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All cattle dairy farms remain NEGATIVE for the presence of H5N1 to date! We continue to test farms monthly so that if the outbreak should spread to the state we can detect it early and help to inform interventions. (6/FIN)

Validating all these methods allowed us to be in the position to support government mandated testing of all 95 dairy cattle farms in Massachusetts, led by MDAR and MDPH (5/n)

We also generated genomes (even from ultra-pasteurized milk!) from as little as 14 H5N1 cp/uL! Hybrid selection of RNASeq libraries resulted in the most complete genomes, but had a high input need (>500 cp/uL). Below that, we had success using an Amp-Seq protocol. (4/n)

With these samples, we were able to fully validate both dPCR and qPCR assays for H5N1 and RNAseP Bovine as a positive process control. (3/n)

With the current H5N1 outbreak in US dairy 🐄, we wanted to validate PCR and sequencing methods to deploy for surveillance efforts. Since there were no positives in NE, we sourced milk from states with active outbreaks. We screened 214 cartons in total! (2/n)

Can you add me please!