Reacting to H5N1 in Dairy Cows
High path avian influenza, or HPAI, continues to be a threat to birds and now cattle and even humans, in rare instances. At a forum in Raleigh, North Carolina last week, which included Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf, North Carolina Ag Commissioner Steve Troxler emphasized the importance of diligence and cooperation among all stakeholders in combating the disease.
When a cattle herd in North Carolina was diagnosed with H5N1 earlier this year, Troxler said his team went the extra mile to get all the answers we were expecting.
"Yeah, we got some cows from Texas that are infected. We're going to have to isolate them. We know that. But then when it came back that the cows from Texas had already gotten over the virus, but had spread the virus to the cows we had in North Carolina, that was a totally new perspective about the disease and what could happen with this disease. So we learned that very carefully, and we also by sampling these cows we had samples of the milk that was asymptomatic, but we had samples of that milk, and USDA used that to further their research as time went on."
Troxler said when HPAI was first detected in milk cows this year, the early messaging to the public was not handled well. We’ll let him defend that statement and talk about the future for HPAI in tomorrow’s Southeast Regional Ag News.
