Federal agencies with competing interests are slowing the country’s ability to track and control an outbreak of highly virulent bird flu that for the first time is infecting cows in the United States, according to government officials and health and industry experts.

Colombia has restricted the import of beef and beef products coming from U.S. states where dairy cows have tested positive for avian influenza as of April 15, according the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

It is the first country to officially limit trade in beef due to bird flu in cows, in a sign of a broadening economic impact of the virus that has restricted poultry trade globally. Colombia imports a small amount of beef from the U.S. annually, according to government data and market analysts.

Samples of pasteurized milk on grocery store shelves have tested positive for remnants of the bird flu virus that has already infected herds of dairy cows, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Tuesday.

The FDA stressed that the material is inactivated and that the findings "do not represent [an] actual virus that may be a risk to consumers." Officials added that they're continuing to study the issue.

Bird flu virus, known as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) or H5N1, is a disease that is highly contagious and often deadly in poultry. 

In her three decades of working with elephant seals, Dr. Marcela Uhart had never seen anything like the scene on the beaches of Argentina’s Valdés Peninsula last October.

It was peak breeding season; the beach should have been teeming with harems of fertile females and enormous males battling one another for dominance. Instead, it was “just carcass upon carcass upon carcass,” recalled Dr. Uhart, who directs the Latin American wildlife health program at the University of California, Davis.

(WJET/WFXP)– A case of Hepatitis A has been confirmed in Erie County. The Department of Health said there are options available for those who may have possibly been exposed.

Cracker Barrel has released a statement saying measures are being taken from both corporate and the Department of Health to ensure everyone is safe.

That confirmed case was in a person who works at Cracker Barrel at 7810 Interstate Drive.

The Public Health Agency of Canada is strongly advising everyone in Canada to check that they’re fully immunized against measles, especially before travelling. Amid a global rise in measles, the agency says it’s concerned the upcoming March break travel season could lead to more cases of the highly contagious disease coming into this country. To be fully protected, both adults and children need to have received two doses of measles vaccine. The first dose of measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is usually given to babies at 12 to 15 months...

Cape Verde has reached a milestone not seen in sub-Saharan Africa in 50 years. The World Health Organization declared that Cape Verde, an island nation off the coast of West Africa, has not reported any locally-transmitted cases of malaria in three years. This is due to the country "strengthening its health systems and increasing access to diagnosis and treatment of all cases," BBC News said. In 2022, more than 580,000 people in Africa died of malaria, a mosquito-borne disease.

The number of newborns with syphilis in the United States surged more than 10-fold in the last decade, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Tuesday.

The agency said 3,761 cases were recorded in 2022, the highest in over 30 years, up from 334 cases in 2012. The 2022 cases included 231 stillbirths and 51 infant deaths.

Nine out of 10 cases might have been prevented with timely testing and treatment during pregnancy, said Laura Bachmann, chief medical officer in CDC's Division of STD Prevention.

A teenage mom delivered a baby boy in fetal distress at 25 weeks gestation. Doctors tried to resuscitate the child – with ventilation, cardiac compressions, chest tubes and other methods – to no avail. The neonatologist later discovered that the mother had a previously undiagnosed case of syphilis.