Newly released wastewater surveillance data suggests Michigan is a national hot spot for the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus that’s infecting poultry, dairy cows and other mammals across the U.S., and has also been identified in three farmworkers — two in Michigan.
Researchers told the Free Press they’re still trying to understand exactly why samples from all six of Michigan’s wastewater testing sites monitored by WastwaterSCAN show high levels of the H5 influenza A virus — the most detections of any of the 38 states with sampling sites — even in areas like Jackson and Warren, where there are no known H5N1 outbreaks among dairy cows, poultry or people this year.
“It’s clear that there’s something going on,” said Marisa Eisenberg, an associate professor in the departments of epidemiology, complex systems and mathematics at the University of Michigan. “We have had questions like: Are we having so much activity for H5N1 in general in Michigan because we’re looking for it or is it that we are really a hot spot? I think the wastewater is really telling us that we actually are seeing more activity for H5 than other places are.
“Now as for why, that is a fascinating question. I don’t feel like we have a handle on it yet.”