USA, avian influenza spreads from poultry to dairy cows

Listen to the audio version of the article

Bird flu infects large American livestock farms, from poultry to dairy cows. A rare case, the second ever confirmed, has now also occurred among humans, infecting a worker in the sector. But the greatest alarm at the moment concerns the impact on the agri-food industry and its protagonists: the leading company in the production of fresh eggs, Cal-Maine Foods of Mississippi, closed a large plant in Texas following the discovery of the disease and eliminated almost two million hens, 3.6% of its national total. A death such that, according to economists, might cause price increases for consumers. Contractions are also occurring in milk production. And cattle futures fluctuated sharply on the Chicago Commodity Exchange, with declines between 4 percent and 7 percent.

Above all, poultry is at risk, where the flu caused by the contagious H5N1 virus threatens to decimate large populations. Cal-Maine’s case is not an isolated case. «No farm is immune – indicated the company – We are committed to a robust biosecurity program».

The risk widens

However, the risk has now increased. The federal Department of Agriculture (USDA), its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service division, has announced that multiple herds of dairy cows, at least a dozen, have also been affected, in Texas as well as in Kansas, New Mexico, Idaho and Michigan, which counted four afflicted poultry plants. Minnesota has also reported infections in goat herds as well as poultry.

The CDC, the federal center for infectious disease control, has mobilized to monitor the crisis and offer reassurances, mindful of the shock of the initial inadequate preparation for the coronavirus pandemic. “We take this situation very seriously,” said CDC Director Mandy Cohen. “We had not previously seen cases in livestock, it is a novelty that can allow the virus to circulate and potentially mutate.” The authorities underline that today it is not necessary to declare general emergencies, even if they fear new infections among human beings: two vaccines are being studied which might be ready within weeks or a few months.

The virus has not currently undergone any mutations that make it more harmful. And the probability of contagion through ingestion, for example, of contaminated eggs is considered extremely low and vanishes in the case of well-cooked food.