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Cowdemic: Cattle Infected with ‘Super Bird Flu’ Now Detected in 6 States

Cowdemic: Cattle Infected with ‘Super Bird Flu’ Now Detected in 6 States

The Texas Animal Health Commission reports it has received lab confirmation of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in three cats.

We have been closely following reports about the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), especially after it was detected in cattle in Texas, Kansas, and Michigan.

Three more states are now reporting “super bird flu” infected livestock.

The Ohio Department of Agriculture reports that a Wood County herd has tested positive for A(HPAI).

The cattle that tested positive came to a dairy operation in Wood County from Texas on March 8. State officials were notified when the cattle began exhibiting symptoms similar to herds infected with bird flu in other states. Most sick cows recover within a few days, according to the Ohio Department of Agriculture.

This H5N1 strain of bird flu, among the deadliest forms according to the Associated Press, has been found in dairy cows in Texas, Kansas, Idaho, New Mexico and Michigan.

New Mexico dairy cows are also sick with bird flu.

On Tuesday, the state’s top veterinarian said that cows from two separate herds have been confirmed positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza and another herd has “presumptive positives,” meaning suspected positive cases.

All of the known cases are in Curry County.

“We don’t have an actual count of the cows individually,” said New Mexico State Veterinarian Samantha Uhrig. “We have a number of herds that have been confirmed.”

The Idaho Department of Agriculture reports that there are also cases at a dairy farm in Cassia County.

The dairy had recently brought in 105 cattle from Texas, where HPAI has been confirmed in dairy cattle, said Dr. Scott Leibsle, Idaho’s state veterinarian.

As of March 28, those imported cattle were not showing signs of illness. But the timing of the cows’ arrival on the farm and when resident cows were diagnosed with HPAI suggests the virus might have been transmitted from cow to cow, he said.

The department has quarantined the infected farm, and no cattle can enter or leave. The infected cattle are also separated from the rest of the herd.

The quarantine is to prevent the virus from traveling off the facility, Leibsle said.

Legal Insurrection readers may recall that a Texas man was reported to be infected with HPAI after contact with cattle. It turns out, cats can be infected, too (per a test result obtained from the Texas Animal Health Commission).

…[I]nvestigators collected samples from several animals in Texas and Kansas. Wild birds, cats, and dairy cows were tested because they showed illness signs. “Further testing of these samples indicated the presence of avian influenza A(H5N1),” the TDSHS said. A press officer from the TDSHS confirmed in an e-mail that sick cats tested positive for the virus.

The Texas Animal Health Commission said in an e-mail that it has received lab confirmation of HPAI for three cats.

Wild birds on affected farms had earlier tested positive for H5N1, and evidence is growing that the virus may be spreading cow to cow. Investigations are still underway to sort out how the virus is spreading on farms, which includes identifying the extent of virus circulation in other animals or wildlife.

Cats are among the mammals previously known be contract H5N1, with infections reported in the United States, Poland, and South Korea.

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Comments

MoeHowardwasright | April 4, 2024 at 11:09 am

Attacking the food supply. Ecofreaks or ChiComs? You be the judge. FJB

    Normally my money would always be on the Chicoms. But, birdflu has been in global circulation for so long – more than 20-years – that it was eventually always going to find a way to other classes of animals and cows, and other grazing animals, were always a high-risk group for eventual infection. Sick bird poops on grass. Cow eats grass. Cow gets Birdflu. Rinse, repeat.

      MattMusson in reply to TargaGTS. | April 4, 2024 at 2:14 pm

      Covid was around a long time too. That made it easy to blame on Nature.
      Regardless, since Covid-19 we will greet every new Virus outbreak by wondering what lab it came out of.

        TargaGTS in reply to MattMusson. | April 4, 2024 at 3:21 pm

        That’s true. China will deservedly be suspect #1, for the foreseeable future. But, with respect to Coronaviruses, while they were around a LONG time before the so-called Covid-19 strain emerged, that particularly strain had never been seen anywhere in nature prior to the pandemic…which is why it was a pandemic and one reason why some scientists thought it was likely engineered.

        Influenza A (Avian Flu) viruses have also been around for a long time. The Spanish Flu was a variant of Influenza A as was the Swine Flu. This specific strain of Influenza A (H5N1 aka Highly Pathogenic Avian Flu) has been around for almost 30-years and was first identified in a bird population (I think duck or maybe geese)…in China. Now, is it possible that H5N1 which was first detected in China was the result of a previous lab leak? I guess we’ll probably never know. While the UK and parts of Europe have been dealing with H5N1 for more than a decade, we have been reasonably fortunate with our first case not being detected until a few years ago. Mass bird cullings, which have been common the UK during this period, won’t do anything to ease food chain inflation problems.

    Apparently cows are fine after a week or two

“found in dairy cows in Texas, Kansas, Idaho, New Mexico and Michigan.”

Well, that answers someone else’s comment about why the photos on these flu articles never show any cattle other than dairy cows.

DW is wondering whether any of this is lethal to the cows, or just an inconvenience. The only human patient in the news has been a guy with a case of flu plus red eyes.

The strain in the cows doesn’t seem to be “highly pathogenic”.

    TargaGTS in reply to The_Mew_Cat. | April 4, 2024 at 12:00 pm

    Perhaps counterintuitively, “Highly pathogenic” doesn’t refer to the infectiousness of the virus or its ability (or inability) for zoonosis. Instead, it’s simply referring to the lethality of that specific virus to birds. IOW, the cows have contracted the virus strain that poses a significant risk of severe and/or deadly disease to birds (I think chickens specifically, but am not positive).

      healthguyfsu in reply to TargaGTS. | April 5, 2024 at 9:00 am

      Pathogenic is a generic term that covers both transmissibility and lethality. Those are the more specific terms.

AF_Chief_Master_Sgt | April 4, 2024 at 11:45 am

Do cows wear masks and maintain six feet of “social distancing?”

What is the process and timeline to “flatten the curve?”

Asking for a friend.

Illegal aliens have infected the food supply thanks to open borders biden policies?

Cows may be catching it, but is it killing any cows?

    geronl in reply to venril. | April 4, 2024 at 3:38 pm

    Apparently not. Or not many. They seem to get over it in a week or two.

      gonzotx in reply to geronl. | April 4, 2024 at 4:26 pm

      Nor Humans

        diver64 in reply to gonzotx. | April 5, 2024 at 4:47 am

        From what I’ve read your right. There was a crazy doom story about a farmer catching it from cows that made it seem like Ebola, remember that one?, and we were all going to die according to the Headline and lead in. Reading through the story turns out the guy had red eyes for a few days and that was about it.

      venril in reply to geronl. | April 5, 2024 at 1:59 pm

      So another FUD campaign

E Howard Hunt | April 4, 2024 at 5:41 pm

I’ll trust the government to address this properly when cows fly.

and you should wear a minimum of 4 masks and stand 18 feet apart.

Most cows recover and cats are at risk. So, no hysteria needed unless it’s an election year. Look for more of these WE GONNA DIE stories the entire summer.

    SDN in reply to diver64. | April 5, 2024 at 6:45 am

    Oh, don’t worry, it will still be here after the election. After all, they need something to use for “You VILL eat Ze Bugz, because we had to slaughter all your Gaia-destroying livestock to contain Ze Plague!!!”

    venril in reply to diver64. | April 5, 2024 at 2:02 pm

    Expect a terrifying jump in deaths attributed to this, even as we become surprisingly resistant to cancer, tobacco, alcohol, automobile accidents and others usual killers.

2nd Ammendment Mother | April 5, 2024 at 5:20 pm

I’m a little familiar since this became an issue in El Paso County, Texas. There was a reported jump from one bird to one dairy cow. At that time, it was a well known, researched fact that it could not jump from cows to humans. However, El Paso County Commissioners used that as a reason to abolish all dairy operations in the county. Oddly a few years later, all those dairy farms were available as subdivisions without the funny smell in the air….. so just because I did know the researchers from Texas A&M who were doing the samples and labwork… I still have questions how that jump happened.