USDA Confirms Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Dairy Herd in Nebraska

Sep 16, 2025

The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) confirmed a detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b, genotype B3.13 in a dairy cattle herd in Nebraska. This confirmation was a result of State tracing and investigation, following an initial detection from pre-movement surveillance milk samples required under USDA’s April 2024 Federal Order.

This marks the first known case of HPAI in cattle in Nebraska. While dairy cattle in a total of 17 states have been infected since the start of the outbreak in March 2024, APHIS has seen cases in only a small number of states this year. APHIS is working closely with the Nebraska Department of Agriculture to conduct additional on-farm investigation, testing, and gathering of additional epidemiological information to better understand this detection and limit further disease spread.

The detection does not change USDA’s HPAI eradication strategy. Biosecurity is still key to mitigate the risk of disease introduction or spread between premises; APHIS recommends enhanced biosecurity measures for all dairy farms, particularly as we enter fall migratory bird season. Producers should immediately report any livestock with clinical signs, or any unusual sick or dead wildlife, to their state veterinarian.

Source : usda.gov

Video: We Let Dad Drive a 50,000 Pound Dump Truck

There's old hog barns under that field now. The old hog barn site on the farm has been sitting there for decades, and this is the week it finally came out: concrete pad, burn pile, charred lumber, all of it loaded into a CAT 725C rock truck and buried in a pit we dug back in the timber.

Tork's been waiting his whole life to drive one of these, so he gets the keys to a 50,000 pound rock truck and I ride shotgun. The excavator loads, the dozer clears the timber, the drone shows the whole site from above, and by sundown there's nothing left of the old place but a smooth patch of dirt. It's a weird feeling erasing something that was here before either of us, but the farm has to keep moving.