Dairy Biosecurity

Kersia to Buy Neogen's Global Cleaners and Disinfectants Business

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 22:08:58 GMT

Neogen Corporation announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its global cleaners and disinfectants business to Kersia Group for $130 million in cash at closing plus contingent consideration tied to the future performance of the business.

“The sale of our cleaners and disinfectants business further focuses Neogen on food safety diagnostics and continuing to build on our leadership position in what we believe is an attractive end market with long-term tailwinds,” John Adent, president and CEO of Neogen, said in a release.

“The transaction is expected to be accretive to margins and close in the first quarter of the company’s 2026 fiscal year, subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions,” Neogen said in a release.

With approximately $60 million of annual revenue, Neogen has a broad range of cleaners and disinfectants, the release says.

“Being used to such transactions and equipped with a dedicated process for a smooth and efficient integration, we are keen to appropriately welcome the collaborators within the business,” Sébastien Bossard, CEO of Kersia, said in a release. “I am convinced that their expertise and experience, as well as the wide range of products in the business, which perfectly complement our existing solutions, capabilities and skills, will be a key step in enabling Kersia to better serve its clients in the U.S. and abroad. Together, we will pursue our mission to ensure food safety across the food chain.”

Neogen’s disinfectant and cleaner products are formulated for use in a range of livestock applications, including swine, poultry and ruminant operations.

“The cleaners and disinfectants business has been a strong contributor to our Animal Safety segment and Neogen is committed to a smooth transition for customers, employees and other stakeholders,” Adent says. “We expect Kersia’s prioritization of investment and growth in the biosecurity market will benefit the business and provide sharpened strategic focus to maximize its potential for continued growth.”

Your Next Read: Biosecurity at Wean-to-Harvest Sites Needs Attention in the U.S. Pork Industry

Hungary Suggests 'Biological Attack' Could be Source of Foot-and-Mouth Outbreak

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 15:35:24 GMT

Hungary on Thursday suggested a “biological attack” as a possible source of the country’s first foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in more than half a century, which has triggered border closures and the mass slaughter of cattle in the northwest.

Hungary reported a first case of foot-and-mouth disease in over 50 years on a cattle farm in the northwest near the border with Austria and Slovakia last month, the World Organisation for Animal Health said, citing Hungarian authorities.

Animal health authorities had made checks at nearly 1,000 farms across Hungary by Thursday, with only four in the affected northwestern region returning positive results.

“At this stage, we can say that it cannot be ruled out that the virus was not of natural origin, we may be dealing with an artificially engineered virus,” Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas told a media briefing.

Responding to a question, Gulyas said he could not rule out that the virus outbreak was the result of a biological attack, without giving information on who might be responsible.

He also said that suspicion was based on verbal information received from a foreign laboratory and that their findings have not yet been fully proven and documented.

Hungary’s cattle stock numbered 861,000 head based on a livestock census in December, little changed from levels a year earlier. That constituted 1.2% of the European Union’s total cattle stocks, official statistics showed.

Foot-and-mouth disease poses no danger to humans but causes fever and mouth blisters in cloven-hoofed ruminants such as cattle, swine, sheep and goats, and outbreaks often lead to trade restrictions.

Thousands of cattle had to be culled as the landlocked country tried to contain the outbreak, while Austria and Slovakia have closed dozens of border crossings, after the disease also appeared in the southern part of Slovakia.

“Everyone was just standing there, crying and saying that this cannot be true, that this was impossible,” said Paul Meixner, an Austrian-Hungarian dual citizen, who owns of one of the affected farms in Hungary.

While his business has taken a 1.5 billion forint ($4.09 million) loss after culling 3,000 cattle and other livestock, Meixner has vowed to rebuild.

“In two weeks, we will start harvesting and storing the hay,” he said. “We need the fodder for next year.”

Your Next Read: What Do Foot-and-Mouth Disease Outbreaks in Europe Mean for the U.S.?

Don't Be Deceived: Wildlife Pose Serious Threat to Livestock Producers

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 14:30:52 GMT

At first glance, the house sparrow may not seem all that intimidating. But now that highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is endemic in the wildlife waterfowl population, this tiny bird could become a huge problem for U.S. livestock producers, USDA’s David Marks said at the 2025 American Association of Swine Veterinarians annual meeting in San Francisco in March.

“Ducks and geese waterfowl are a reservoir for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI),” says Marks who serves on the staff of USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS) Wildlife Services (WS). “They brought it over here in 2022 from Europe and Asia, and now it is circulating in waterfowl. HPAI is a foreign animal disease in North and North America, but now it’s endemic in wildlife. It’s not a good situation.”

Peri-domestic birds like the house sparrow and the American robin are attracted to the same water sources as these ducks and geese, which can result in peri-domestic birds carrying the disease back to the livestock barns, Marks explains.

“Keep your farms tight,” he says. “HPAI is mixing and reassorting in our waterfowl. Every time it gets in these birds, it’s mutating. Over 85% of positive farms now are from wildlife introductions.”

When it comes to managing wildlife disease threats, there are basically three options: manage the site itself, manage the wildlife, or install a barrier to keep wildlife out.

How Big of a Problem Do We Have?
Since the outbreak in poultry in 2022, APHIS has worked with state animal health officials to identify and respond to detections and mitigate the virus’ impact on U.S. poultry production and trade. Marks says more than 105.2 million birds in 1,197 flocks in 48 states have been affected by the virus since then. In response to this current outbreak, USDA has spent over $1 billion, paying for indemnity, cleanup and disinfection of facilities, diagnostics and other aspects related emergency response.

“More than 75% of infections have been directly related to new introductions of virus of wildlife origin and not related to lateral transfer between facilities, employees and equipment as in previous HPAI outbreaks,” Marks says.

WS developed the Midwest Wildlife Biosecurity Assessment Pilot Project in response to the continued outbreaks of HPAI across the country. Four states (Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota) were selected as the focus for this project based upon the high number of infections and re-introductions of facilities during calendar year 2022 from within this area.

Earlier this month, USDA announced it is expanding the availability of its biosecurity assessments to commercial poultry producers.

“These assessments, which were previously available on a limited basis have been extremely successful in improving biosecurity on individual premises and preventing the introduction or spread of avian influenza,” USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said.

The goal of the assessments is to take a proactive approach to managing potential disease transfer and improve the wildlife biosecurity of commercial poultry facilities in the U.S., thus reducing the number of facilities that become infected with HPAI and other diseases of concern to the poultry industry, Marks explains.

Wildlife biosecurity assessments are through evaluations of all buildings, external operations and wildlife population use and movements that occur on and near commercial poultry facilities. These reports are directly provided to facility managers and include long-term management recommendations for mitigating any identified risks related to wildlife.

The formal WBA process is comprised of three main components: Wildlife hazard identification surveys, wildlife abundance surveys, and in most cases, direct control and continued monitoring for attractants, hazards, and wildlife.

Barn swallow nest

(USDA Wildlife Services)

Step 1: Wildlife Abundance Surveys
What species are there in the first place? Marks says wildlife abundance surveys (WAS) simply determine what wildlife species one could expect and that one finds on an operation.

“A farm in northwest Iowa might be different than a farm in southeast Iowa or Texas,” he points out. “WS conducts WAS at different times during the day (morning, midday, evening, and night) to understand the different species present in and around the facilities at these times.”

After establishing multiple survey points to represent all habitats and cover the perimeter, WS conducts standardized wildlife point counts at each survey point and revisits those monthly to create population trend data. These maps show areas of wildlife activity for each facility.

Standing water is an attractant for wildlife.

(USDA Wildlife Services)

Step 2: Wildlife Hazard Identification Surveys
Wildlife hazard identification survey (WHIS) take place at all facilities as they enter the program, he says. These reports provide a detailed list of all the wildlife biosecurity hazards found within the perimeter buffer area of the facility, and categorizes hazards into three tiers, with tier 1 being of the greatest concern. Examples of Tier 1 hazards include holes in barn exterior walls, exclusionary netting, or other breaches that would allow direct contact with wildlife and poultry.

Lower Tier hazards include wildlife attractants and potential sources for indirect transmission routes, such as standing water and food sources. WS conducts the first WHIS during an initial facility site visit and generates the report for the producer shortly after. WHIS reports contain photographs of all hazards identified and their locations represented on an aerial photo. WS designs the reports so producers can quickly identify and mitigate any hazards found.

WS personnel conduct subsequent WHIS quarterly to monitor progress. They also monitor for additional hazards continuously while on site, and any additional hazards found are recorded and relayed to producers in real time. Formal quarterly WHIS reports help track hazards and mitigation over time.

Starling on a barn roof.

(USDA Wildlife Services)

Step 3: Direct Control
The next step is to develop a plan for routine direct control actions. This includes both lethal (removal) and nonlethal (habitat management, exclusion, harassment) management of wildlife present at the facility, Marks explains.

“WS records all direct control activity results, along with wildlife observations while on site,” he says. “These are not standardized data, but over time are very valuable in showing trends and we expect a direct inverse correlation to result from wildlife abundance surveys (ie, the more wildlife managed, the lower the wildlife abundance on site). Similar to wildlife abundance data, direct control trend data can be depicted on a map of a facility to show areas of wildlife activity.”

After the first six months of participation in the program, WS generates a comprehensive report for the facility, which summarizes all WS personnel activities.

While on site, WS personnel collect samples from wildlife species for HPAI testing, he adds. Sampling strategies focus on facilities that have recently become positive for HPAI because of the increased likelihood of the virus being present in non-reservoir species. WS processes samples and submits them to the diagnostic lab for analysis, and all influenza A detections are forwarded to the USDA National Veterinary Services Laboratory for confirmation and genomic sequencing. Additionally, WS collects samples from a subset of wildlife collected from non-infected facilities.

What Can You Do Now?
Although the biosecurity assessments and audits are offered to poultry producers only at this time, WS does offer financial support to help dairy producers enhance biosecurity and offset costs associated with Influenza A testing, veterinary expenses, personal protective equipment purchases, milk disposal and milk losses.

“The wildlife exclusions and barn setups are similar between swine and poultry facilities,” Marks says. “Biosecurity is a critical tool for disease prevention for all species.”

USDA encourages all producers to review their biosecurity plans and take action now to prevent disease from reaching their herds. While the actual assessments may not be available to pork producers right now, USDA does offer biosecurity resources for swine producers here .

Your Next Read: Is the Swine Industry Ready for H5N1? Texas Veterinarian Says “No”

What Do Foot-and-Mouth Disease Outbreaks in Europe Mean for the U.S.?

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 22:18:14 GMT

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is rearing its ugly head in Europe. After an outbreak in water buffalo in Germany in January, an outbreak in cattle in Hungary in early March and an outbreak in cattle in Slovakia last week, why now? What is the U.S. doing to keep this foreign animal disease out and protect the country’s livestock industry?

“FMD is caused by a virus that affects cloven-hoofed animals so that can include cattle, pigs, sheep and goats,” explains Megan Niederwerder, DVM, who serves as the executive director of the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC). “It does not affect humans and is not a threat to food safety, but it has significant trade implications once it is introduced into a country.”

FMD has been fairly quiet in these European countries – with no cases reported for decades. Other parts of Europe have seen outbreaks more recently like the 2001 outbreak in the United Kingdom that caused a crisis in British agriculture and tourism and resulted in the cancellation of the World Pork Expo held in Des Moines, Iowa.

“FMD really decimated the United Kingdom,” says Barb Determan who was serving as president of the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) at the time. “It became very apparent that we couldn’t guarantee the safety for our U.S. pig herd because of the high numbers of international travelers that would be at the show. We had to cancel World Pork Expo out of an abundance of precaution.”

Although there is still a lot to be discovered about how FMD was introduced into these populations, it’s a significant warning to the U.S. to be on alert.

(Lori Hays)

That was the first time, but not the only time World Pork Expo was canceled. The event was also canceled in 2019 because of the African swine fever outbreak in China and again in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“That was a hard financial decision,” Determan says. “We had just completed the separation agreement between NPPC and the National Pork Board. NPPC was very tightly budgeted at that time, so it was a huge hit.”

However, keeping the U.S. pig herd safe was the most important thing on everyone’s mind. She says they made their decision after hearing reports from veterinarians who had been to England to better understand the extensiveness as well as from the USDA that had sent veterinarians over to help.

“At that time, we didn’t have near the biosecurity practices and things that we do now with the disinfectant foot mats,” Determan says. “We also don’t have live pigs on the on the grounds now compared to how we did things many years ago. We used to have live pigs everywhere on the fairgrounds in the early 2000s from genetics companies with pigs in their displays to the pigs in the live shows.”

The Truth About FMD
The clinical signs of FMD are similar to what the name implies. It can cause vesicles or blisters on the feet, mouth and tongue of animals that are infected. The U.S. has not had a case of FMD since 1929.

“We certainly want to keep it that way, as the economic implications for producers are significant if the virus is introduced,” Niederwerder says.

Compared to many viruses, FMD is a highly stable, non-enveloped virus that allows it to be infectious for longer periods. It’s very contagious and highly transmissible. Not only are there risks with transmission of the virus through infected meat products that may come in through illegal trade, but it can also be carried on contaminated clothes or equipment or supplies of humans.

“The human would not be infected, but certainly people can carry the virus on contaminated clothing,” Niederwerder says. “That’s why it’s really important as we think about prevention of entry into the U.S.”

FMD causes fever and pain. It results in excessive salivation and causes reduced milk production in dairy cattle.

“When you think about the impact, certainly there’s an impact on animal health with regards to the clinical signs, but even further is this impact on trade restrictions and the economic losses for producers,” Niederwerder says. “When you try and contain the virus, that oftentimes results in those infected animals being culled or euthanized so the disease no longer has the chance to spread.”

Why Should the U.S. Pay Attention?
When a virus moves into a new geographical range or is reintroduced into a country that has maintained a negative status for a long period, Niederwerder says it’s critical to reassess the risk to the U.S.

“In January, Germany reported their first case in over 30 years in water buffalo near Berlin,” she explains. “It was 14 animals, and those animals were all culled after the infection was confirmed but certainly trade restrictions and implications on surrounding areas of that Berlin farm were significant.”

Fast forward to March when two additional countries have reported cases. Hungary reported FMD in a single farm of cattle in the north part of the country for the first time in over 50 years. Shortly thereafter, the virus appeared in Slovakia (who also hadn’t seen a case in over 50 years) in multiple herds of cattle.

“Just recently, another herd was a suspect herd in Slovakia, near the southern border near Hungary,” Niederwerder says. “This is certainly concerning about how this virus is being reintroduced. Is it associated with contaminated fomites that may be in the country or traveling to new locations? Is it associated with wild boar? Could it be associated with infected hay?”

Although there is still a lot to be discovered about how FMD was introduced into these populations, it’s a significant warning to the U.S. to be on alert .

“We need to do everything we can to make sure it doesn’t get reintroduced into the U.S.,” Niederwerder says. “How can we amp up any biosecurity measures that are necessary to reduce our risk? We also need to think about reducing the risk of introduction into our country through travel and illegal trade.”

Be on Alert
Livestock operations should reevaluate biosecurity protocols. If any of your farm’s employees travel to areas where there are infected animals, implement a quarantine period for entry back into your U.S. farm, she advises.

“Be vigilant,” Niederwerder urges. “One of the challenges of FMD is that it does cause these characteristic lesions of vesicles or blisters on the mouth, nose or the hoof. What becomes very tricky is that those clinical signs are indistinguishable from other vesicular diseases such as Senecavirus A. If producers and veterinarians see these lesions, they must report it immediately so it can be investigated and confirmed that it is not FMD virus.”

FMD is not just a disease of pigs and cattle, she points out. Sheep, goats and cloven-hoofed zoo animals may also be impacted by FMD. This increases the breadth of what the industry needs to monitor.

“The world is very small now,” Niederwerder says. “Not only do people travel more internationally, but animals move around more than ever, too. It’s extremely important for those of us that are producers to keep our eyes open and pay attention to what’s going on worldwide so we can be as prepared as possible for any change in disease risk.”

That’s one of the ways that SHIC is trying to help producers. SHIC provides timely domestic and global disease updates to producers.

“Watching the SHIC global disease report is really important for producers,” Determan says. “It comes out every month and really gives you a feel for what’s happening in the entire world from a swine health standpoint. The biggest lesson we learned from the 2001 FMD outbreak is that looking farther out than just our own farm gate is so important.”

Keep Reading:
An Update on Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Serotype O in Germany

Hungary Confirms Foot-and-Mouth Disease Outbreak in Cattle

Slovakia Records First Foot-and-Mouth Cases, Minister Says

Hungary Confirms Foot-and-Mouth Disease Outbreak in Cattle

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 22:43:19 GMT

Hungary reported its first case of foot-and-mouth disease in more than 50 years, on a cattle farm in the northwest of the country, the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) said, citing Hungarian authorities on March 7.

According to WOAH, the outbreak, discovered in the city of Gyor, is the first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease outbreak reported since 1973. The case was found on a 1,400-strong cattle farm on the border with Slovakia, Hungary’s National Food Chain Safety Office (Nébih) reported on Friday .

The farm showed classic symptoms of foot-and-mouth disease at the beginning of March, the report says.

“The presence of the pathogen was confirmed by the Nébih laboratory, which is why Dr. Szabolcs Pásztor, the national chief veterinarian, immediately ordered the closure of the farm and the initiation of an epidemiological investigation,” the report says. " In order to prevent the further spread of the disease, extremely strict official measures will be implemented, including a ban on the transport of susceptible live animal species.”

On Jan. 10, Germany confirmed its first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease since 1988. The outbreak was detected in a herd of water buffalo in the Märkisch-Oderland district of Brandenburg, near Berlin.

“The confirmation of foot-and-mouth disease in cattle in Hungary comes less than two months after the virus was found in water buffalo in Germany,” the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) said in a statement. “Hungary does not share a border with Germany; FMD-affected animals are approximately 475 miles apart.”

FMD affects cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and goats. Not only is it highly contagious, but it also causes severe symptoms, including fever, painful blisters, reduced milk production and significant economic losses for farmers.

FMD poses no direct health risk to humans, but it’s important to note that they can act as carriers of the virus via contaminated clothing, shoes or equipment.

Your Next Read: An Update on Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Serotype O in Germany

APHIS Answers Call to Protect Animal Agriculture

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 21:00:13 GMT

Despite facing many challenges, including the continued response to highly pathogenic avian influenza, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS) worked to protect the health and value of America’s agricultural and natural resources.

“2024 was a year that confronted APHIS with new challenges. It was a year that forced us to find new and creative solutions to animal and plant health threats,” says Michael Watson, administrator for APHIS, in the 2024 Impact Report.

Here are a few highlights from the 2024 Impact Report surrounding animal agriculture:

Confirmed the first detection of HPAI H5N1 in a dairy herd in March 2024, and subsequently identified, investigated, and responded to H5N1 detections in livestock in over 860 herds across 17 states. APHIS issued two federal orders, implemented a producer support program, set up a voluntary monitoring and surveillance program for interested producers, and developed a national bulk milk testing strategy to help states protect the health of their dairy herds.
- Opened new market access for American agricultural exports, including U.S. rice to Ecuador, Texas grapefruit to South Korea, and California peaches and nectarines to Vietnam. APHIS also opened markets for U.S. live cattle, day-old chicks, and hatching eggs to Mozambique and beef and bone meal to Ecuador and Peru.
- Worked with regional partners in Central America to implement a multilateral response to the New World screwworm outbreak, increasing production of sterile flies weekly from 20 million to 90 million. These efforts, combined with rigorous surveillance and livestock inspections, protected U.S. borders from this devastating pest.
- Provided assistance to livestock producers on more than 123,000 occasions, including outreach and direct control activities to protect livestock from predation through a combination of techniques and tools. As much as possible, we responded using nonlethal methods like range riding, fladry, fencing, and husbandry practices.
Continued an emergency program to address nationwide detections of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Since the outbreak began in February 2022, we have confirmed the virus in over 1,300 poultry premises across the nation and supported affected producers through depopulation, disposal, and indemnification programs.
Protected American agriculture from harmful plant pests and foreign animal diseases by intercepting 289,855 prohibited agricultural items and 3,008 quarantine-significant pests during baggage inspections. These inspections involved more than 16.7 million passengers bound for the U.S. mainland from Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

Read the full report here.

An Update on Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Serotype O in Germany

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 16:29:28 GMT

On Jan. 10, Germany confirmed its first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) since 1988. The outbreak was detected in a herd of water buffalo in the Märkisch-Oderland district of Brandenburg, near Berlin.

“Water buffalo, introduced to Germany in the 1990s, are farmed for milk, meat, and grassland maintenance,” according to a summary by the team at the Center for Animal Health and Food Safety (CAHFS) . They prepared a summary of the current FMDV situation in Germany for the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) as part of the SHIC Global Swine Disease Monitoring Reports.

Here are some key points:

Within the affected water buffalo herd, three infected buffalo died and the remaining herd of 11 animals was euthanized to contain the disease.
Authorities have implemented strict control measures, including the establishment of a 3 km exclusion zone and a 10 km monitoring zone, and are conducting investigations to determine the source and route of the infection.
Immediate actions included culling all susceptible animals within a 1 km radius, including a farm with 170 pigs and another location with 55 goats, sheep, and three cattle as a precaution.
A transport ban for livestock was imposed across Brandenburg and later extended to Berlin, lasting at least 72 hours.
Sampling of animals within a 3 km radius is ongoing to assess the outbreak’s spread.

Serotype O
The Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI) identified the FMD virus as serotype O, a strain commonly found in the Middle East and Asia. Although, the exact route of entry remains unclear, the report says.

“The affected farm operates organically, using only its own hay for feed. The outbreak highlights the ongoing risk of FMD introduction into the EU through illegal trade and travel-related movement of animal products from FMD-endemic regions,” the report explains.

Germany, previously recognized as FMD-free along with the EU, has lost its status, triggering trade restrictions. Because of this, South Korea banned the import of German pork and quarantined 360 tons imported since December 27 for testing.

At the Green Week Agricultural Fair in Berlin, cloven-hoofed animals were excluded to mitigate risks.
In the Netherlands, 125 farms that recently imported calves from Brandenburg were ordered to suspend operations, and a nationwide standstill on calf transport was implemented until January 19.
Veal calf imports from Brandenburg were also banned.
Export to countries within the European Union’s single market is still possible for products that originate outside the restricted zones, under the principle of regionalization.

Germany’s FMD antigen bank, established for emergencies like this, holds serotype-specific vaccines and can produce them within days, the report says. Vaccines must be tailored precisely to the specific serotypen because vaccines against other strains are ineffective.

FMD affects cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and goats. Not only is it highly contagious, but it also causes severe symptoms, including fever, painful blisters, reduced milk production and significant economic losses for farmers.

FMD poses no direct health risk to humans, but it’s important to note that they can act as carriers of the virus via contaminated clothing, shoes or equipment.

“Past outbreaks in Europe, such as those in the UK (2007) and Bulgaria (2011), resulted in extensive culling of livestock to control the disease,” the report says. “The current outbreak underscores the importance of biosecurity measures, rapid response and vigilance to protect agriculture and livestock from this economically devastating disease.”

Summary of New FMDV Strains into New Territories (2022 to date):

2022
Egypt: South American strains A/EURO-SA, and O/EURO-SA, were isolated from a batch of Egyptian samples tested by the World Reference Laboratory (WRLFMD).

Libya: FMD virus O/EA-3, a strain from East Africa was detected.

Iraq: FMD virus SAT2/XIV, closely related to viruses from Ethiopia was detected. It was observed to cause more severe clinical disease.

Jordan: FMD virus SAT2/XIV, closely related to viruses from Ethiopia was reported in the country.

Türkiye: FMD virus SAT2/XIV, was reported for the first time.

2023
Qatar: FMDV SAT1/I topotype, a virus with close sequence identity to a virus from Kenya was reported for the first time.

Algeria: Virus of the SAT2 topotype (SAT2/V) detected for the first time. Viruses from this lineage were last found in Ghana (1991), Togo (1990) and Ivory Coast (1990).

2024
Libya: A new incursion of FMDV O/EA-3 which is endemic to East Africa

Türkiye: Re-emergence of a virus strain originally from Iran, FMDV A/ASIA/Iran-05FAR-11

2025
Germany: Recurrence of FMD after 37 years. The National Reference Laboratory at the FLI confirmed the virus Serotype as type O, although the virus strain, origin, and route of entry into Germany are yet to be determined.

Your Next Read: Scientists Discover New Test to Detect African Swine Fever on Surfaces

German Meat Exports Face Disruption After Foot-and-Mouth Disease Case

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 16:02:46 GMT

Germany’s meat and dairy exports outside the EU face severe restrictions after the country’s first case of the livestock disease foot-and-mouth was confirmed on Friday, the country’s agriculture ministry said.

German authorities confirmed the country’s first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in nearly 40 years in a herd of water buffalo on the outskirts of Berlin.

Foot-and-mouth disease causes fever and mouth blisters in cloven-hoofed ruminants such as cattle, swine, sheep and goats and in past decades has required major slaughtering campaigns to eradicate. Measures to contain the highly infectious disease, which poses no danger to humans, are being implemented, German authorities said.

The loss of Germany’s status as free from foot-and-mouth disease under World Organisation for Animal Health requirements, means many veterinary certificates for exports outside the EU can no longer be issued, Germany’s federal agriculture ministry said.

Consequently, exports of milk and dairy products, meat and meat products, hides and skins and blood products are “currently hardly possible”, the ministry said, adding that it “assumed third countries would immediately impose bans on such goods from Germany.”

The immediate goal is to ensure the disease does not spread, German agriculture minister Cem Oezdemir said.

German meat exports to the EU were likely to continue because current rules require exports to be stopped only from the region of an EU country directly suffering from a disease, an agriculture ministry spokesperson said separately.

Some countries are restricting imports of German meat including South Korea, the spokesperson said.

Authorities in Berlin and Brandenburg announced a six-day halt tothe transport for animals which can transmit the disease while investigations into the cause continue.

The president of the association of German farmers Joachim Rukwied called for urgent and intensive action to prevent the disease spreading and causing more serious financial losses for farmers.

The disease occurs regularly in the Middle East and Africa, in some Asian countries and South America.

(Reporting by Michael Hogan in Hamburg, additional reporting by Christian Kraemer in Berlin, editing by Kirsten Donovan and Christina Fincher)

USDA Identifies Ways HPAI H5N1 Has Likely Spread in Michigan Dairy and Poultry Operations

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 22:29:29 GMT

On June 9, the USDA issued a report that summarizes the findings from field epidemiological investigations of disease spread between premises for 15 dairy herds and eight poultry flocks confirmed with HPAI genotype B3.13 in Michigan.

The following information is pulled from the USDA’s 2024 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1) - Michigan Dairy Herd and Poultry Flock Summary (see Michigan Dairy Herd and Poultry Flock Summary ).

The information offers potential insights for how the dairy and poultry industries in states beyond Michigan likely have been impacted, as well.

A ‘Eurasian Lineage Goose’

Whole genome sequencing (WGS) of viruses from the dairy and poultry premises identified Eurasian lineage goose/Guangdong clade 2.3.4.4b, genotype B3.13 on the Michigan farms and suggests likely indirect transfer of virus from the dairy premises to the poultry premises.

USDA reports that interstate animal movement initially introduced the HPAI genotype B3.13 virus from Texas into a Michigan dairy. However, USDA says the continued disease transmission within Michigan has been determined to be multifactorial.

Transmission between farms is likely due to indirect epidemiological links related to normal business operations such as numerous people, vehicles, and other conveyances frequently moving on and off the affected dairy premises, with many of these indirect links shared between premises.

Importantly, USDA says, disease spread due to independent introduction of the virus onto dairy or poultry premises from migratory waterfowl is not supported based on both genomic and epidemiological data analysis.

Key findings identified to date and potential risk factors for local transmission in Michigan specifically, include:

Shared personnel between premises
o 20% of affected dairies’ employees and 7% of dairies’ employees family members work on other dairy premises

o 7% of affected dairies’ employees also work on poultry premises; 13% of affected dairies’ employees have family members who work on poultry premises

o 31% of dairies have employees who own livestock or poultry at their personal residence

Shared vehicles between premises
o 62% of affected dairy premises use shared vehicles to transport cattle, with only 12% of premises cleaning vehicles before use

Frequent visitors on/off premises
o 100% of affected dairy premises have regular visits by veterinarians, nutritionist/feed consultant, and/or contract haulers (e.g., cattle or manure); the majority of these visitors have direct contact with cattle

o 40% of affected dairy premises have regular visits for deadstock removal, with 20% having direct contact with cattle. Furthermore:

-53% of affected dairies utilized the same deadstock removal company and 40% had animals removed from the premises by that company within 30 days prior to clinical onset

o Milk haulers visit dairy premises, on average, 34 times within a 30-day time period. Furthermore:

-93.3% of affected dairy premises are part of the same milk co-op with at least one other affected dairy premises within the state (i.e., only one of the affected dairy herds is part of a milk co-op that none of the other 14 affected dairy herds belong to)

Disease Spread Between Dairy and Poultry Premises
Apart from the potential for resident wild birds or peri-domestic species to move and transmit the virus, the only other potential transmission routes found from dairy herds to the poultry flocks were through shared employment, housing, or movement of employees.

Approximately 22 employees of three poultry flocks worked weekend shifts at two different dairy premises. Shared housing between dairy and poultry workers was identified between three poultry premises and two dairy premises. It is also possible that dairy employees have social contact with poultry premises employees, USDA reports.

In Summary
The investigations discussed in this report, including the respective WGS information, indicate that HPAI H5N1 genotype B3.13 was introduced into Michigan through animal movement from Texas and subsequently spread within the state between dairy premises with spillover into poultry premises through multiple possible routes.

Factors that appear to be of greater risk for introduction into a dairy premises may be mitigated through enhanced biosecurity, increased animal testing, and potentially through within-state animal movement restrictions if they can be implemented without impacting animal welfare.

USDA says the willingness of Michigan producers to participate in these investigations has greatly increased the body of knowledge of HPAI H5N1 B3.13 detections in Michigan and throughout the nation; this report could not have been completed without them.

For more information on the H5N1 issue:

H5N1 Virus Found in Beef for First Time, FSIS Says

FDA Says New Round of Tests Prove the U.S. Milk Supply is Safe From H5N1 Virus

USDA Now Requiring Mandatory Testing and Reporting of HPAI in Dairy Cattle as New Data Suggests Virus Outbreak is More Widespread

Bird Flu Outbreak Reported in Minnesota Dairy Herd, the State's First

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 21:02:39 GMT

June 6 (Reuters) - The ongoing U.S. outbreak of avian flu in dairy cattle reached Minnesota on Thursday as the state announced its first infected herd.

More than 80 dairy herds have been infected with the virus across 11 states since late March, and three dairy workers have tested positive for the virus.

The Minnesota Board of Animal Health said the farmer of the affected herd reported more than 40 cows with signs of fever. The animals were tested on Monday and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Veterinary Services Laboratories confirmed the positive test on Wednesday night.

The animals are recovering, said Brian Hoefs, the state veterinarian.

Milk from the sick cows was disposed of, and the state Board of Animal Health has quarantined the entire herd for 30 days to reduce the risk of the virus spreading off the farm, the agency said. After 30 days from the last positive test result, the herd can be retested to be released from quarantine, the agency added.

“We knew it was only a matter of time before this detection would reach our doorstep,” said Hoefs. “It’s important for dairy farmers to follow the example of this herd and test sick cows.”

This was not the first Minnesota dairy farm tested for avian flu due to cattle showing signs of illness, but it was the first to confirm positive results, Hoefs said.

More samples from dairy farms could be sent to the state lab in the coming days, he said.

“Once this news gets out, then it kind of triggers other farms to consider doing the testing if they were on the fence prior,” Hoefs said. “My guess is we will see more testing later this week into next week.”

The other states that have reported infected herds so far are Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota and Texas.

Dairy cows with avian flu have died or been slaughtered by farmers after not recovering, Reuters reporting found. The USDA said that the vast majority of cows recover from the illness.

(Reporting by Leah Douglas and P.J. Huffstutter; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Lisa Shumaker)

APHIS To Require Electronic Animal ID for Certain Cattle and Bison

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 18:29:58 GMT

USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has taken another step toward limiting the impact of an outbreak of foreign animal diseases by amending and strengthening its animal disease traceability regulations for certain cattle and bison. By requiring electronic animal identification for certain cattle and bison, APHIS put into place the technology, tools and processes to help industry stakeholders quickly pinpoint and respond to a foreign animal disease outbreak.

“Rapid traceability in a disease outbreak will not only limit how long farms are quarantined, keep more animals from getting sick, and help ranchers and farmers get back to selling their products more quickly – but will help keep our markets open,” said Dr. Michael Watson, APHIS administrator.

APHIS said one to the rule’s most significant benefits for farmers and ranchers will be the enhanced ability of the United States to limit impacts of animal disease outbreaks to certain regions, which the agency called a “key to maintaining our foreign markets. By being able to readily prove disease-free status in non-affected regions of the United States, we will be able to request foreign trading partners recognize disease-free regions or zones instead of cutting off trade for the entire country. Traceability of animals is necessary to establish these disease-free zones and facilitate reestablishment of foreign and domestic market access with minimum delay in the wake of an animal disease event.”

The April announcement enhances a rule finalized in 2013 for the official identification of livestock and documentation for certain interstate movements of livestock.

The final rule applies to all sexually intact cattle and bison 18 months of age or older, all dairy cattle, cattle and bison of any age used for rodeo or recreation events, and cattle or bison of any age used for shows or exhibitions.

The rule requires official eartags to be visually and electronically readable for official use for interstate movement of certain cattle and bison, and revises and clarifies certain record requirements related to cattle.

“USDA’s final traceability rule updates the existing requirement for animal identification that has been in place since 2013, switching from solely visual tags to tags that are both electronically and visually readable for certain classes of cattle moving interstate,” said National Cattlemen’s Beef Association president Mark Eisele, a Wyoming rancher.

“Many producers are already familiar with using these visual tags and under the new rule, they will instead use electronic tags. NCBA has worked hard to secure $15 million in funding for producers to reduce the cost of implementing this change. We also remain committed to safeguarding producers’ private data and continuing to reduce the cost of ear tags for farmers and ranchers. Our industry faces a tremendous threat from the risk of a future foreign animal disease on American soil. To avoid devastating financial losses during a potential outbreak and to help producers quickly return to commerce, we need an efficient animal disease traceability system.”

USDA said it is committed to implementing a modern animal disease traceability system that tracks animals from birth to slaughter using affordable technology that allows for quick tracing of sick and exposed animals to stop disease spread. USDA will continue to provide tags to producers free of charge to jumpstart efforts to enable the fastest possible response to a foreign animal disease.

To obtain electronic ID tags at no cost, APHIS directs producers to contact their State Veterinarian.

A copy of this rule may be viewed at the APHIS website, and the rule will be published in the Federal Register in the coming weeks. This rule will be effective 180 days after publication in the Federal Register.

To learn more about animal disease traceability and how APHIS responds to animal disease outbreaks, visit www.aphis.usda.gov.

US to Test Ground Beef in States With Bird-Flu Outbreaks in Dairy Cows

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 19:59:33 GMT

The U.S. government said on Monday it is collecting samples of ground beef at retail stores in states with outbreaks of bird flu in dairy cows for testing but remains confident the meat supply is safe.

Federal officials are seeking to verify the safety of milk and meat after confirming the H5N1 virus in 34 dairy cattle herds in nine states since late March, and in one person in Texas.

Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization have said the overall public health risk is low, but is higher for those with exposure to infected animals.

Scientists believe outbreaks are more widespread in cows than officially reported based on findings of H5N1 particles in about 20% of milk samples. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that preliminary results of gold-standard PCR tests showed pasteurization killed the bird flu virus in milk, though.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will analyze retail ground beef samples with PCR tests that indicate “whether any viral particles are present,” according to a statement. Some
dairy cows are processed into ground beef when they grow old.

The USDA on Monday began requiring lactating dairy cows to test negative for bird flu before being moved across state lines as officials seek to contain the virus.

The department said this weekend that testing is not required for cows that are shipped over state lines directly to slaughter facilities from barns where they are sold. Those
cattle only need documentation showing they were inspected by a veterinarian.

The USDA said it inspects each animal before slaughter, and all cattle carcasses must pass inspection after slaughter to enter the human food supply.

Last week USDA said it had found bird flu in a lung tissue sample from an asymptomatic dairy cow that was sent to slaughter from an infected herd. The animal did not enter the food supply, according to the department.

The USDA is now collecting beef muscle samples at slaughter facilities of dairy cattle that have been condemned to determine the presence of viral particles, according to the statement. Any positive PCR tests for retail or slaughter samples will be evaluated for live virus, the USDA said.

The USDA will also use a “virus surrogate” in ground beef and cook it at different temperatures to determine how the virus is affected, according to the statement. It said cooking meat to a safe internal temperature kills bacteria and viruses

Colombia restricted the import of beef and beef products coming from U.S. states where dairy cows have tested positive for avian influenza as of April 15, according to the USDA.

There are no known cases of bird flu in beef cattle so far.

The human case in the current outbreak was in a Texas farm worker who suffered conjunctivitis following exposure to dairy cows.

(Reporting by Tom Polansek; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Marguerita Choy)

A Message to the Ag Industry about H5N1

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 20:49:16 GMT

“We’re going on a bear hunt. We’re going to catch a big one… We’re not scared.”

So goes a beloved children’s book written by Michael Rosen. The story is a metaphor for how to address fear. Kay Russo, DVM, often reads it to her son and daughter, ages 4 and 6.

“This unfortunate family seems to deal with a lot of issues as they’re going on their hike,” Russo says. “Ultimately, every time they reach one of these issues, the book basically says, ‘You know, we can’t go over it. We can’t go around it. We can’t go under it. We have to go through it.’”

That story illustrates how the dairy industry must deal with the growing impact of H5N1, says Russo, Novonesis technical services manager for dairy and poultry. She’s watched the spread of the virus with alarm and urges U.S. leaders across dairy and agriculture to step up and take action.

“Address it head-on,” she says. “Don’t hide.”

As with all major threats, she says ag needs a comprehensive, cohesive plan to address the virus in dairy – and to also look at how to protect the beef, pork and poultry industries.

“At this point, I believe it’s important to take one day at a time and systematically answer the questions that we need to get answered in order to define a sustainable path forward,” Russo says.

“We have a very clear picture that it’s in the udder and is being shed in milk. But where else do we need to be concerned? That matters because that is going to define the control tactics to reduce spreading it from cow to cow. Those questions are ultimately going to be the pillar of our understanding and help to define strategies for controlling the virus in a sustainable way.”

On The Front Line
Help can’t come soon enough for dairy producers and veterinarians in the trenches working with cows.

Veterinarians such as Dr. Barb Petersen in Texas have been dealing with the virus in their clients’ dairy herds since at least March.

“It has been circulating here as early as February, based on retrospective feedback from owners and fellow veterinarians,” says Petersen, owner of Sunrise Veterinary Service in Amarillo.

By early March, she had begun sending daily emails and text messages to her Texas Panhandle dairy clients who needed answers and support.

Petersen, who has been in practice 15 years, did her best to provide both. But she didn’t know what she was dealing with. Neither did any other veterinarian Petersen reached out to within 200 miles of her practice.

“We started to text and email each other, and give summaries of ‘OK, here’s the test that this doctor has run. Here’s what another colleague has run,’” Petersen recalls.

“We tested for every single viral bacterial mycotoxin, lepto, rumensin toxicity, nitrates… I mean, you name it, every single thing that we vaccinate for, we tested for, for sure, right off the bat. And then even some of the things that we don’t or can’t vaccinate for. We tried to cast a really wide net.”

None of the initial tests, conducted by the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory (TVMDL), provided an answer.

Recurring Symptoms Emerge

Some members of the animal health community suspected winter dysentery – an acute, highly contagious gastrointestinal disorder that can affect housed dairy cattle of all ages.

Petersen was skeptical.

“The first clinical symptom I saw was cows that had indigestion. They had manure that wasn’t well-digested, manure with particles of feed in it,” she says.

As she checked more cows and talked with colleagues, more information came to light and she began to identify recurring symptoms: thick, colostrum-like milk; lesions on cow vulvas; high temperatures; respiratory distress; a drop in feed consumption; and a corresponding lack of rumination. None of it added up to winter dysentery.

“This is a really strong and fierce reminder to keep your hands on the cows,” Petersen says. “It’s wonderful to have data, but you have to trust and then verify.”

When Russo at Novonesis got news of the problem from a colleague, she called Petersen.

Russo has worked as a dairy veterinarian and is also a board-certified poultry veterinarian. She and Petersen discussed what kinds of tests had already been done and what health concerns had been ruled out.

“I said, ‘You know, I may sound like a crazy person, a tinfoil-hat-wearing person, but this sounds a bit like (highly pathogenic avian) influenza to me. We’ve seen this particular strain of influenza that’s been circulating, that’s been jumping into mammalian hosts,’ and I kind of left it there,” Russo recalls.

More conversations between Russo, Petersen and other veterinarians ensued. Russo encouraged Petersen to collect some of the dead birds she had encountered at the dairies and submit them to TVMDL for testing, which she did.

On March 19, Petersen received a call from the Texas lab, confirming the wild birds were positive for H5N1.

At about the same time, barn cats at the dairies Petersen worked with were getting sick and starting to die. They had consumed some of the H5N1-infected birds and milk that had not been pasteurized.

“I spent one weekend picking up dead birds and the next weekend picking up dead cats. It was very sad,” Petersen says.

Science Provides Answers
Petersen sent some of the dead cats and a pooled sample of milk to TVMDL pathologists for testing. Because of their heavy workload, she sent the same material to a former veterinary classmate at Iowa State University (ISU), Dr. Drew Magstadt, now a pathologist at the school’s diagnostic laboratory.

“Whenever I’ve gotten into a real jam professionally – like, you have a question that you can’t seem to find an answer to – the group of folks that have always helped me solve it have been pathologists,” Petersen says. “It’s been pathologists that I could give the clues to who helped finish the puzzle.”

On a warm March night in Amarillo, Petersen sat resting on her back porch at home when a text message from Magstadt popped up on her phone.

“There’s something in the results,” he wrote. “Can I call you?”

On the phone, Magstadt shared what he’d found in the lab tests done on the cats and milk: H5N1.

“I was like, ‘Are you serious?’” Petersen asked Magstadt. “Are you going to run those tests again?”

“Yes,” he said. “Just to make sure.”

The initial H5N1 confirmation flabbergasted Magstadt. The next day, he retested the samples to confirm the finding.

“I had thought we would find the results were negative and we would move on to other testing. So I was very, very surprised when the results came back positive,” says Magstadt, ISU clinical associate professor and a pathologist at the Iowa State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

The National Veterinary Services Laboratory (NVSL) then confirmed Magstadt’s findings. The documentation of H5N1 by NVSL in a sample of milk from a dairy cow represented an industry first.

“The most surprising part of this, in my mind, is the fact that we’re finding so much virus as we are in the milk, in the mammary gland,” Magstadt says.

‘Show Us The Data’
On April 23, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported it had detected “viral particles of H5N1 avian influenza” in pasteurized milk available for purchase at grocery stores.

Russo is quick to point out this doesn’t mean the actual virus is in milk. Rather, it’s the genetic material known as RNA.

“I think the FDA needs to show us the data,” Russo says. “The fact that there is viral material in some of the milk on shelves, as detected by rt-PCR. That test doesn’t say whether it is alive or dead. Virus isolation is necessary. The first tests have not grown virus, thankfully, but we need more data.”

No unusual human illnesses have been documented. Government health officials say they have seen nothing unusual in flu activity, according to a senior official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who was interviewed for this story. The overall assessment and risk to human health remains low from H5N1, the official says.

“CDC looks for a host of flu-like symptoms,” he told “U.S. Farm Report” host Tyne Morgan during a phone interview. “They do so by looking at people coming into emergency rooms, care systems, etc.”

Yet anecdotal evidence suggests the people most likely to be infected – dairy farm workers who have their hands on cows regularly – aren’t necessarily going to doctors for treatment.

The World Health Organization (WHO) website references just one “laboratory-confirmed case of human infection with an influenza A (H5N1) virus on 1 April 2024” on a dairy farm.

“It’s a mild, mild case and the only symptom he had was pinkeye,” Sid Miller, state commissioner of the Texas Department of Agriculture, told “AgriTalk” host Chip Flory at the time, as reported on AgWeb.

That Texas case marked the second confirmed human case of influenza A(H5N1) detected in the U.S. — and the first in the dairy industry. The first documented case, identified in 2022, involved a person in Colorado who worked with infected poultry that tested positive for the virus.

During his interview with Miller, Flory asked whether the virus could impact beef cattle at some point.

“You’ve seen what’s happened in the cattle markets,” Flory said. “They’re looking at it like this is a major problem for beef.”

Problems aren’t anticipated for Texas beef cattle, which consist primarily of feedlot cattle in the Panhandle, Miller replied.

“The cattle that get it are the older lactating cows, and we don’t have those in the feedlot,” Miller explained. “I think we’re OK, but we’re certainly going to research that.”

Tip Of The Iceberg?
So far, H5N1 has been officially confirmed in only 32 herds in eight states, according to data from USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).

Some veterinarians working with dairies in Texas believe the virus is more active than current data suggest. Nick Schneider, a consulting dairy practitioner, is one of them.

“The thing is, when you get into the Panhandle of Texas, I’m not sure there’s anybody (dairy farms) that did not have it,” says Schneider.

Texas is home to 335 Grade A dairies with an estimated 625,00 cows, according to information on the Texas Association of Dairymen website. More than 100 of those operations are in the Panhandle.

The virus likely is being under-reported by the dairy industry because the presence of the virus in dairy cows is new, and there are no reporting requirements, Russo says.

“It’s not a foreign animal disease like it’s considered in poultry, where there are reporting requirements,” she explains. “This is considered an emerging disease (in dairy cattle).”

The dairy industry needs to be “very forward looking” now and address the virus, advises Schneider, the Texas dairy consultant.

“Looking at what happened in the rearview mirror is great, but if you’re not looking at where you’re going, it’s really just a pointless endeavor,” he says.

To that end, he advises gaining insights and expertise in preparation for whatever new information emerges next.

“We need to think about this potentially being something we have to live with, as being a part of the industry in the future,” Schneider says. “I hope I’m wrong. I would love to be wrong about that. But it’s something that we definitely need to consider when we’re thinking of how we’re going to manage it.”

Lessons From Swine And Poultry
Russo also advocates learning the lessons from swine and poultry, which have faced a variety of viral challenges for years.

“It’s important that we don’t try to reinvent the wheel as the cattle industry, but sort of cross the aisle to interact with the poultry folks and the swine folks who have gone through this repeatedly over the years and learn from the defined principles they use and try to adapt them into the bovine space,” she says.

Both swine and poultry have modified their animal management practices from the farm to the marketplace as a result of those experiences.

“Poultry, for instance has very distinct biosecurity principles they abide by to include lines of separation,” Russo says. “One is they keep the outside world out. Another is their use of PPE (physical protective equipment) to protect employees and also the birds from anything that might be carried onto the farm.”

The latter is a message Dr. Barb Petersen has taken to heart. Petersen says she was exposed to H5N1 for more than a month before she learned about the virus and its ability to infect dairy cows and people.

“I’m very fortunate that I never got sick,” she says.

Her advice? “Protect yourselves and your people on the dairy. There’s been underreporting of the virus. Understandably, there’s been a lot of fear. But every dairy that I’ve worked with has – with the exception of one – had sick human beings at the same time they had sick cows.”

Based on that knowledge, Petersen has acquired PPE available through Texas Health and Human Services.

“All the states have personal protective equipment available. Go and get it for your dairies,” she encourages other veterinarians. “If a dairy is on the fence, just provide it to them, offer it to everybody.”

Petersen says she has worked with people infected by H5N1 who do not interact with dairy cows. “I’m talking owners and feeders who don’t usually touch cows,” she says.

Research is underway to determine how much of a health risk the virus poses to humans, Russo says.

“This is a rapidly evolving situation, and the people that are working on it are doing everything they can to ensure the safety of those individuals that are most at risk,” she says.

A Paradigm Shift
The virus continues to hit the U.S. poultry industry hard.

Cal-Maine Foods, the largest producer and distributor of fresh shell eggs in the U.S., announced April 2 that chickens at its facility in Parmer County, located in the southwest part of the Texas Panhandle, tested positive for the virus. As a result, Cal-Maine had to cull nearly 2 million chickens − 1.6 million hens and 337,000 pullets.

In the AgriTalk discussion aired earlier this spring, Flory asked Miller, the Texas ag commissioner, whether he believes state agriculture department investigators are in front of the latest issues with HPAI in dairy cattle.

“I think so,” Miller replied. “We’ve got about 10 months before the ducks and geese come back, so I think we’ll have it figured out by then.”

Moving forward, the U.S. livestock industry might operate in a new world – one where the H5N1 virus is endemic.

Russo is undaunted by the challenge.

“This is not insurmountable, but it’s an issue we need to address swiftly,” she says.

Culled dairy cows going into the food supply deserve special attention, she says.

“We need to do the work so that we can define those movement strategies for the practitioners that are being asked to write health certificates on these farms that have the virus circulating,” Russo says.

The dairy industry needs to be more proactive for the sake of the poultry industry, she adds.

“Putting our heads in the sand, and hoping it burns itself out is not going to work. It’s just not,” she says. “It would take down the entire poultry industry by doing that, because this is highly pathogenic to them.”

That is not hyperbole, Russo says: a dime-sized piece of manure with H5N1 can infect up to 1 million chickens or turkeys.

In essence, the livestock industry needs to go on a bear hunt, as the children’s story says.

‘We can’t go over it. We can’t go around it. We can’t go under it. We have to go through it.”

With that as the focus, solutions to H5N1 can be found and help delivered to livestock producers and veterinarians on the front lines and, ultimately, the U.S. agriculture industry can insure a safe food supply.

This story will be updated by Bovine Veterinarian and Farm Journal editorial staff as more information is available.

USDA Now Requiring Mandatory Testing and Reporting of HPAI in Dairy Cattle as New Data Suggests Virus Outbreak is Widespread

USDA Shares Recent H5N1 Avian Flu Sequences

Texas-Sized Problems Hit the Lone Star State, but Ag Commissioner says ‘Things are Getting Better’

Rare Human Case of Bird Flu Confirmed. Officials Believe it Began on Texas Dairy

USDA Now Requiring Mandatory Testing and Reporting of HPAI in Dairy Cattle as New Data Suggests Virus Outbreak is More Widespread

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 18:41:03 GMT

USDA is now ordering all dairy cattle must be tested prior to moving the animals across state lines as a way to help stop the spread of HPAI H5N1 impacting dairy herds across the country. This comes after a lab at Ohio State University detected genetic material of the virus in 38% of retail milk samples they’ve tested, data that also suggests the current outbreak is being underreported.

In a new Federal Order announced on Tuesday , USDA says in an effort to protect the U.S. livestock industry from the threat posed by highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza , there are a number of actions being taken with federal partners to limit the spread.

The following measures go into effect immediately:

Prior to interstate movement, dairy cattle are required to receive a negative test for the Influenza A virus at an approved National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) laboratory.
Owners of herds in which dairy cattle test positive for interstate movement will be required to provide epidemiological information, including animal movement tracing.
Dairy cattle moving interstate must adhere to conditions specified by APHIS.

USDA says forthcoming guidance will be released, but these steps will be immediately required for lactating dairy cattle, while these requirements for other classes of dairy cattle will be based on scientific factors concerning the virus and its evolving risk profile.

USDA is also requiring labs and state veterinarian offices to start mandatory reporting of Influenza A nucleic acid detection diagnostic results, which is PCR or genetic sequencing, in livestock. That must be reported to USDA APHIS.

Prior to Tuesday’s announcement, HPAI H5N1 in livestock was not currently a reportable disease.

“It’s not a foreign animal disease in dairy, like it’s considered in poultry -- same virus -- but in poultry, there are reporting requirements. This is considered an emerging disease (in dairy cattle). And with that, there are no reporting requirements,” one source told Farm Journal.

USDA also says while the virus is spreading between cows in the same herd, from cows to poultry, as well as spread between dairies associated with cattle movements, now some cows that don’t signs of the illness are still testing positive for the virus. One sample came from a cow in Kansas. USDA says on April 16, APHIS microbiologists identified a shift in an H5N1 sample that could indicate that the virus has an adaptation to mammals.

“While we are taking this action today, it is important to remember that thus far, we have not found changes to the virus that would make it more transmissible to humans and between people,” states USDA. “While cases among humans in direct contact with infected animals are possible, our partners at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) believe that the current risk to the public remains low.

Genetic Material of the Virus Detected in Retail Milk

On Tuesday, the FDA reassured consumers the pasteurized milk they drink is safe after the agency announced retail milk samples tested positive for fragments of HPAI H5N1. Further testing showed the virus is not live, which means there is no risk to human health. However, researchers say this does indicate avian influenza in the nation’s dairy herd is much more widespread than what’s currently being reported and USDA’s decision to stop the movement of cattle also confirms how quickly the virus is spreading.

In an update from the FDA, the agency said it tested milk samples by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and found the presence of fragments of the virus, which is not the same as infectious virus and currently poses no increased risk to human health.

Dr. Andrew Bowman, an associate professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine at The Ohio State University, is part of a lab that has focused largely on zoonotic transmission of influenza for decades. Historically, his research has worked on avian species and swine, but when the detection of influenza and cattle was announced, they started shifting gears and looked at cattle, especially considering there are no cattle influenza experts since it’s not a species that anyone really had on the list for influenza, nor was avian influenza in cattle a possibility that researchers were exploring.

Virus Material Found in 38% of Retail Milk Samples at Lab

The Ohio State lab is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) network for the Centers for Excellence in Influenza Research and Response. As the team worked together to generate scientific data, Bowman and the team needed to try to get a handle on the scope of the new outbreak of HPAI H5N1 in cattle. They decided it would be quicker and more efficient to test samples of retail milk versus visiting every dairy farm in the country.

“We’ve tested 150 samples, 58 of those have tested positive to date,” says Bowman. “We’ve screened them for the presence of influenza genetic material, so the viral RNA. Those that have tested positive, we have been forwarded to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, where they are conducting studies to see if there’s a viable virus in there. To date, none of them have been viable, but certainly they give the indication that there is viral genetic material in the region.”

Related News: ‘We Have To Go Through It’

Bowman says the team purchased milk from six different states, and the processing plant codes on those 58 positives represent 10 different states where the milk was processed.

“I think this certainly gives us some idea that it’s a larger problem than the handful of states in the 38 farms that had been reported,” says Bowman. “I think it’s much more common.”

The difference between finding viral RNA, which is genetic material, versus a live virus, is a major point in reassuring consumers the U.S. milk supply is safe, but it’s also a key metric in tracking how widespread the virus actually is.

“Just like if we find DNA at a crime scene, it shows somebody was there. But it’s not saying they’re there and active right now,” says Bowman. “We can piece that together and know that there was evidence that the virus was in the milk, but it’s been rendered inactive, likely by pasteurization.”

Bowman says viral RNA, which is what his lab detected in retail milk, does not cause humans to get sick.

“In fact, if we look for other pathogens, RNA and DNA, we probably find some of that as well. But we are using it as an indication of how widespread influence is in the US dairy cattle herd,” says Bowman.

APHIS continues to track the number of cases nationwide , and the latest look at confirmed cases of HPAI in domestic livestock shows 26 cases in 8 states. However, additional veterinary professionals have spoken to Farm Journal and said APHIS’ numbers aren’t accurate with what’s actually happen in the countryside and the virus is more widespread than what’s being reported.

U.S. Milk Supply is Still Safe

While the number of cases- and scope of the virus in the U.S. cattle herd- is currently under question, Bowman says their research indicates the U.S. milk supply is safe.

“At this point in time, there’s evidence that they are viral particles entering the milk supply, but those are not viable at this point in time, and we believe pasteurization is effective. All data supports that pasteurization is effective,” says Bowman. “It’s one of those cases where it’s a very limited sampling at this point. And we’re working hard to expand that to provide some assurance that this is the correct position to take.”

FDA confirmed again on Thursday that even though genetic material was detected in retail milk, pasteurization of milk destroys harmful pathogenic bacteria and other microorganisms, including HPAI and other viruses.

“The data cited by FDA is consistent with many other studies demonstrating that the legally required temperature and time for milk pasteurization will readily inactivate HPAI,” National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) said in a statement. “Viral fragments detected after pasteurization are nothing more than evidence that the virus is dead; they have zero impact on human health. Further, the federal PMO prohibits milk from sick cows from entering the food supply chain. Milk and milk products produced and processed in the United States are among the safest in the world.”

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) also reached out to Farm Journal to reaffirm the risk to human health remains low. A CDC senior official told Farm Journal CDC regularly scans emergency rooms and care systems for unusual illnesses, including flu-like symptoms, and the agency is seeing nothing usual with respect to flu activity. The CDC says the overall assessment is the risk to human health remains low.

The Biggest Unknown: How the Virus is Spreading Among Livestock

As researchers try to get a grasp on the scope, the biggest question remains how this virus continues to spread. Bowman’s lab has worked with influenza viruses for more than a decade, and he says influenza is difficult to address.

“Some of it is influenza, the virus itself because it’s a segmented RNA and has a different genome. It behaves differently than some viruses, it can mix and match and reassort. So that’s, that’s one challenge,” says Bowman. “In this case, we’re in a new species and we’re all having to quickly learn all the intricacies of, of cattle production and, and how we might be transmitting. And then we add into the fact that we’ve seen it in pigs and birds, and it’s not always a clinical presentation, they don’t always show signs of disease.”

Bowman says animals that are infected may be asymptomatic, so they could be a vehicle moving the virus.

“That’s certainly complicated, complicates understanding that the transmission dynamics and the ecology and epidemiology of influenza in any species, but especially in this case, it’s a new species that we’re really having to wrap our heads around,” says Bowman.

Bowman points out that with influenza, it’s always a question of who’s giving it to whom. His lab, along with others, are trying to piece that together, but their insights are only as good as the data that’s available. At this point in time, that data is limited. Bowman says as more data is collected, they’ll have a much stronger position to figure out what is happening.

USDA Shares Recent H5N1 Avian Flu Sequences

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 19:23:53 GMT

g to the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota . Their

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced that it has shared 239 recent genetic sequences of the H5N1 avian flu virus from poultry, wild birds, and dairy cows, which will help scientists look for new clues about the spread of the virus.

In related developments over the past 3 days, APHIS reported four more H5N1 detections in dairy herds, along with more positive findings in wild birds and poultry. Also, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) posted a recent update on its actions to look for new human infections.

Eagerly awaited genetic sequences

As the outbreak nears the 1-month mark, it’s still not known how the 2.3.4.4b H5N1 clade is now able to infect cows and exactly how it is spreading in dairy herds. With the virus still spreading across multiple world regions, veterinary experts are looking for answers to protect dairy cows and human health.

Some scientists have voiced frustration with the slow pace of sharing genetic sequences and other investigation details. Until yesterday, only a few genetic sequences were available from the recent outbreaks, including those from a few cows and cats that were detailed in a recent preprint paper from a team at Iowa State University.

In its statement , APHIS said it usually publishes sequences on GISAID, the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data, but for transparency and to speed research, it shared raw sequence data via the National Institutes of Health National Center for Biotechnology Information. It added that the sequences are from cattle, cats, chickens, skunk, racoon, grackle, blackbird, and goose and that it will continue to make the data available on a rolling basis.

Louise Moncla, PhD, assistant professor of pathobiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, today on X welcomed the posting of the raw genetic sequencing, but said analysis steps such as downloading and mapping will take time, and it will take a while before scientists can show how the viruses are related to each other.

More detections in cows, poultry, wild birds

Meanwhile, in updates over the last few days, APHIS reported 4 more H5N1 detections in dairy herds , which raise the total to 32. The latest positive samples were from cows in Kansas, Michigan, and Texas.

Also, APHIS reported two more H5N1 detections in poultry flocks , including an earlier announced outbreak at a commercial turkey farm in Michigan’s Newaygo County and a third hatchery in New Mexico’s Roosevelt County. The agency also reported about 30 more H5N1 detections in wild birds, including waterfowl, shorebirds, crows, and raptors. Most were from the eastern part of the country.

Virus susceptible to neuraminidase inhibitors

In other related developments, the CDC on April 19 posted an update in its response, which includes lab studies to better clarify the impact of antiviral drugs and candidate vaccine viruses.

The agency said it just completed susceptibility testing for seasonal flu antivirals. Tests on the H5N1 virus from the recent human case in Texas confirm that it is susceptible to all commercially available neuraminidase inhibitors. “Testing to confirm susceptibility to baloxavir marboxil, a different antiviral medication, takes longer and is ongoing,” it said.

The CDC said it is studying blood samples from people to have been vaccinated against H5 avian flu to confirm that existing candidate vaccine viruses (CVV) protect against the H5N1 virus isolated from the patient in Texas. Earlier genetic analysis suggested that the CDC’s two existing CVVs would protect against the subtype found in the Texas patient.

Among other actions, the CDC said it is designing an epidemiologic field study to better understand the outbreak. So far, its monitoring of emergency department and flu testing data in areas where H5N1 has been found in dairy cattle or other animals shows no unusual trends.

NEW: USDA Confirms Cow-to-Cow Transmission a Factor in Avian Flu Spread

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 21:18:17 GMT

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said this week that cow-to-cow transmission is a factor in the spread of avian flu in dairy herds, but it still does not know exactly how the virus is being moved around.

Farmers and veterinarians have been waiting for confirmation on how the virus is transmitted to better control its spread. Dairy herds in eight states tested positive over the past month, along with one dairy worker in Texas.

“Those of us that have worked with influenza for a long time were fairly quickly saying, ‘Yep it moves cow to cow,’” Jim Lowe, an associate dean at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, said on Friday. “You can’t explain the epidemiology any other way.”

Wild migratory birds are believed to be the original source of the virus. But the USDA said its investigation into cow infections “includes some cases where the virus spread was associated with cattle movements between herds.” There is also evidence the virus spread from dairy cattle premises “back into nearby poultry premises through an unknown route,” the department said.

The USDA said cows shed the virus in milk at high concentrations, so anything that comes in contact with unpasteurized milk may spread the disease. Respiratory transmission is not considered a primary way for the virus to spread in cattle, the department added.

Despite uncertainty over transmission, USDA has not imposed quarantines to restrict the movement of cattle around infected dairies, as it does with chickens and turkeys around infected poultry farms. Infected cattle appear to recover, while bird flu is usually lethal for poultry.

The USDA said it expects that minimizing cattle movement and testing those that must be shipped, along with safety and cleaning practices on farms, should avoid the need for regulatory restrictions.

Officials reported last month that bird flu primarily affected older cows, though additional data now indicates younger cattle have been affected, the USDA said.

(Reporting by Tom Polansek, Editing by Louise Heavens)

South Dakota Confirms First Case of HPAI in a Dairy Herd

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 21:41:59 GMT

The South Dakota Department of Agriculture (DANR) and the Animal Industry Board (AIB) have received confirmation from the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Veterinary Services Laboratory (NVSL) of the detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza in a dairy cattle herd in South Dakota.

This is the first confirmed case of HPAI in a dairy operation in South Dakota.

“South Dakota Dairy Producers encourage all dairy producers to closely monitor their herd and contact their herd veterinarian immediately if cattle appear symptomatic,” said Marv Post, Chairman of South Dakota Dairy Producers, in a prepared statement. “USDA continues to emphasize that pasteurization kills the virus and that milk and dairy products are safe to consume.”

Read the complete press release here .

North Carolina Reports First Case of HPAI in Dairy Herd

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 18:56:35 GMT

The National Veterinary Services Laboratory (NVSL) has detected Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in a dairy herd in North Carolina.

The North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture, Steve Troxle, said in a press release he is waiting for more diagnostic information from the NVSL and will work collaboratively with federal partners and dairy farmers in the state.

“We have spent years developing methods to handle HPAI in poultry, but this is new and we are working with our state and federal partners to develop protocols to handle this situation,” he said. “It is important to note the FDA has no concern about the safety or availability of pasteurized milk products nationwide.”

North Carolina is the seventh state to officially confirm the presence of HPAI in a dairy herd.

The other six states with NVSL-confirmed reports of HPAI in dairy are:

Idaho: 1 case
Kansas: 3 cases
Michigan: 2 cases
New Mexico: 4 cases
Ohio: 1 case
Texas: 9 cases

In addition, the National Milk Producers Federation reports that eight states now have dairy cattle importation requirements or restrictions:

The Federation adds that there is “no concern about the safety of the milk supply or that this circumstance poses a risk to consumer health because products are pasteurized before entering the market, per the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Only milk from heathy animals is authorized for distribution into interstate commerce for human consumption. Additionally, pasteurization has continually proven to inactivate bacteria and viruses, including influenza, in milk.”

More information and HPAI dairy-specific resources are available at the Federation’s website, www.nmpf.org

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Get the Facts Straight on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza

Minnesota Goat Confirmed to Have Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza

Six Questions One Industry Veterinarian Says She Is Asked Most Often About HPAI

AABP Decides to Reference Cattle Disease as Bovine Influenza A Virus (BIAV)

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 18:58:49 GMT

On Sunday evening, the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP), released a letter to its media partners to update them on how the organization will reference the emerging cattle disease, currently confirmed in dairy herds in six states, moving forward.

“Because this infection in cattle is not the same as highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), after thoughtful consideration and discussion with many experts, the AABP will now refer to this as Bovine Influenza A Virus (BIAV), which more accurately depicts it,” wrote Geni Wren, director of marketing and communications for the organization, in an email accompanying the letter.

The letter was developed and signed by AABP executive director, Fred Gingrich, DVM, and president Michael Capel, DVM.

Gingrich and Capel are asking other organizations, state animal health officials, diagnostic labs, and state and federal agencies to use Bovine Influenza A Virus (BIAV) “so we can be consistent with our messaging and better distinguish the disease syndrome in cattle from the pathogenesis in birds. We believe it is important for the public to understand the difference to maintain confidence in the safety and accessibility of beef and dairy products for consumers,” they wrote.

The letter is available in its entirety for review here:

Six Questions One Industry Veterinarian Says She Is Asked Most Often About HPAI

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 19:00:28 GMT

The emerging issue of Highly Pathogenic H5N1 Avian Influenza (HPAI) in the U.S. dairy industry changes on nearly a daily basis.

Novonesis (a merger of Chr. Hansen and Novozymes) hosted a webinar on the issue on Friday to update producers, veterinarians and other members of the agricultural community.

“It’s a rapidly evolving situation,” lead presenter, Kay Russo, DVM, Novonesis technical services manager for dairy and poultry, North America, stressed at the beginning of the program.

“I’m getting a lot of questions, and I’m sure everybody on this call has questions. Or if you’re a veterinarian, you’re receiving them,” she said. “Again, this is a rapidly evolving situation, and what may seem correct today may be different tomorrow.”

Here are the six questions Russo said she is most frequently asked, and what her answers to them are – for now. Russo’s answers have been lightly edited for clarity.

Question #1: Is HNAI spreading from cow to cow?

Answer: Initially the thought was that every one of these animals was exposed to the disease from a bird. But at this point, there is some consideration for the fact that this may be spreading laterally. How it’s spreading is still unclear. There is some postulation that the virus is being spread in the milking parlor. Could it potentially be a mechanical spread from cow to cow on the milkers’ hands, or perhaps (on) the milking machines? Is it possible in these parlors where the humidity is high, it’s a warm environment that we’re seeing some aerosolization of the virus, so I would say that’s possible too. But there’s more work that needs to be done. But for all intents and purposes at this time, I would suspect there is some lateral transmission.

Question #2: Why are calves, younger lactation cows and the feedlot cattle not getting sick?

Answer: Ultimately, I don’t know the answer to this. More work needs to be done. The question needs to be answered. Are they truly not getting infected with a virus? Are they resistant to it, perhaps? Or is it that they are getting infected and just not demonstrating the clinical signs? We milk a lot of these dairy cows three times a day, so there’s a lot of eyes on them. In some of these instances, with the calves or in the feedlot cattle, you’re not handling them as often. We need to rely on the science to answer these questions in order to provide guidelines. I keep saying this, and I will continue to say it, we do not know what we do not measure. And we cannot provide guidelines around what we do not know.

Question #3: Is this a risk to humans?

Answer: The short answer is that it can infect humans. I know that in New Mexico, they are offering free testing to individuals that are working regularly with these infected herds. And if they are symptomatic – we’re seeing conjunctivitis and high fevers in some of them –they are being distributed Tamiflu for their use and for their families. This is a rapidly evolving situation, and the people that are working on it are doing everything they can to ensure the safety of those individuals that are most at risk.

Question #4: Is milk safe?

Answer: The FDA has stated the pasteurization process should kill the virus, and we should not see it in any saleable milk.

Question #5: Will this be a market limiting disease outbreak?

Answer: This is the major concern here, folks. These are important markets for us in this country. At this point, this is something that is absolutely a consideration. The goal here is to keep the farms in business.

Question #6: Are dairy farms a risk to poultry operations?

Answer: We’ve seen two commercial layer operations, one in West Texas and one in Michigan, be positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza this week. I know that there’s considerable amounts of work behind the scenes to determine the origin of the virus that caused the outbreak in those situations. Ultimately, in this circumstance, it’s going to be important that the cattle folks and the poultry folks come to the same table and talk and manage through this. We want to be good neighbors. These are two major industries in our country, so it’s important that the dialogue is there and continues so that we can keep (everyone) safe.

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HPAI Now Detected on Ohio Dairy: Strange Bird Flu Concerns See Growth

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 19:03:24 GMT

Ohio has become the sixth state where dairy cattle have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), also known as bird flu. A recent news release from the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) reports presumptive positive results from dairy cows in Wood County.

According to officials, the cows arrived in Wood County on March 8 from a dairy in Texas. That dairy later reported a confirmed case of HPAI. The Ohio dairy operation alerted state officials when the livestock began showing signs of illness. State officials are awaiting confirmation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“We have official confirmation that we do have a case at a dairy in Wood County of HPAI, which is an influenza,” says ODA Director Brian Baldridge. “We’ve been working with this in the poultry industry for about the last two-and-a-half years and it has found its way into the dairy industry. We are working diligently with the dairy, with their vets and with our Animal Health division and our state veterinarian, Dr. (Dennis) Summers, on this issue.

According to the USDA, HPAI has now been detected in five other states, including:

Texas
Kansas
New Mexico,
Idaho
Michigan

“Clinically sick dairy cattle from affected herds range from 1% to 20%, with an average of 10% of the milking herd affected. There are no confirmed reports of death loss in dairy cattle directly attributed to these detections. Most sick cows begin recovering within a few days.”

“Federal and state agencies continue to conduct additional testing from sick animals and in unpasteurized clinical milk samples from sick animals, as well as viral genome sequencing, to assess whether HPAI or another unrelated illness may be underlying any symptoms,” the ODA reports.

The agency notes that clinically sick dairy cattle from affected herds range from 1% to 20%, with an average of 10% of the milking herd affected. Currently, there are no confirmed reports of death loss in dairy cattle directly attributed to these detections with most sick cows recovering within a few days.

HPAI symptoms in dairy cattle include:

Sudden drop in milk production.
Some severely impacted cows are producing thicker, more concentrated, colostrum-like milk.
Drop in feed consumption with a simultaneous drop in rumen function, accompanied by loose feces and some fever.
Impacted herds have reported older cows in mid-lactation may be more likely to be severely impacted than younger cows, fresh cows or heifers.
Some herds have reported pneumonia and mastitis.

For more on HPAI, read:

Mexico Taking 'Preventative Measures' After Bird Flu Found in U.S.

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 16:25:24 GMT

Mexico’s agriculture ministry on Tuesday said it is taking preventative measures to increase surveillance and reinforce inspections of U.S. livestock imports after bird flu was found in dairy cattle there.

Avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu, has so far been detected in dairy herds in five U.S. states, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The Mexico-United States Commission for Prevention of Foot-and-Mouth Disease and other Animal Exotic Diseases (CPA) will visit livestock stables to take samples for lab analysis, a statement by Mexico’s agriculture ministry said.

Officials from Mexico’s agriculture sanitation authority Senasica will also increase surveillance of cattle entering the country for any sign of respiratory distress, the agriculture ministry said.

Mexico is a major market for U.S. beef and dairy products.

Texas and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday reported the second case of avian influenza in a person who had contact with dairy cows presumed to be infected with the virus, following a 2022 case in Colorado.

Avian flu has reached new corners of the globe in recent years, spread by wild birds. Since 2022, 82 million U.S. chickens, turkeys and other birds have been culled. The virus is fatal to poultry but has been less severe in mammals.

Twelve Cases of HPAI in Dairy Cattle Confirmed in Five States

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 18:54:11 GMT

To date, 12 cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) have been confirmed in dairy cattle in five states.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has made the confirmations in dairy herds in four states: Texas (7), Kansas (2), Michigan (1), and New Mexico (1).

In addition, the Idaho State Department of Agriculture announced March 28 that it had identified its first cases of HPAI in a Cassia County dairy cattle operation. The affected facility had recently imported cattle from another state and herd that had HPAI.

Fred Gingrich, DVM and executive director for the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP), says the virus identified in affected dairy cows is the same virus that has affected the U.S. poultry industry since 2022.

“The assumption is the initial herds were affected by wild migratory birds,” Gingrich told Chip Flory, host of AgriTalk, on Tuesday.

Gingrich adds that government agencies, veterinarians and livestock industry groups have more questions than answers at this point about how HPAI is infecting herds, and they are not ruling out cow-to-cow transmission.

“Clinically, it looks like that’s what is happening. Some of the newly infected herds outside of Texas had purchased animals from areas there that had affected herds. That indicates that we probably have some cow-to cow transmission,” Gingrich says. “What’s not known is how does that transmission occur? Does it occur through oral secretions, through the manure, urine, or aerosolized in respiratory secretions like it is in birds? Or is there some mechanical transfer when cows are in the parlor together?”

Adopt Good Biosecurity Practices
The many unknowns at this point make the need for producers to adopt good biosecurity measures more important than ever. Gingrich says the AABP and the National Milk Producers Federation have teamed up to release a set of biosecurity guidelines for producer and veterinarian use. The guidelines and recommendations are available at bit.ly/3TGYMul.

The key points in the guidelines, Gingrich says, encourage dairy producers to minimize any opportunity for the transmission of HPAI by: minimizing livestock contact with wild, migratory birds, isolating new animals on the farm, limiting any visits to your farm to only essential workers and practicing good, general biosecurity measures.

“If you’re moving either your own cattle home from a heifer grower, or you’re purchasing animals, talk to your veterinarian about any potential screening that you might want to do for those cattle, which is just a good practice for any potential disease,” Gingrich advises. “Certainly, you just need to be careful about herd purchases when we have unknowns with an emerging viral event.”

Producers should use the same general precautions, Gingrich adds, for beef cattle and other livestock as well.

“Currently, there are no reports of HPAI in the U.S. beef herd, but certainly producers and veterinarians should be on alert to monitor and watch for any symptoms,” he says.

Five states, Delaware, Idaho, Nebraska, Tennessee and Utah, are taking additional precautions to increase their biosecurity measures. Dairy Herd Management’s Taylor Leach reports the Nebraska Department of Agriculture (NDA) has issued a restriction on the importation of dairy cattle because of the recent HPAI outbreaks. Learn more here: New Regulation: Dairy Cattle Entry into Nebraska Now Requires Permit Amid HPAI Bird Flu Concerns

Silver Linings In The Clouds
When dairy cows are affected by HPAI, they tend to be only a small percentage of the total herd.

“It only affects about 10% of the cows in a herd, and it does not cause mortality, and we’re thankful for that,” Gingrich says.

Furthermore, any risk to the U.S. public from consuming dairy and meat is very low, because pasteurization destroys the virus.

Looking Ahead
Moving forward in the days and weeks ahead, Gingrich recommends that producers work closely with their herd veterinarians and sign up for HPAI alerts as they are released by the Centers for Disease Control, USDA and other federal and state agencies.

“I think the first thing is to be on the lookout for the disease symptoms in your herd; don’t hide it. We all need to work together to continue the investigation. If you have a sudden drop in appetite and milk production in your herd, the first person you should call is your veterinarian and work through to get a diagnosis, whatever that might be,” he says.

“Secondly, we want dairy farmers to know that the veterinary community cares about you. And we certainly understand that this is a scary time. So make sure that you’re relying on your veterinarian and USDA and organizations like AABP for reliable information,” he adds.

Gingrich offers counsel for veterinarians as well. “Be aggressive with diagnostics, as the investigation is ongoing. Make sure that you are working with your diagnostic labs and state animal health officials to collect the appropriate diagnostics that we have posted on the AABP website. If you’re an AABP member, we have a reporting portal where you can identify the herds with this syndrome.”

Learn more about this evolving issue in the following articles. You can also listen to the AgriTalk discussion between Dr. Gingrich and AgriTalk Host Chip Flory at the link below:

Rare Human Case of Bird Flu Confirmed. Officials Believe it Began on Texas Dairy

APHIS Now Thinks Wild Birds Are to Blame for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza’s Arrival on Four U.S. Dairies

APHIS Now Thinks Wild Birds Are to Blame for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza's Arrival on Four U.S. Dairies

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 20:10:56 GMT

The livestock industry continues to grapple with the first confirmed cases of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), more commonly known as bird flu, in cattle. On Monday, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) confirmed a strain of HPAI was detected on four dairy farms , stating it believes wild migratory birds are to blame.

APHIS says additional testing was done on Friday, March 22, as well as over the weekend, after farms reported finding dead wild birds. Then, on Monday, March 25, APHIS said clinical samples of milk from sick cattle confirmed it was a strain of avian influenza.

“Based on findings from Texas, the detections appear to have been introduced by wild birds. Initial testing by the National Veterinary Services Laboratories has not found changes to the virus that would make it more transmissible to humans,” said APHIS in a release.

APHIS says animal health experts are working to better understand the situation, as well as the characteristics of the HPAI strain. Federal and state agencies are continuing to do additional tests for HPAI, including viral genome sequencing.

“The DNA testing they’re doing on that virus is making it consistent with the wild bird flu that’s in wild bird populations, but there is additional work being done,” Justin Smith, the Kansas Animal Health Commissioner told AgriTalk’s Chip Flory this week. “Right now, it looks like it’s a wild bird incursion on our dairies, whether it be from the blackbirds or other birds.”

Related News: BREAKING: Mystery Illness Impacting Texas, Kansas Dairy Cattle is Confirmed as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Strain

Federal and state agencies continue to assure consumers there is no concern about the safety of the U.S. milk supply, as the pasteurization process destroys any bacteria.

Avian influenza might be new to the dairy industry, but it’s taken a toll on the poultry industry. More than 80 million birds have been depopulated in the U.S. to control the disease in commercial poultry flocks.

“In cattle, mortality appears to be zero. We don’t have any reports of cattle directly dying from this disease,” says Dr. Fred Gingrich, cattle veterinarian and executive director of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP).

“They’re doing some genetic work on the virus itself. Mammalian markers show the given opportunity to pass from mammal to mammal, and they’re not finding any of those markers in this virus at this point in time,” Smith told Flory.

HPAI in Minnesota Goat

This is the first known case in cattle, but the first confirmed case in livestock occurred earlier this month in a young goat located in Minnesota . It’s reported the goat lived on a farm in Stevens County in the same area where a poultry flock tested positive for the illness late last month. The goat shared the same pasture and water source as the poultry flock. The case is still under investigation, but experts at University of Minnesota Extension are recommending producers check their biosecurity practices and not allow poultry, waterfowl and wildlife to share water sources or feed.

Symptoms and Signs of HPAI

According to the Texas Animal Health Commission, here’s a summary of what the industry knows right now:

The symptoms of the illness last between 10 and 14 days.
The exact cause of the illness is undiagnosed and still unknown.
Clinical signs include a sudden drop in milk production.
Some severely impacted cows are producing thicker, more concentrated, colostrum-like milk.
The problem causes a drop in feed consumption with a simultaneous drop in rumen function, accompanied by loose feces and some fever.
Impacted herds have reported older cows in mid-lactation may be more likely to be severely impacted than younger cows, fresh cows or heifers.
Dry cows and heifers do not appear to be affected.
Some herds have reported pneumonia and mastitis.

Gingrich says the main issue in impacted cattle is that they go off feed and milk production plummets.

“It appears the disease peaks in about three to four days and lasts 10 to 14 days. Older dairy cattle appear to be more clinically affected, with a more severely affected lactation,” Gingrich says. “Although it’s not consistent with every herd, it appears it’s mostly affecting animals in mid- to late lactation. It’s pretty unusual that we have something going on in older animals but not in fresh cows.”

Related News: Get the Facts Straight on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza

Gingrich says AABP understood there was a dire need to find answers for dairy producers.

“We understand right now that the primary impact of this disease is economic. These herds lose about 20% of their milk production for 14 to 21 days, which is a huge economic loss,” Gingrich says. “I think we always like to look for the bright side in a situation, and we don’t appear to have mortalities associated with this disease. That’s not happening, which is really great.”

What Dairy Producers Need to Know About HPAI

As more testing is done, and the industry tries to nail down the scope of the infections, Gingrich says his advice to dairy producers is simple: Be on the lookout for symptoms in your heard, and if you see an issue, immediately report it.

“Don’t hide it, we all need to work together to continue the investigation,” Gingrich says. “If you have a sudden drop in appetite and milk production in your herd, the first person you should call is your veterinarian to get a diagnosis, whatever that might be. Secondly, we want dairy farmers to know the veterinary community cares about you. We certainly understand this is a scary time. So, make sure you’re relying on your veterinarian and USDA and organizations such AABP for reliable information.”

The Kansas Animal Health Commission says the cases came on subtly, and dairies have already worked to step up biosecurity efforts to contain any potential outbreak.

Gingrich says his advice to veterinarians is to be aggressive with diagnostics.

“Even though we have these four positive samples, the investigation is ongoing,” Gingrich adds. “So, make sure you are working with your diagnostic labs and your state animal health officials to collect the appropriate diagnostics posted on our website. If you’re an AABP member, we have a reporting portal where you can identify the herds with this syndrome.”

Mystery Illness Impacting Texas, Kansas Dairy Cattle is Confirmed as Avian Influenza Strain

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 19:23:32 GMT

A mystery illness that’s impacted dairy herds in the Texas Panhandle, New Mexico and Kansas now has a diagnosis : Influenza A. USDA says genetic sequencing revealed it’s the same strain of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) that’s been in the U.S. for two years .

APHIS says the “National Veterinary Services Laboratories” detected Influenza “A” in samples from several impacted herds in Texas, Kansas and New Mexico. The virus is carried by wild waterfowl, which experts think is how the illness is spreading. Even with the diagnosis, USDA is still not recommending movement restrictions of animals.

According to the Texas Department of Agriculture, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller received confirmation from the United States Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) that the mystery disease has been identified as a strain of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) commonly known as Bird Flu. To date, three dairies in Texas and one in Kansas have tested positive for HPAI.

USDA reports that affected dairy cows do not appear to be transmitting the virus to other cattle within the same herd. APHIS says based on findings from Texas, “the detections appear to have been introduced by wild birds. Initial testing by the National Veterinary Services Laboratories has not found changes to the virus that would make it more transmissible to humans, which would indicate that the current risk to the public remains low.”

APHIS also says federal and state agencies are moving quickly to conduct additional testing for HPAI, as well as viral genome sequencing, to better understand the situation, including characterization of the HPAI strain or strains associated with these detections.

The Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) also says they are “vigilantly monitoring this outbreak.”

“This presents yet another hurdle for our agriculture sector in the Texas Panhandle,” Miller said in a statement. “Protecting Texas producers and the safety of our food supply chain is my top priority. The Texas Department of Agriculture will use every resource available to maintain the high standards of quality and safety that define Texas agriculture.”

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Officials are strongly advising dairy producers to use all standard biosecurity measures. They note it’s important for producers to clean and disinfect all livestock watering devices and isolate drinking water where it might be contaminated by waterfowl. Farmers are also being asked to notify their herd veterinarian if they suspect any cattle within their herd are displaying symptoms of this condition.

“Unlike affected poultry, I foresee there will be no need to depopulate dairy herds,” Miller added. “Cattle are expected to fully recover. The Texas Department of Agriculture is committed to providing unwavering support to our dairy industry.”

As AgWeb and AgDay first reported last week , dairy farmers in the Texas Panhandle, NewMexico and Kansas were dealing with quite the mystery. Something is causing milk production to nosedive, and veterinarians and state officials can’t pinpoint what it is. In affected cowherds, the issue impacts nearly 10% of the animals, causing reduced feed consumption and a 10% to 20% decline in milk production.

A Texas dairy farmer told Farm Journal the mystery illness acts similar to the flu and impacts only older cows. While the majority of cases are being reported in Texas, the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP), the nation’s largest cattle veterinary association, told Farm Journal last week they have some veterinarian members in New Mexico and Kansas who also reported symptoms.

Milk Still Safe to Drink, Meat Safe to Eat

The dairy industry sent out a join release following the news, reminding consumers milk is still safe to drink.

“Importantly, USDA confirmed that there is no threat to human health and milk and dairy products remain safe to consume. Pasteurization (high heat treatment) kills harmful microbes and pathogens in milk, including the influenza virus,” said the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC), and Dairy Management Inc. (DMI) in a joint statement.

“Also, routine testing and well-established protocols for U.S. dairy will continue to ensure that only safe milk enters the food supply. In keeping with the federal Grade ‘A’ Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO), milk from sick cows must be collected separately and is not allowed to enter the food supply chain. This means affected dairy cows are segregated, as is normal practice with any animal health concern, and their milk does not enter the food supply. Consumers in the United States and around the world can remain confident in the safety and quality of U.S. dairy,” the statement said.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) also released a statement on Monday, saying they are aware that USDA confirmed HPAI in samples collected from dairy cattle in the United States. They say it’s important to note the agency confirmed there is no threat to human health, and milk and meat remains safe to consume.

“At present, HPAI has not been detected in beef cattle. However, producers are encouraged to implement enhanced biosecurity measures on their farms and ranches to help protect their herds,” NCBA said in a statement.

The Meat Institute also reminded consumers that meat is still safe to consume.

“According to the Centers for Disease Control Prevention (CDC) and USDA food safety experts, properly prepared beef is safe to eat,” said Julie Anna Potts, CEO of the Meat Institute. “HPAI cannot be transmitted to humans by eating meat or poultry products.”

The Meat Institute also asked the White House and trade officials to make sure uninterrupted trade remains a priority.

“We call on Biden Administration officials to anticipate international trade concerns and encourage our trading partners to abide by internationally recognized scientific standards as determined by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH),” added Potts.

Symptoms Being Reported

AABP reported to Farm Journal the symptoms veterinarians are experiencing.

“It appears that the disease peaks in about three to four days and lasts 10 to 14 days. Older dairy cattle appear to be more clinically affected, with a more severely affected lactation,” says Dr. Fred Gingrich, cattle veterinarian and executive director of AABP. “And although it’s not consistent with every herd, it appears that it’s mostly affecting animals that are in mid- to late lactation. It’s pretty unusual that we have something going on in older animals, and it’s not in fresh cows.”

Gingrich says AABP understood there was a dire need to find answers for dairy producers.

“We understand right now that the primary impact of this disease is economic. These herds lose about 20% of their milk production for 14 to 21 days, which is a huge economic loss,” Gingrich says. “I think we always like to look for the bright side in a situation, and we don’t appear to have mortalities associated with this disease. That’s not happening, which is really great.”

As the industry works to uncover the factors causing the disease, Gingrich says what makes pinpointing the cause so difficult is trying to decipher what the main symptoms of the illness are versus the secondary symptoms and related issues.

“It’s not a pneumonia outbreak, as far as we can see, and it’s not a mastitis outbreak. I think that some of those things that we’re seeing on farms are probably secondary to the initial agent that’s causing cows to go off feed, and every dairy farmer knows that a cow that doesn’t eat is at risk to get other syndromes and other diseases. I think that’s what’s occurring right now.” he adds.

According to the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC), here’s a summary of what the industry knows at this time:

The symptoms of the illness last between 10 and 14 days.
The exact cause of the illness is undiagnosed and still unknown.
Clinical signs include a sudden drop in milk production.
Some severely impacted cows are producing thicker, more concentrated, colostrum-like milk.
The problem causes a drop in feed consumption with a simultaneous drop in rumen function, accompanied by loose feces and some fever.
Impacted herds have reported older cows in mid-lactation may be more likely to be severely impacted than younger cows, fresh cows or heifers.
Dry cows and heifers do not appear to be affected.
Some herds have reported pneumonia and mastitis.

Texas officials say they are working with USDA to further monitor and evaluate reported cases.

“We’re trying to rule out infectious diseases in anything that might be related to feed or water or any kind of supplementation that these animals are receiving,” Dr. Lewis R. “Bud” Dinges, TAHC executive director and Texas state veterinarian, told Farm Journal last week.

Signs to Look For

Gingrich says both dairy producers and veterinarians should be on high alert and stay vigilant with biosecurity measures.

If you’re a dairy producer, Gingrich says these are some signs to look for:

Rapid onset of cows that aren’t eating
Either a drop in rumen activity or more feed in the bunk at the end of the day
A substantial loss in milk production

“These things are key,” says Gingrich. “Don’t just think you might have a bad batch of feed or that you have a respiratory outbreak and just need to vaccinate. If you see any of these issues, immediately call your veterinarian. I think that is important. I think the other thing that is important is, as with any disease, make sure you’re documenting it with good recordkeeping on who’s affected, when they are affected, et cetera. Good recordkeeping on sick cows applies to any disease. So I would encourage you to do that, as well.”

Texas Department of Agriculture says the Texas dairy industry is essential to the state, contributing roughly $50 billion in economic activity across the state. Texas also ranks fourth in milk production nationwide and continues to be a key player in the dairy industry.

APHIS Bolsters Animal Health Surveillance for Unexplained Mortality Investigations

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 19:42:30 GMT

The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is collaborating with the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) to bolster national animal health preparedness. This $1 million in funding supports rapid investigations of unexplained morbidity or mortality events, or UMEs, in animals – unexpected deaths or illnesses that could signal emerging threats.

“This proactive approach to surveillance strengthens APHIS’ commitment to safeguarding animal health across the nation,” USDA said in a release.

This cooperative agreement is managed by Michigan State University’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, a member of the NAHLN. The funding will be used to reimburse testing expenses at any NAHLN laboratory for UME cases that meet specific criteria, USDA explained.

“The ability to rapidly diagnose unknown illnesses in animals is vital for preventing outbreaks and safeguarding public health,” Mike Watson, APHIS Administrator, said in a release. “This new cooperative agreement marks a significant leap forward in our ability to detect emerging threats at the earliest stages through advanced testing and collaboration with the NAHLN.”

Testing is essential to not only identify the causes of illness or death in animals, but also to evaluate potential risks to other animals and public health. By providing funding for UME testing, APHIS is helping to proactively identify and address potential disease threats before they become larger, more difficult-to-control outbreaks.

“Early detection and identification of potential threats to animal health is critical to our ability to protect the health of our nation’s animals, the food supply, and potentially human health,” Sara Ahola, APHIS Veterinarian Medical Officer and UME project lead, said in the release.

This also helps protect international trade opportunities, which is critically important to the U.S. meat industry.

“Market access is critical. We must continue to prevent foreign animal disease. If we lose our free disease status, it will be an unbelievable game changer. Our industry will survive, but it will never be the same,” Erin Borror, U.S. Meat Export Federation vice president of economic analysis, said during the American Association of Swine Veterinarians annual meeting on Tuesday in Nashville, Tenn.

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USDA Proposes Amendments to APHIS's Traceability Regulations

Thu, 19 Jan 2023 20:04:19 GMT

USDA published a proposed rule which would amend U.S. animal disease traceability regulations to require eartags in cattle and bison that are both visually and electronically readable — electronic identification (EID) tags.

Some changes have been made to a prior APHIS plan, including now the agency using the term EID tags instead of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. APHIS said that is to accommodate the potential for future technologies other than RFID relative to the tags.

Industry Responds

Ethan Lane, vice president of government affairs at NCBA, broke down the timeline for the transition to EID tags in Thursday’s AgriTalk.

“We currently have the RFID tag rule that we saw at the end of the Trump administration that took a three or four year period to ramp up and transition to,” Lane says. “This EID tag will go live as soon as it is finalized, which is likely to be a year to 18 months.”

What’s at Stake

The EID system is aimed at helping the U.S. cattle industry deal with the emergency response to animal disease events, with APHIS concluding that while foot and mouth disease (FMD) and other diseases have been largely excluded from the U.S., “exclusion of every high impact disease through every pathway of introduction is likely an unachievable task.”

Kent Bacus, NCBA’s executive director of government affairs, echoes APHIS, saying FMD is one of his association’s biggest concerns.

“We haven’t had a case of FMD in the U.S. since the 1920s, and there hasn’t been FMD in North America since the 1950s,” he says. “We have a very naive herd that would be devastated by FMD, as would other hoofed livestock.”

Disease management tactics aside, Bacus says the domino affect FMD would have on the supply chain that is continuously being soddered and broken would be “catastrophic.” He points to highly-pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and African swine fever (ASF) as examples.

The Gameplan

Under the proposed rule, APHIS would require tags to be used that are both visually and electronically readable for interstate movement of cattle and bison six months after a final rule is published in the Federal Register.

Comments on the APHIS proposed rule are due Mar. 20. There is not yet a definitive date when the plan will finally be in place.

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Milk Still Safe to Drink, Meat Safe to Eat

Signs to Look For

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Industry Responds

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What’s at Stake

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The Gameplan