Bird Flu Has Now Spread to California’s Dairy Cows

Bird Flu Has Now Spread to California’s Dairy Cows

We have been following the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), better known as the “bird flu,” through the country.  In a recent report, en Colorado poultry workers had developed symptoms of bird flu (mainly pink eye).

Cattle that are infected continue to have only mild symptoms. There is currently no evidence than humans can catch this disease except through the direct contact with the body fluids of infected animals.  Subsequently, it appears America’s cattle ranchers and dairy farmers are quiet-quitting pandemic madness, and are not testing their animals.

Now the disease has spread to California dairy farms.

Cows at three dairy farms in California, the top U.S. milk-producing state, tested positive for bird flu, the state’s agriculture department said on Friday.

The infections expand a U.S. outbreak of the H5N1 virus in dairy cattle to a 14th state. More than 190 herds have been infected nationally since March, along with 13 dairy and poultry farm workers, according to federal data.

…The infected dairy herds, located in the state’s Central Valley region, began showing symptoms on Aug. 25, the statement said.

Infected cows often suffer temporarily from reduced milk production.

“This is a tough time for our dairy farmers given the economic challenges they’re facing,” said Karen Ross, California’s agriculture secretary. “We are approaching this incident with the utmost urgency.”

The infected dairies have been quarantined, the state agriculture department said. Sick cows are isolated and being treated at the farms, while healthy cows have been cleared to continue shipping milk for pasteurization, the department said.

In an earlier report, I noted one of the concerns about the cattle infections were its potential to spread to humans via “agri-torusim”. For example, visitors like to pet cows at state fairs.

Well, innovative Americans have found a solution: Fiberglass.

State fair organizers are this year featuring Milkshake and Buttercup, two life-sized fiberglass cows complete with rubber teats and water-filled udders, for a popular milking demo.

The head of the Minnesota State Fair’s Moo Booth came up with a similar work around for its hands-on milking event: a fake dairy cow named Olympia.

“Normally, we’d have a real cow out there,” said Jill Nathe, the fair’s deputy general manager of agriculture and competition. “We just can’t do that right now.”

….State and local officials say they are trying to protect people and animals from the H5N1 virus as some dairy farmers have declined to test their herds. Experts worry that further transmission of the virus could help it adapt to spread between humans.

To conclude this round-up of bird flu news, Secretary Tom Vilsack says the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will allow field safety trials of H5N1 (i.e. ‘bird flu’) vaccines in dairy cattle.

Vilsack says he doesn’t expect the trials to disrupt trade. “The expectation is that there won’t be quite the level of concern as there is in poultry and the reason being that dairy cows and cattle generally are vaccinated for a lot of things and are engaged and involved in a lot of different medicines being applied,” he says.

During this week’s Farm Progress Show, Vilsack told reporters that he expects other obstacles. “The challenge is getting a vaccine that works, getting it to a vaccine that’s safe,” he says. “Sometimes you can do that quickly. Sometimes it takes a while.”

He says getting to the field trial step has happened a lot quicker than usual, but that doesn’t mean it will be commercially available anytime soon. “The drug that would be applied is going to be a non-live virus, so that’s a challenge,” he says. “It’s just really to determine its safety. So there’s still a lot of work yet to be done, but it’s an important and significant step forward.”

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