High-Path Avian Flu has resulted in 100 million bird deaths, and the markets are reacting to a second type of the virus that was found in U.S. dairy cows.
USDA says it stems from an outbreak at an operation in Nevada. Dairy cattle were found with a different form of the virus, that is showing signs of respiratory stress in livestock. They say the new strain could change how the virus is managed. High-Path Avian Flu has been in the dairy industry for almost a year now.
RFD-TV’s Tammi Arender caught up with Nevada’s Director of Agriculture at CattleCon. He says a new strain was always a possibility.
“I’m not surprised to see the virus change, and I use this analogy for everyone I’ve been talking to. The flu you’re going to get this year isn’t the flu you had last year. We know that these flu viruses change. This is a flu virus, it is going to change and is going to continue to change as long as we have it in the environment, we can expect to see these mutations,” said DR. J.J. Goicoechea.
He adds they have not seen any cows die because of this new strain, and they believe it was transferred by wild birds.
“What we know so far from our initial cases is this is a spillover event from wild birds. The first two cases we had, we have every reason to believe those are single-point introductions. They were not lateral between those two dairies, so they were several miles apart, and both broke about the same time so we do think this is being introduced to our wildlife.”
