Amid reports of High-Pathogenic Avian Influenza infiltrating multiple dairy herds across several states, the National Milk Producers Federation emphasizes the importance of biosecurity measures in protecting cattle and preserving herd health.
As dairy operations navigate these outbreaks, they hope collaborative efforts and steadfast adherence to biosecurity protocols will help mitigate the situation.
“You know, the fact that we are dealing with bird flu is not news. We’ve had bird flu in the US for a number of years. The fact that it’s in dairy cattle or different species, that’s what makes this an unusual situation. I think the good news is that everything we’ve seen so far indicates that even though wild birds have introduced this to a handful of herds. It’s only about a dozen at this point. It doesn’t seem to bother, or in fact most of the animals in those herds. Most of the animals come back after being ill that they return to feed consumption and milk production, and it doesn’t seem to be really transmitted to.
“So it’s something we’re going to have to manage and continue monitoring. I know it’s a lot of people are anxious, but a lot of it has to do with the unknown simply because we haven’t had to deal with this virus in in cattle before,” said Chris Galen.
