Dairy cows take a look at optimistic for hen flu, however officers say danger to public is low : NPR

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Livestock in a number of states have examined optimistic for hen flu in latest days, the primary time the illness has unfold to dairy cows. Officers say the danger to the general public stays low. However as NPR’s Joe Hernandez stories, specialists say the pressure of hen flu is stronger than others and is infecting extra animals than earlier than.

JOE HERNANDEZ, BYLINE: One of many first states the place dairy cows examined optimistic for hen flu was Texas. The infections had been troubling to native officers, however to date they have not had a lot of an influence. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller says livestock have not gotten very sick, and farmers have not needed to do away with an excessive amount of affected milk.

SID MILLER: The excellent news is this isn’t a major problem. It isn’t going to bankrupt anyone. The cows mainly have the flu for every week they usually recover from it.

HERNANDEZ: The USDA reported different confirmed instances in Kansas and Michigan, and says some dairy cows in New Mexico and Idaho are in all probability additionally optimistic. Officers imagine wild birds possible gave the cows hen flu, also called extremely pathogenic avian influenza, nevertheless it’s the primary recognized incidence in dairy livestock.

JOHANNA HARVEY: We have not seen this bird-to-mammal unfold in an agricultural setting. Ought to we’ve anticipated it? Presumably.

HERNANDEZ: Johanna Harvey is a postdoctoral researcher on the College of Maryland. She says wild birds shed the virus into the soil and water the place different animals can decide it up. However Harvey notes that this explicit pressure of hen flu seems to be stronger than earlier ones, sickening extra animals and persisting by hotter months when different viruses would possibly sometimes taper off.

HARVEY: There are distinct adjustments on this virus which have facilitated what we see as elevated international unfold and species impacts.

HERNANDEZ: Nonetheless, federal and state officers emphasize that the general public has a low danger of catching the virus, which could be unfold by shut contact with contaminated birds. The outbreak additionally is not anticipated to tie up the milk provide. Milk from sick cows is discarded, and pasteurization kills off micro organism and viruses, together with this one.

Joe Hernandez, NPR Information.

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