Bird Flu in Dairy Cattle

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Yeah, please don't conflate individual reactions with group jeopardy. You can be strict in your regime with raw milk, know where it comes from and how it got there, all the circumstances and cleanliness and good practices surrounding it. All this, as an individual, can be true and you can trust what you know and do. But as a group, the consumption of raw milk is a public health threat statistically and empirically, with dire and preventable consequences.

I'm glad some here have the wherewithal, knowledge, carefulness and ability to control consumption of raw milk in their households safely. That's a different matter from the question of whether raw milk is important to regulate for mass consumption, or whether there is risk associated with its widespread use.
 
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tripletfeb said:
This will all just become a huge deal, like covid was.
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...not sure I understand. How does "just" and "huge deal" get used in the same sentence? Are you saying that covid with its +/- 1m deaths in the US was huge but not important? And H5N1 is likely to become similarly huge in effect, but that this is not important??

Surely I misunderstand, and I apologize for it - thanks for clarifying.
 
We have to pass a landfill on the way to the feed store. You can smell the decaying trash a mile before you pass it depending on the prevailing winds. The mountain of trash is just that - a mountain at least 50 feet high and who knows how wide -- at least a city block long. How many landfills do you suppose are in this country? There are many issues that play into human health.
 
California's Governor Newsom has just declared a statewide emergency due to H5N1 Avian influenza, or "bird flu". California backyard flock owners should be aware that, based on the prior response to Newcastle disease a few years ago, there is a chance that CDFA could at some point be coming to eradicate your birds. Hoping it won't come to that, but it's happened before - and that was for a virus that didn't affect humans at all. See links below.

Newsom declares Avian Flu emergency

CDC: Infected Poultry spread Bird Flu to people
 
Regarding this exact story, I just saw a live news clip on the same subject and they reported "there is not yet one reported case of illness" --- so what gives?
 
News: first severe case of bird flu in human, and unfortunately looks like caught from sick and dead members of their backyard flock: https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2024/m1218-h5n1-flu.html. My elderly ladies got taken out by a fox, so I am not up on the current info, but remember in the last spread of bird flu a few years back, it was mainly migrating ducks and geese and other such waterbirds that could be carrying - so I didn't worry about my flock getting it from backyard migrating sparrows and other songbirds. I did see recently that a hawk had the new flu, so this flu seems more widespread. People may want to be protecting backyard flocks from wild birds or feces of wild birds, if feasible, or carefully watching their flocks for signs of sickness during this season of migration and flu spread.

Also re the live news clip saying "not yet one reported case of illness," they seem to be wrong as the CDC says 61 cases in humans so far, mainly it seems in states with big dairy industries as cows seem to be the mode of transmission to date. There was one little girl who got this flu, was throwing up, etc., then got better, and they believe it was from raw milk consumption.

Sending best wishes for everyone's flocks staying healthy and safe, as well as flock owners!
 
All Ball said:
News: first severe case of bird flu in human, and unfortunately looks like caught from sick and dead members of their backyard flock: https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2024/m1218-h5n1-flu.html. My elderly ladies got taken out by a fox, so I am not up on the current info, but remember in the last spread of bird flu a few years back, it was mainly migrating ducks and geese and other such waterbirds that could be carrying - so I didn't worry about my flock getting it from backyard migrating sparrows and other songbirds. I did see recently that a hawk had the new flu, so this flu seems more widespread. People may want to be protecting backyard flocks from wild birds or feces of wild birds, if feasible, or carefully watching their flocks for signs of sickness during this season of migration and flu spread.

Also re the live news clip saying "not yet one reported case of illness," they seem to be wrong as the CDC says 61 cases in humans so far, mainly it seems in states with big dairy industries as cows seem to be the mode of transmission to date. There was one little girl who got this flu, was throwing up, etc., then got better, and they believe it was from raw milk consumption.

Sending best wishes for everyone's flocks staying healthy and safe, as well as flock owners!
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I'm fearful of my flock getting it as it hit our state a couple of weeks ago. People are worried about egg prices, but the way the turkeys have been getting it, in at least Ohio and Wisconsin, they're at well over 113,000 fewer turkeys.

I found poultry groups recommending Chinese Skullcap/Baicalin for chickens. It's preventing growth of tumors due to Marek's, working as a preventative to Mareks while they are on this, and it's also showing it's working as a prevention to H5N1. One such group on Facebook if interested.
 
What is known about the spread of H5N1? Someone above mentions droppings from migrating songbirds, tiny birds - do they flit about the chicken's runs, drop poop there that chickens scratch-peck-ingest and become infected with? Sorry for the dumb question... I would like please for it to be (a) spelled out in theory and (b) noted what if anything is actually-known. Thank you!

And of course there's the human consumption of unpasteurized milk too. Other routes?

Another question: clearly waste water is regularly monitored for viral load - is this published somewhere handy? ty.
 
aliris said:
What is known about the spread of H5N1? Someone above mentions droppings from migrating songbirds, tiny birds - do they flit about the chicken's runs, drop poop there that chickens scratch-peck-ingest and become infected with? Sorry for the dumb question... I would like please for it to be (a) spelled out in theory and (b) noted what if anything is actually-known. Thank you!

And of course there's the human consumption of unpasteurized milk too. Other routes?

Another question: clearly waste water is regularly monitored for viral load - is this published somewhere handy? ty.
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So far no human’s have gotten sick from drinking raw milk. This is according to the CDC.
 
A piece in today's Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/25/twenty-big-cats-die-bird-flu
about animals at a sanctuary with excellent biosecurity contracting bird flu, where the staff are now pointing the finger at what they were fed, includes this

"an Oregon house cat died after eating pet food that tested positive for bird flu, Oregon authorities said on Wednesday, prompting a recall of raw frozen pet food that was sold nationwide.

Northwest Naturals, a pet food company based in Portland, Oregon, said Tuesday it had voluntarily recalled one batch of its two-pound Feline Turkey Recipe raw frozen pet food after it tested positive for the virus. The product was sold through distributors in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Wisconsin, as well as Canada’s British Columbia.
“We are confident that this cat contracted H5N1 by eating the Northwest Naturals raw and frozen pet food,” Oregon Department of Agriculture State Veterinarian Dr. Ryan Scholz said in a Tuesday news release. “This cat was strictly an indoor cat; it was not exposed to the virus in its environment, and results from the genome sequencing confirmed that the virus recovered from the raw pet food and infected cat were exact matches to each other.”

... A week earlier, health officials in Los Angeles said they were investigating three household cats presumed to have bird flu, as officials confirmed the disease in two other cats who had drunk recalled raw milk and died.

At a Texas dairy earlier this year, 12 barn cats died after drinking infected raw milk."

Biosecurity is pointless as long as poultry litter continues to be a hidden ingredient in animal feeds. This spread of avian flu to other captive and domesticated species will continue as long as that practice does.
 

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