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University of Nebraska Medical Center

Bird flu virus found in Los Angeles County wastewater

Los Angeles Times Los Angeles County health officials said they have detected H5N1 bird flu virus in wastewater collected from the A.K. Warren Water Resource Facility in Carson.

The viral “hit” was detected on Oct. 28 by WastewaterSCAN, an infectious disease monitoring network run by researchers at Stanford, Emory University and Verily, Alphabet Inc.’s life sciences organization.

Hits were also seen during the last week in San José, Redwood City, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Marina and Turlock. The Carson plant processes wastewater from roughly 50% of L.A. County’s population, said Annabelle de St. Maurice, the L.A. County Department of Public Health’s director of community outbreak and syndromic surveillance. Officials say they have not identified the source of the virus, but suggested a few possibilities, including discarded contaminated animal products and infected wild bird droppings. They are also “actively engaging key risk groups,” including dairy and meat-processing sites nearby.

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