Bird flu in cows and poultry continues to fly high

Few states or nations put on a dairy cattle show like the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, where 50,000 visitors and vendors from nearly 100 countries will see 1,800 owners exhibiting 2,500 or so of the best dairy cattle in the galaxy.

Organizers of this year’s expo, however, are working overtime to keep one party crasher out — highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu.

New rules, new testing and new paperwork for the Oct. 1-4 gathering are all aimed to keep it bird flu-free.

But “in the unfortunate event of a positive influenza A individual cow test,” explained expo organizers Aug. 21, “we have been informed by the (state of) Wisconsin … that all cattle on site … will be temporarily quarantined.”

Moreover, if deemed necessary, “additional quarantine measures could be added.” Once the animals are allowed to leave America’s Dairyland for home, further quarantine may be required by other U.S. states and Canadian provinces.

The dairy sector has a lot riding on getting the rules right. In 2023, an estimated 230 million pounds of raw milk sold as fluid milk, cheese, ice cream, yogurt and a myriad of other products added $800 billion to the U.S. economy, according to the International Dairy Foods Industry Association.

And, note many, today’s rules are working: While bird flu has been detected in 191 dairy herds across 13 states, only 13 human cases of bird flu have been tied to cows.

True, but bird flu infections on dairy workers outnumber infections on poultry workers.

To date, reports Helena Bottemiller Evich in the Aug. 23 Food Fix, her weekly look at food policy on Capitol Hill, “there … was just one reported case … in a human” from poultry in 2022; however, since then, “nine of the 13 more recent human cases” have been linked to poultry.

There are two clear reasons for that slow transfer of bird flu from poultry to humans than from cows to humans.

First, bird flu is so deadly and so fast moving in poultry that once it’s detected, infected flocks are almost immediately destroyed so the source of the disease — and potential for human transfer — is quickly and effectively eliminated.

In July, it was estimated that 100 million chickens and turkeys have been destroyed since the latest outbreak of avian flu began in February 2022.

The second reason is less deadly, but more troubling: While the human cases detected in dairy workers have, so far, “been very mild,” continues Food Fix, “it’s likely that health officials are not detecting all of the human cases due to limited testing.”

In fact, the report continues, “those most at risk are farmworkers and farmers who have direct contract with animals that may be infected.”

Both groups, however, are “not exactly incentivized to get tested. Undocumented workers could lose their jobs and farmers “fear a loss of income if they can’t easily sell their milk or their cows.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture does offer voluntary testing of milk to determine the presence of bird flu in any dairy herd. So far, though, “of the roughly 24,000 farms that sell milk,” reported the New York Times recently, “only 30 are participating.”

Food Fix updated those low numbers in late August to note that now USDA “only shows 26 herds are participating,” or 0.1% of all herds nationwide. USDA, however, told the Times that the poor turnout shows “the system is working as designed.”

Indeed — for 26 herds; which only leaves 23,974 or so herds where it’s not working.

Close enough for government work, right?