Moving Dairy Cattle? Get Ready for Testing!
With California Ag Today, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.
As of Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has now mandated testing for H5N1 of dairy cattle that cross state lines. The move is to protect the U.S. livestock industry from the threat of avian influenza. Owners of herds in which dairy cattle test positive for interstate movement will be required to provide epidemiological information, including animal movement tracing.
As the story of the current avian influenza continues to unfold, USDA has identified spread between cows within the same herd, spread from cows to poultry, spread between dairies associated with cattle movements, and cows without clinical signs that have tested positive.
On April 16, APHIS microbiologists identified a shift in an H5N1 sample from a cow in Kansas that could indicate that the virus has an adaptation to mammals. USDA has not found changes to the virus that would make it more transmissible to humans and between people.
From the American Veterinary Medical Association, H5N1 has been confirmed in dairy cattle in eight states: 12 herds in Texas, six each in New Mexico and Michigan, four in Kansas, two in Idaho, and one each in Ohio, North Carolina, and South Dakota.
