In March 2024, a Texas farm owner contacted Professor Gregory Gray, who leads the UTMB One Health Laboratory, regarding an outbreak of respiratory illnesses that was affecting their cattle. Professor Gray encouraged the farm and its managers to send the One Health Laboratory specimens from sick and healthy cattle as the One Health Laboratory has unique tools to detect and characterize emerging viruses. The farm swabbed 30 cows, both sick and healthy, and sent the samples to UTMB. The samples were screened from viruses from six different viral families and multiple samples had molecular evidence of influenza A virus1. While not unknown internationally, influenza A has rarely been detected as a health problem among US cattle. Further characterization revealed the virus to be of the highly pathogenic avian H5N1 variety. The investigation was spearheaded in the laboratory by Drs. Judith Oguzie, and Lyudmyla Marushchak, who share between them a wealth of experience in outbreak investigation.
Dr. Judith Oguzie joined UTMB’s One Health Laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow in February of 2024. She brought a wealth of expertise in molecular surveillance and pathogen discovery. Trained in Nigeria, she earned her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM), Master of Science, and PhD, equipping her with a strong foundation for investigating emerging infectious diseases. Dr. Oguzie has been at the forefront of outbreak response, leveraging next-generation sequencing and metagenomic analysis to uncover novel and re-emerging pathogens. Her work has been instrumental in detecting a number of viruses, including Mpox virus, yellow fever virus, dengue virus, Lassa fever virus, and a newly identified dicistrovirus in sick people.2
Dr. Marushchak joined the UTMB One Health Laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow in November 2022. She received her training in Ukraine. For more than a decade she worked for the State Scientific Research Institute of Laboratory Diagnostics and Veterinary and Sanitary Expertise in Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine in which she also earned her PhD in veterinary science. Dr. Marushchak took an active part in developing the practical skills and scientific potential of viral laboratory diagnostics, advancing Ukraine’s biosafety and biosecurity capabilities. Her experiences have drawn from epidemiologic surveillance of infectious disease; pathogens she has investigated include African and classical swine fever, Newcastle disease, Q-fever, and avian influenza.3
In our discussion, both scientists emphasized the value of a healthy relationship with the food production industry. Epidemics are commonly traced back to these economic powerhouses – that of beef, poultry, or swine, for example – and trust is essential to determining a cause. A farm may be hesitant to participate in One Health-oriented research, fearing repercussions from the detection of an outbreak; transparency in communication can thus help to alleviate these fears and foster productive investigation. As Dr. Oguzie puts it, “we as scientists need to become better at communicating to the layman in a way they understand, so they don’t think we are hiding something”. She is familiar with mistrust between academia and industry; she is also committed to improving it.
The identification of HPAI H5N1 in Texas cattle is an important discovery in a landscape of epizootic transmission. Drs. Oguzie and Marushchak provide expertise in these investigations, derived from both their distinct backgrounds abroad and their growing laboratory repertoire at UTMB. They plan to continue to build relationships with industry stakeholders and build on a foundation of viral characterization that is shared with labs around the world.
References
- Oguzie, J. U., Marushchak, L. V., Shittu, I., Lednicky, J. A., Miller, A. L., Hao, H., Nelson, M. I., & Gray, G. C. (n.d.). Avian Influenza A(H5N1) Virus among Dairy Cattle, Texas, USA - Volume 30, Number 7—July 2024—Emerging Infectious Diseases journal—CDC. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid3007.240717
- Oguzie, J.U., Petros, B.A., Oluniyi, P.E. et al. Metagenomic surveillance uncovers diverse and novel viral taxa in febrile patients from Nigeria. Nat Commun 14, 4693 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40247-4
- Marushchak, Lyudmyla V et al. “Development of a PCR Kit for Detection of Coxiella burnetii in Ukraine.” Vector borne and zoonotic diseases (Larchmont, N.Y.) vol. 20,2 (2020): 100-106. doi:10.1089/vbz.2019.2518 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31536465/