in mink, and a fur industry spokesperson said culling the herd would hurt business.

Friction point: Mink lungs have cell receptors that are similar to humans', making them likelier than birds or cattle to develop mutations that transmit to and among people, researchers say.

• Mink have previously spread other flus and COVID-19 to humans.
• Research on ferrets, which are similar to mink, has shown bird flu mutations that match human-type cell receptors.

The intrigue: Although the CDC recommends health officials monitor anyone in contact with an infected animal, that's not happening in Payson, ProPublica reports.

• Utah ag officials provide an outbreak's address and farm contact information to health officials only if a symptomatic patient is confirmed to have caught bird flu from an animal.

The latest: A worker on the Payson farm temporarily developed eye redness last week — often the only symptom in human cases.

• ProPublica alerted the farm owner, who contacted the Utah County Health Department. Officials there told him the worker would be tested only if he got sicker.

What they're saying: Health experts and researchers from multiple states describe the state and federal response to the Payson outbreak as "irresponsible," "puzzling" and "playing with fire."

• "It's amazing to me," Gail Hansen, a former Kansas state public health veterinarian and epidemiologist, told ProPublica. "Utah doesn't want to be the epicenter of the next human flu outbreak, right?"