Bird flu has been detected in cattle in a number of states. Its believed to be the primary time the illness has contaminated dairy cows.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Livestock in a number of states have examined constructive for chicken flu in current days, the primary time the illness has unfold to dairy cows. Officials say the chance to the general public stays low. But as NPR’s Joe Hernandez studies, consultants say the pressure of chicken flu is stronger than others and is infecting extra animals than earlier than.
JOE HERNANDEZ, BYLINE: One of the primary states the place dairy cows examined constructive for chicken flu was Texas. The infections had been troubling to native officers, however up to now they have not had a lot of an impression. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller says livestock have not gotten very sick, and farmers have not needed to eliminate an excessive amount of affected milk.
SID MILLER: The excellent news is this isn’t a significant issue. It’s not going to bankrupt anyone. The cows principally have the flu for per week and so they recover from it.
HERNANDEZ: The USDA reported different confirmed circumstances in Kansas and Michigan, and says some dairy cows in New Mexico and Idaho are in all probability additionally constructive. Officials consider wild birds doubtless gave the cows chicken flu, often known as extremely pathogenic avian influenza, but it surely’s the primary identified prevalence in dairy livestock.
JOHANNA HARVEY: We have not seen this bird-to-mammal unfold in an agricultural setting. Should we have now anticipated it? Possibly.
HERNANDEZ: Johanna Harvey is a postdoctoral researcher on the University of Maryland. She says wild birds shed the virus into the soil and water the place different animals can choose it up. But Harvey notes that this specific pressure of chicken flu seems to be stronger than earlier ones, sickening extra animals and persisting by hotter months when different viruses would possibly usually taper off.
HARVEY: There are distinct adjustments on this virus which have facilitated what we see as elevated world unfold and species impacts.
HERNANDEZ: Still, federal and state officers emphasize that the general public has a low danger of catching the virus, which could be unfold by shut contact with contaminated birds. The outbreak additionally is not anticipated to tie up the milk provide. Milk from sick cows is discarded, and pasteurization kills off micro organism and viruses, together with this one.
Joe Hernandez, NPR News.
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