After another case of H5N1 avian flu linked to dairy cows was confirmed in a second dairy farmer in the United States, some Canadian experts say the federal government needs to expand surveillance of the virus north of the border. "We need to expand, in my opinion, to conducting serological surveillance, which means looking for antibodies that might suggest a past exposure either in dairy workers or in cattle," said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist with the University of Saskatchewan's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization. Download the CTV News App for breaking news alerts and video on all the top stories "We need to continue to work with our colleagues in the U.
S. as well to make sure that we are targeting surveillance appropriately," she added. The virus has spread widely among cattle in the United States and as of Wednesday H5N1 has been confirmed in 51 dairy herds in nine states, according to the U.
S. Agriculture Department. Surveillance south of the border has ramped up to include monitoring people exposed to infected animals, wastewater testing and enhanced nationwide summer monitoring of the virus.
Should we be worried? "The risk to the general public right now is low," said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, Infectious disease specialist at the Toronto General Hospital. "The concern, of course, is that if this virus has some additional mutations that make it more readily transmissible between mammals, it would be problematic.
" The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is testing for vi.
