Ask anyone what they know about bird flu, and the most common answer would be that it comes from birds, hence the name.
Surprisingly, that changed for the first time as cows from the United States tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) from the H5N1 virus.
However, the US Department of Agriculture said: “At this stage, there is no concern about the safety of the commercial milk supply or that this circumstance poses a risk to consumer health.”
Nevertheless, people outside the US should be wary as this scenario may happen to their livestock soon.
Why are cows getting bird flu?
University of Minnesota researchers have been studying this strange phenomenon. Joe Armstrong, a UMN cattle production expert, said experts discovered it while researching a strange illness infecting cows in Texas and other places.
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Experts tested them for different illnesses, but none tested positive. “When they started coming up short on everything, they tested thinking outside the box about what this could possibly be, and they started testing for highly pathogenic avian influenza,” he said.
Roughly 10 percent of the herds on outbreak farms tested positive, but experts haven’t confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza is the sole cause of the cows’ symptoms.
The outbreak affects mature mid-to-late lactation bovines, reducing their milk production by 10 percent to 20 percent.
Armstrong noted that this is an unusual phenomenon because these symptoms typically infect young cows.
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The bird flu usually lasts 10 to 14 days, peaking around the 5th day with an abrupt decrease in milk. Also, their milk is thicker and more yellowish than normal, similar to colostrum.
Colostrum is the nutrient-dense substance found in breast milk for infants. Nevertheless, the University of Minnesota Medical Center said pasteurization should inactivate the flu virus.
Hence, the USDA declared, “At this stage, there is no concern about the safety of the commercial milk supply or that this circumstance poses a risk to consumer health.”
More importantly, experts are investigating the exact cause of this mysterious bird flu outbreak among cows to secure the United States milk supply.