How Worrying is Bird Flu's Jump to Dairy Cows? Here's What Experts Say

Apr 26, 2024

By Drew Kann

Since 2022, a highly contagious strain of bird flu has spread across the U.S. at an unprecedented rate, resulting in the deaths of more than 90 million birds in commercial and backyard poultry flocks, plus thousands more in the wild.

Then, in late March, the virus made a jump to another species that surprised many scientists: cows.

Dairy cattle in eight states have since tested positive for the virus, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's tracker showed on Tuesday. So far, there have been no reported cases in Georgia.

But there have been other developments that are worrying influenza experts.

On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration said it had found inactive fragments of the virus in commercially available pasteurized milk, but said consumers who drink it are not at risk of infection.

"To date, we have seen nothing that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe," the FDA said in a statement.

An employee at one of the Texas dairy farms with positive cases in its cows also contracted the virus, the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed April 1. The worker's case is only the second-ever human case reported in the U.S. The man, who worked in close contact with cows and likely caught the virus from cattle, developed only a mild eye infection and has recovered.

The CDC says the threat to the general population remains low and the USDA says there are no signs the virus has changed in ways that could allow it to spread more efficiently to and among people.

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Video: Season 6, Episode 7: Takeaways from the Second International Conference on Pig Livability

This year’s conference fostered open, engaging conversations around current research in the swine industry, bringing together hundreds of attendees from 31 states and six countries. Two leaders who helped organize the event joined today’s episode: Dr. Joel DeRouchey, professor and swine extension specialist in the Department of Animal Sciences and Industry at Kansas State University, and Dr. Edison Magalhaes, assistant professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at Iowa State University. They share key takeaways from the conference, including the importance of integrating data when evaluating whole-herd livability, building a culture of care among employees and adopting new technologies. Above all, the discussion reinforces that this industry remains, at its core, a people business.