Minnesota has reported its first H5N1 detection in poultry since April, which involves a commercial turkey farm in Redwood County. The detection comes on the heels of similar outbreaks in South Dakota and North Dakota earlier this month.

This detection resets Minnesota’s response teams and will draw responders back into the fight against avian influenza this fall.

“Health officials and industry have been working hard over the summer to eliminate the virus from quarantined sites so the state could officially declare freedom of the disease on Aug. 25, 2025,” the Minnesota Board of Health said in a press release. “This detection resets Minnesota’s response teams and will draw responders back into the fight against avian influenza this fall.”

The flock included 20,000 turkeys. Officials said the detection is not entirely unexpected as fall is migration season for wild waterfowl.

New H5 detection in raccoon 

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)  reported 15 more H5N1 detections in wild birds, all with August and September sample collection dates. Most of the detections were in vultures, but some were waterfowl and other birds of prey. Locations of the infected birds range from Alaska to the Midwest to the East Coast.

Also, the USDA has reported one more H5 detection in wildlife and other mammals, a raccoon from Minnesota's Rice County with a June sample collection date.

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has published a new list of the drug-resistant bacteria that pose the greatest health threat to Canadians.

The 2025 Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Priority Pathogen list, published yesterday in PLOS One, was developed by AMR experts from PHAC and the Canadian AMR Surveillance System (CARSS) using nationally representative surveillance data from 2017 through 2022 and nine prioritization criteria that reflect the country's public health priorities. Prioritization criteria included incidence, trend (change in the proportion of resistant cases), mode of transmission, morbidity, mortality, treatability, and equity, which was newly added to the list to reflect level of exposure to resistant bacteria and barriers to treatment.

Of the 68 pathogens initially identified as AMR threats, 29 were selected for full evaluation. The Tier 1 group, defined as high-priority pathogens based on their scores, includes carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE), carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (CRPA), carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter (CRA), drug-resistant gonorrhea, Candida auris, and extended-spectrum beta-lactamase–producing Enterobacterales. 

"High rankings for CRE, CRPA, and CRA were primarily driven by treatability challenges, with limited or absent treatment options, including barriers to access, and the more severe disease outcomes associated with these infections," the authors wrote.

The medium-priority group (Tier 2) includes methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, drug-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae, drug-resistant Shigella, and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus. Pathogens in the Tier 3 group (medium to low priority) include Clostridioides difficile, drug-resistant Salmonella, and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, and Tier 4 (low priority) includes drug-resistant Campylobacter and drug-resistant Helicobacter pylori.

A 'more inclusive' assessment of AMR threats

The authors say a key finding is that 45% of the assessed AMR pathogens disproportionately affect populations experiencing "social or economic marginalization and structural barriers to health," such as sex workers, men who have sex with men, the homeless, and refugees or migrants from conflict or disaster-affected regions.

"By explicitly integrating health equity as a prioritization criterion for the first time, this exercise allowed for a more inclusive and contextually grounded assessment of AMR threats in Canada," they wrote. "Rather than relying solely on traditional metrics such as incidence or mortality, this approach recognizes that vulnerability to AMR is shaped by broader social determinants of health."

Four people from four geographically distinct areas of Bangladesh have died of Nipah virus infections this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today.

The unrelated cases, which occurred between January 1 and August 29, include a child who died in August, outside of the country's usual Nipah virus season (December to April), and three adults (two men and one woman) with a history of consuming raw palm sap, a known risk. The child, a boy, wasn't known to have consumed raw palm sap, and his exposure is under investigation. 

The deaths occurred in Barisal, Dhaka, and Rajshahi divisions in the Bhola, Faridpur, and Pabna districts, respectively. Last year, five fatal Nipah cases were reported in the country.

Risk of international spread low 

Since Bangladesh experienced its first Nipah virus outbreak in 2001, human cases have been identified nearly every year, the WHO said. Of the 347 people with documented infections since 2001, 71.7% have died. 

WHO assesses the overall public health risk posed by NiV [Nipah virus] at the national and regional levels to be moderate; the risk of international disease spread is considered low.

"The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in Bangladesh has implemented several public health measures with support from WHO," the statement said. "WHO assesses the overall public health risk posed by NiV [Nipah virus] at the national and regional levels to be moderate; the risk of international disease spread is considered low."

No drugs or vaccines against the virus are available, and treatment of severe respiratory and neurologic complications consists of intensive supportive care.

Nipah is transmitted from animals such as fruit bats and pigs to people, from person to person through close contact, and through food contaminated with the saliva, urine, and waste of infected animals. Nipah virus infection, which can cause severe illness and death in both people and animals, primarily causes outbreaks in South and South East Asia.

Infected people initially develop symptoms such as fever, headaches, muscle pain, vomiting, and a sore throat. In severe cases, dizziness, drowsiness, altered consciousness, and neurologic signs can occur, indicating acute encephalitis (brain inflammation). Atypical pneumonia and severe respiratory problems sometimes develop, and encephalitis, seizures, and coma may ensue within 24 to 48 hours.