Avian influenza A (H5N1) — the highly pathogenic bird flu virus that has been circulating in U.S. dairy cattle herds since March 2024 — was detected in the wastewater systems of 10 Texas cities, including Houston, through a surveillance system jointly operated by researchers at UTHealth Houston and Baylor College of Medicine.
The finding, first published in the New England Journal of Medicine, was subsequently cited in June 2026, in connection with the continued monitoring of H5N1 activity in Texas through the TexWEB program. The research was part of the Texas Epidemic Public Health Institute (TEPHI), a surveillance infrastructure that collects wastewater samples weekly from 15 Texas cities and 40 sample sites — including Austin, Baytown, Brownsville, El Paso, Houston, Humble, Laredo, Lubbock, Missouri City, and Wichita Falls.
