#Avian #flu #dairy #cows #United #States #reacts
The U.S. government will require dairy cattle moving interstate to be tested for avian flu starting April 29, Agriculture Minister Tom Vilsack said April 24, as federal authorities step up their response to the epidemic in herds.
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Tom Vilsack said all labs and veterinarians nationwide must report positive tests and that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) will cover the cost of increasing the number of tests.
Several infected herds in different states
These measures are intended to improve the USDA’s understanding of the virus and contain the spread of the disease which infected 33 dairy herds in eight states over the past month.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced April 23 that it found particles of the avian flu virus in some samples of pasteurized milk, but said the milk remained safe for human consumption because it was heated at high temperatures. temperature to eliminate harmful bacteria and viruses.
The United States’ milk supply is safe “based on the information we currently have,” Tom Vilsack told reporters. Milk containing avian flu particles entered the commercial supply from asymptomatic cows that became infected, he added.
“The reality is we’ve had situations where we’ve tested asymptomatic herds only to find they were infected with the virus,” Tom Vilsack said.
“It’s certainly possible that there are many more viral infections in cows across the United States,” said Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota.
Dairy cows must test negative for the influenza A virus at an approved laboratory before being shipped across state lines, the USDA said. Owners of cows testing positive will be required to provide epidemiological information, including tracking animal movements, the ministry said.
The USDA plans to initially focus testing on lactating cows.
Cows that test positive cannot be moved for 30 days until they test negative, Tom Vilsack said. Dairy cattle appear to be recovering from avian flu, a disease often fatal to chickens and turkeys.
“In recent weeks, the USDA has seen spread between cows within the same herd, spread from cows to poultry, spread between dairies associated with livestock movements, and cows without clinical signs that have been tested positive,” said Tom Vilsack.
Meat safety under the microscope
The Meat Institute, which represents U.S. meat processors, has urged the USDA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to conduct additional testing to ensure beef remains clean to consumption. The group also called on agencies to issue specific guidelines to ensure meat processing workers are protected from infection.
Authorities said they believe wild birds transmitted the H5N1 virus to livestock. A Texas dairy worker tested positive, but the CDC said the current public health risk is low.
“The CDC maintained its risk assessment after microbiologists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) identified a change in an H5N1 sample taken from a cow in Kansas on April 16 that may indicate that the virus has adapted to mammals,” the USDA said. This discovery had already been done in other mammals and has no impact on the transmission of the virus, according to the ministry.
The USDA “did not find any changes to the virus that would make it more transmissible to humans and between humans,” according to a statement.
Live cattle and feeder cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange fell following news of the USDA’s plan to expand testing to dairy cows, although traders were skeptical to the impact of the avian flu problem on beef cattle.
