Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) News

Iowa Farmer Battles Today's Pests While Eyeing Tomorrow's 'Mean Sixteen' Threats

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 18:55:16 GMT

For Worth County, Iowa, farmer Sarah Tweeten, the list of high-priority agronomic threats isn’t a political abstract — it’s a harsh reality she deals with every season.

Farming with her parents, Brian and Julie, and her uncle Roger, Tweeten has been steering the partnership toward more resilient cropping practices since joining the operation in 2021. This includes shifting from conventional tillage to strip tillage and splitting nitrogen applications.

The changes are part of a broader mindset: Protecting yields today from weeds, disease and insects while aggressively preparing for the next generation of agronomic threats. This forward-thinking approach is what led Tweeten to Washington, D.C., earlier this week as a Farm Journal Foundation farmer ambassador to help introduce a new report: “ The Mean Sixteen: Major Biosecurity Threats Facing U.S. Agriculture and How Policy Solutions Can Help. ”

Today’s Battles and Tomorrow’s Warnings
Researched and developed by Stephanie Mercier, PhD, the report takes an in-depth look at 16 significant pest issues U.S. farmers face now or could realistically in the future.

Tweeten is already battling a couple of the problems that underpin the urgency behind the research. For example, Palmer amaranth (pigweed) is gaining ground in her fields and across Iowa. The pervasive broadleaf weed can drastically reduce yields, with studies showing corn yield reductions between 11% and 91% and soybean yield reductions of 17% to 68%.

“We’ve struggled with pigweed as it continues to establish more resistance to our herbicides in our toolkit,” Tweeten says.

Two additional agronomic issues the report details include:

1. Asian Soybean Rust. First detected in the U.S. in Louisiana in 2004, this fungal disease has spread to southern states like Georgia and Mississippi. Scientists warn that warming winters could enable its migration to the Midwest, adding to existing disease pressures.

2. Corn Ear Rot. It can lead to aflatoxin production, making corn unmarketable and posing risks to humans and livestock. Aflatoxin is an issue Pickens County, Ala., farmer Annie Dee says is an ongoing problem for corn growers in her area.

“If we have aflatoxin, it can be impossible to sell the corn,” says Dee, also a Farm Journal Foundation Farmer ambassador.

A more recent threat she references is the impact of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (bird flu) on local poultry farms.

Since January 2022, HPAI has been confirmed in a commercial or backyard poultry flock in all 50 states.

(USDA)

“An important market for us is poultry feed meal, so that’s a constant worry. The trickle-down effect is if we can’t move our corn then we can’t meet our financial obligations,” Dee adds.

Despite agricultural R&D offering a high ROI — $20 in benefits for every $1 spent — the Farm Journal Foundation report notes public funding for ag research has been declining over the past two decades.

“Farmers urgently need sustained support for aflatoxin research and prevention because these risks threaten our yields, our markets and the trust consumers place in American agriculture,” Dee says.

U.S. public spending on ag research and development has been falling for two decades.

(USDA-ERS)

African Swine Fever Has ‘Devastating Potential’
Looking to the future, Tweeten says she is concerned about African swine fever (ASF) and its potential to impact crop farmers as well as hog producers. The highly contagious swine disease hasn’t been detected in the U.S. mainland, but it isn’t far away. ASF has been confirmed in the Caribbean countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, roughly 700 miles from Miami, Fla.

“Being a farmer from Iowa, where we have probably eight times the amount of pigs as we do people, an outbreak of ASF would be just devastating to our state,” Tweeten says.

Hogs are among the biggest customers for the corn and soybeans Tweeten and her family grow. If African swine fever were to shut down hog production or exports, it wouldn’t just be a blow to livestock producers – it would hurt the entire agricultural community, she contends.

Read about 5 livestock diseases that could impact U.S. food security and economic stability.

Food Security Is National Security
When it comes to justifying funding for ag research, Tweeten knows there’s competition for every federal dollar. But she believes agriculture deserves a front-row seat — not only because of its economic weight and impact on farmers, but because of its role in national security.

“There’s that argument that food security is national security,” she says. “If there’s one thing COVID made us aware of, it’s that a disruption to our food chain can be terrifying, quite frankly.”

The pandemic made consumers and policymakers more aware of supply chain vulnerability. In 2020, the shock to the supply chain came from a human disease and logistical bottlenecks.

(Sarah Williams Photography)

Next time, Tweeten says, the disruption could just as easily come from animal or plant disease — whether African swine fever in hogs, Asian soybean rust or some other pathogen in crops. She worries about scenarios where farmers could face a fast-moving disease or crop pest while critical tools are still hung up in regulatory delays.

Her message: Farmers need a full toolbox, not one that’s half-built by the time a threat arrives.

“Ag needs to be in a good position when these sorts of emerging diseases and pests come into the country,” she says, “to have the tools in our toolbox ready for farmers to pull out.”

About the Farm Journal Foundation
The Farm Journal Foundation is a farmer-centered, non-profit, nonpartisan organization established in 2010. It works to advance agricultural innovation, food and nutrition security, conservation, and rural economic development.

Why We're Seeing More Bird Flu Infections Earlier

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 16:21:56 GMT

According to the USDA-APHIS dashboard , there have been 36 commercial flocks of poultry infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in the past 30 days. Including backyard flocks, it totals more than 1.8 million birds.

Rebecca Eifert Joniskan, president of the Indiana State Poultry Association, says the disease has arrived earlier than “usual” as wild birds spread the virus with their seasonal migration patterns.

“We typically don’t see avian influenza until January or February,” she says. “This year we started October 9.”

Matt Makens of Makens Weather says weather patterns play a role in bird movement, and therefore virus transmission.

“In winters like this. our temperatures will be very volatile. There’ll be swings of very, very warm days. And then very, very cold days. And I think there is a connection to bird flu spread in those warmer periods,” he says.

Indiana is a poultry powerhouse for commercial production, ranking No. 1 in duck (60% of the U.S. duck produced), No. 3 in eggs, No. 4 in turkey, and a large-scale epicenter for broiler production as well.

While HPAI has been a renewed biosecurity concern for poultry since Feb. 2022, the infection has set into a seasonal pattern—creating some predictability. However, the early onset of birds being infected this fall has Joniskan and industry members concerned a long and difficult season is ahead.

“Typically, it fades over the summer. The virus burns itself out with birds in the Arctic,” she says. “That hasn’t been happening. The virus isn’t following the rules. It’s back, and it’s early.”

The first infections in Indiana were in northern countries and affected ducks and free-range egg layers. Currently, Indiana has the most reports of HPAI infection in commercial and backyard flocks for the past 30 days.

States reporting recent infections in commercial flocks are: California, Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
The past decade has brought an increased focus on biosecurity and disease prevention.

“When we had avian influenza in 2015 and 2016, there were a lot of learnings on how to reduce the risk of introduction of the virus on your farm,” she explains. “There were changes put in place, including annual biosecurity reviews.”

She says poultry producers in Indiana have taken the virus risk seriously and are actively preventing its introduction while also being ready to respond to it.

“Our companies across the state have taken the learning from ‘15/’16 and what we’ve learned since 2022, and they’ve doubled down to try to reduce any opportunity for introduction wherever they can. It’s difficult, but it’s less expensive and trying than the dealing with an infection,” she says.

Once a flock is infected, the birds don’t recover from the virus, and depopulation is the end result.

EU Halts Brazil Poultry and Meat Imports After HPAI Outbreak

Mon, 19 May 2025 19:40:51 GMT

Brazil, the world’s largest poultry exporter and main poultry meat importer into the European Union, is no longer allowed to ship poultry and meat products to the EU due to the recent outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

Brazil confirmed the country’s first HPAI outbreak on a commercial farm in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul on May 16.

The entire territory of Brazil has suspended its official status of being “free of highly pathogenic avian influenza.” The EU joins with bans from top buyer China, Reuters reported. According to a European Commission spokesperson, EU import conditions require that the country of export (Brazil) is free of HPAI.

Why do U.S. farmers need to pay attention?

There are two reasons for U.S. farmers to be watching the developments of the disease and its effect on the Brazilian poultry industry.

Dan Basse, AgResource Company, says Brazil poultry exports account for about 33% of the global poultry supply.

“A good portion of that goes to China,” Basse says. “The Chinese are out and already saying that they are going to be restricting Brazilian poultry but, we’ll see. The Chinese took last year about 570,000 tons of Brazilian product. I don’t know where they would replace it–but they’re not going to do it from the United States with the trade war.”

He says another reason to watch is the feed side of the Brazilian poultry flock.

“Those birds consume a lot of meal and a lot of corn, it’s like 17.6 million metric tons of Brazilian meal, and 42 to 43 million tons of corn,” Basse says. “So we’ve got to think about this not only from a export opportunity for US poultry, but from a demand concern of what the Brazilians will do in terms of feed consumption. They’ll become more aggressive in offering meal and corn to the world market if flocks down there do need to be depopulated and are starting over.”

What are teh next steps?

Restriction on poultry exports follows rules agreed on with each importing country, based on international health certificate requirements, the Agriculture and Livestock ministry told the Associated Press (AP). Depending on the type of the disease, some deals apply to the whole country while others involve limits on where products can come from — for example, a specific state, city or just the area of the outbreak.

Countries like Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Philippines have already accepted this regional approach, AP reported.

Brazil exported more than 5 million tons of poultry meat in 2024. Reuters reported that approximately 4.4% headed to the EU. Of total EU poultry imports, Brazil is the main origin with a share of 32% last year, according to official EU data.

The U.S. bird flu outbreak and wider trade tensions with Washington have limited Chinese appetite for American poultry. China now blocks poultry from more than 40 U.S. states over HPAI, according to U.S. government data, Reuters reported .

If the HPAI outbreak spreads across Brazil, as it did in the U.S., officials and analysts said outlooks could get dimmer, Reuters reported. That scenario would raise U.S. hopes for China to ease restrictions on American poultry.

Under a Phase 1 trade agreement China signed with U.S. President Donald Trump during his first term in 2020, China is supposed to lift statewide bans on U.S. poultry 90 days after states eliminate bird flu from infected farms.

However, China has kept bans in place longer than it had agreed in that deal, according to the article.

Greg Tyler, CEO of the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council industry group, told Reuters he is hopeful China will move back to abiding by that regionalization agreement.

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More Funding Going to Tackle HPAI H5N1, Egg Imports are Now Underway to Stabilize Supply

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 18:05:23 GMT

On Thursday morning, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins gave an update on progress the Trump administration is making on the five-prong strategy it unveiled Feb. 26 to combat avian influenza virus type A (H5N1).

Speaking to industry stakeholders, media and offices of elected officials, Rollins focused on the administration’s work to lower egg prices and improve supply, while also emphasizing the importance of biosecurity in protecting U.S. poultry flocks from the virus.

Regarding egg prices, she said wholesale prices are down nearly 50% from their peak in late February from $8.53 then to $4.08 currently.

However, Rollins said she realizes that wholesale prices don’t automatically show up as reductions in retail prices.

“I know for some of us who are shopping that we’ve seen egg prices drop immediately, which has been true for me. But then we’ll hear from people in other parts of the country where they have yet to see that reduction on their grocery store shelf.”

With Easter just a few weeks away, she acknowledged that egg demand is always “unusually high during the season,” and that egg prices could potentially move back up.

To help address the egg shortage, Rollins noted that shell egg exports have declined by 8%, “keeping more eggs in the U.S. and lowering prices.”

In addition, the Trump administration is allowing egg imports as a temporary measure to stabilize prices and supply. Rollins’ chief of staff Kailee Buller said this measure would likely be discontinued once those measures were achieved.

USDA Focuses On Biosecurity For Poultry Operations
Rollins said biosecurity in poultry flocks will continue to be a major part of the Trump administration’s plan to address H5N1, moving forward.

“Our pilot programs have proven that biosecurity is the most important thing our farmers can do to protect our flocks against the disease, at least right now,” she said.

The USDA is working closely, she said, with its federal partners including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to “combat avian flu as a unified federal family.”

On Wednesday, USDA announced it is expanding the availability of its biosecurity assessments to commercial poultry producers.

“These assessments, which were previously available on a limited basis have been extremely successful in improving biosecurity on individual premises and preventing the introduction or spread of avian influenza,” Rollins said.

While USDA is exploring the viability of vaccinating poultry for H5N1, she said the use of any vaccine for poultry or any animal species has not been authorized at this time.

“I know there has been some misreporting on that,” Rollins said. “The day we rolled out the plan, I actually talked about the fact that we’re not ready to vaccinate. We need to do some more research, and so that has not changed, but I do look forward to this next process of learning more about getting more research done and perhaps seeing what makes sense for the country moving forward, once that is concluded.”

Dairy Is Not Part Of USDA’s Primary H5N1 Focus
No information was offered during the conference call to address the issue of H5N1 in dairy cattle or other livestock or animal species.

Mike Watson, administrator of USDA-APHIS, said right now USDA is focused on the poultry vaccine.

“We’re looking for a vaccine that has sterilizing immunity but also an opportunity for us to have different introduction methods for the vaccine right now, as injections are the only possibility,” he said. “We need new tools, whether it’s water based, aerosol based, those kind of things. We’re looking for manufacturers to really look at what those options might be, to really provide us with a vaccine that matches the current strain but also is highly effective. And again, this is really focused on poultry.”

Buller said there is already quite a bit of research at USDA on the topic in dairy.

“Please rest assured, we are thinking of you all (in dairy). We know you all are impacted. But for this particular strategy, we have been hyper-focused on the poultry side. USDA has separate work streams as we’re working through this on the cattle and dairy side.”

One of the media asked whether Sec. Rollins had talked further with HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. regarding his idea of letting H5N1 burn through poultry flocks to identify birds that might have immunity or show resistance to the virus.

Buller answered the question, as Rollins had stepped away from the call. “I have not been engaged specifically with those conversations with the Secretary and Secretary Kennedy,” she said. “They are talking very regularly and you are aligned on the approach, but in terms of that specific topic, there’s no further light I can shed on that at this time.”

Assessments Available To Poultry Operations
USDA is offering two different, free, voluntary biosecurity assessments for poultry operations not currently affected by HPAI.

The first is a wildlife biosecurity assessment. The second is a general biosecurity assessment. Poultry producers can request one or both of these free assessments.

Per the wildlife biosecurity assessment, Rollins said USDA will conduct on-farm assessments at poultry facilities and provide recommendations to producers for facility repairs and wildlife management techniques. The assessments include a series of regular engagements, including wildlife hazard identification surveys, wildlife abundance surveys and wildlife management on the premises.

“USDA has assessed approximately 130 facilities to date (in 2025), and plans on doing significantly more moving forward and expanding that program,” she said.

For the general biosecurity assessment, USDA will work with poultry producers to review biosecurity plans and physical measures.

“This is a proactive resource for premises that are outside of avian flu control areas to identify and mitigate potential biosecurity gaps,” she said.

Funding Is Ramped Up To Address HPAI In Poultry
The USDA announced on Thursday that up to $100 million in funding will be available to support projects on avian influenza, prevention, therapeutics, vaccines and research.

“USDA will invest up to $100 million in these projects, which will identify and foster innovative solutions to fight avian flu and directly support American producers,” Rollins said during the conference call.

Funding is available through a competitive process to for-profit organizations, including manufacturers of vaccines, biologics and therapeutics, as well as states, universities, livestock producer organizations and other eligible entities, she noted.

USDA will prioritize one or more of the following. First, it will support the development of novel therapeutics to address HPAI in poultry. Second, it will support research to further understand the risk pathways of avian influenza for producers and to inform improved biosecurity and response strategies.

“Let me just say, as a quick aside, I’ve had multiples and multiples and multiples of conversations with some of our chicken farmers across the country —many of them have been highly successful at not having the bird flu infect their populations,” Rollins said. “Better understanding of risk pathways and realizing what best practices are is a big part of (this work).”

The third focus is on the development of novel vaccines to protect poultry from H5N1 while promoting biosecurity.

“That will all be part of the research funding opportunity that we announced about an hour and a half ago,” Rollins said.

USDA will test the efficacy of therapeutic interventions to prevent the virus and treat infected flocks.

“USDA, in consultation with HHS, has already had multiple conversations with Secretary Kennedy and leaders in the NIH and CDC, but will also be exploring prevention strategies to promote biosecurity in agriculture and in humans, to ensure limited impact on American farmers,” Rollins noted.

USDA is offering a webinar to assist interested applicants in learning more about the funding opportunity and how to submit a proposal on Tuesday, April 1 at 12 p.m. Eastern. No details on how to participate in the webinar have been communicated yet.

“As we try to do everything under this president and here at USDA, we will be as fast and efficient and effective as we can possibly be, working around the clock,” Rollins said.

Buller added that Sec. Rollins and her staff will continue to host update calls regularly.

“It’s very important to Sec. Rollins that we are showing progress on this five-prong plan and being honest and open with the public about what we’re up to and the progress and potential challenges that we have ahead,” Buller said. “We have an open door here, and we remain open to having conversations and hearing from stakeholders.”

EXCLUSIVE: Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins Provides Timing Update on $10 Billion in Emergency Relief Payments

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 16:43:50 GMT

Time is running out for USDA to issue the nearly $10 billion of economic relief payments to farmers . Congress approved a 90-day window to release those payments, and in an exclusive interview with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins Thursday morning, we asked when exactly those payments will be released. Rollins confirmed to Farm Journal that those payments will be released before the current deadline.

“Congress gave us until March 21, that is the ideal deadline,” Rollins said. “It looks like we’re going to be able to beat that, so it should be just around the corner.”

As USDA works to release those payments within the next few weeks, according to some sources, producers are banking on the payments, even making business decisions based on projected payment calculations.

Pro Farmer Washington policy analyst Jim Wiesemeyer says the only issue that could impact that timing is a possible government shutdown. If the government shuts down beginning March 15, and those payments haven’t been released yet, that could impact the March 21 deadline.

Wiesemeyer also reports based on history, the initial payment will likely be around 85% of the projected total, with a supplemental payment likely coming in the summer. Most expect the per acre payment rates to be in line with what staffers on the House Ag Committee released last year, which are:

Corn: $43.80
Soybeans: $30.61
Wheat: $31.80
Cotton: $84.70
Rice: $71.37

Payment Cap
Like other recent disaster programs, the payment limit for farmers will depend on how much of a farmer’s income is derived from agriculture. However, this program is based on average gross income rather than adjusted gross income (AGI).

The payment cap will be:

If < 75% of average gross income from 2020 to 2022 is from agriculture, then the limit is $125,000
If 75% or more of average gross income from 2020 to 2022 is from agriculture, then the limit is $250,000
USDA says standard FSA “actively engaged in farming” requirements apply

While USDA will determine the finalized per acre payments, these are the estimated American Relief Act payments for farmers.

(Lindsey Pound )

Update on Timing of $1 Billion to Combat Avian Flu
Led by Rollins, USDA announced on Wednesday plans to invest up to $1 billion in new funding to combat impacts of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and soaring egg prices.

“The important piece is not just this immediate short-term goal of getting the cost of eggs down and repopulating our layers and locking our barns down,” Rollins told Farm Journal on Thursday. “But much more importantly, perhaps, is figuring this out for the long term, so we’re not having the same conversation over and over and over again.”

The avian flu plan, which USDA rolled out on Wednesday, includes five major points:

Dedicate up to $500 million to help U.S. poultry producers implement “gold-standard” biosecurity measures. USDA has developed a successful pilot program, called Wildlife Biosecurity Assessments, to identify and implement more safety measures. USDA will pay up to 75% of the cost to address any identified biosecurity vulnerabilities at poultry farms.
Make up to $400 million of increased financial relief available to farmers whose flocks are affected by avian flu, and USDA will assist farmers in receiving faster approval to begin safe operations again after an outbreak.
USDA is exploring the use of vaccines and therapeutics for laying chickens. While vaccines aren’t a stand-alone solution, they will provide up to $100 million in research and development of vaccines and therapeutics, to improve their efficacy and efficiency. This should help reduce the need to depopulate flocks, which means killing chickens on a farm where there’s an outbreak. Note: USDA hasn’t yet authorized the use of a vaccine. Before making a determination, USDA will consult state leaders, poultry and dairy farmers, and public-health professionals. The agency will also work with trading partners to minimize potential negative trade effects for U.S. producers and to assess public-health concerns.
USDA will take other actions to lower the price of eggs. For starters, it will remove unnecessary regulatory burdens on egg producers where possible. This will include examining the best way to protect farmers from overly prescriptive state laws, such as California’s Proposition 12, which established minimum space requirements for egg-laying hens.
USDA will consider temporary import options to reduce egg costs in the short term. They will proceed with imports only if the eggs meet stringent U.S. safety standards and if they determine that doing so won’t jeopardize American farmers’ access to markets in the future.

As for the $500 million that will go toward beefing up biosecurity efforts, Rollins says that will happen immediately.

“The team is putting together right now the guardrails for that, but I think they’re almost finished, and that money should be moving out very quickly,” Rollins told Farm Journal. “That biosecurity money is based on a pilot program where 150 different egg laying farms were piloted on specific biosecurity measures. Of those 150, only one has seen the avian flu. Once they implemented, there’s a massive audit that USDA comes in. They help audit. We’re hiring a whole bunch of new folks to come on board to do that — and new epidemiologists to help us work through all of the science on this, and hopefully you see that immediately.”

Where is the $1 Billion Coming From?
At a time when the Trump administration is looking to save money, not spend, we asked Rollins where exactly is the $1 billion of funds going to be sourced.

“We’ve repurposed funds from other programs within USDA, so this is not spending new money,” Rollins said. “Clearly, we’re in an era where President Trump’s vision is to really streamline government, but this is not that. This is outside that lane. This is a really, really important issue. You know, it’s affecting every single American, not just our poultry producers. And so there’s short-term and long-term fixes here now.”

Some of that money, however, is coming from savings from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

“We are pulling it from multiple different pots. But yes, there’s no doubt that we’ve been able to find some serious savings in DOGE,” Rollins said. “We’ve canceled almost a thousand DEI trainings that were across USDA.... All of it adds up, and we’ve really pulled a lot of that money back. And now putting it where we think it really helps farmers and ranchers.”

What Will It Take for the Ag Economy to Recover

Rollins is set to give the keynote address at USDA’s Ag Outlook Forum on Friday. Rollins told Farm Journal there are a lot of farmers hurting in this economy, saying “it’s one of the worst for that industry that we’ve seen in decades.”

Considering 64% of ag economists think the row crop sector of agriculture is in a recession , we asked Rollins what it will take for the ag economy to recover.

“There’s no doubt, to your point, a lot of our producers in the different lanes are really hurting. Listen, we’ve got to get the cost of input down. We have got to get our export markets opened up around the world. I mean, we’re facing this year a $45 billion trade deficit,” said Rollins.

Rollins says when President Trump left the White House in 2020, there wasn’t a trade deficit. And she says the growign trade deficit is something President Trump wants to address.

“Just think about the amount of ag production that we were once moving out across the world that was keeping our farmers whole and making sure that they could make some kind of a profit,” said Rollins. “That’s not there anymore. Obviously, inflation, the cost of energy has absolutely decimated our producers. The input cost is up 30%. So when you’ve got all of these different factors that are basically piling on at one time, it’s it’s no surprise that sorghum, cotton and so many others are really hurting right now. And we’ve got to do something about that.”

As input prices remain elevated, and commodity prices are below break-even for some, Rollins says she and President Trump are aligned in what needs to happen to bring relief to farmers.

“My perspective, and the president’s perspective, is how do we achieve this through broader access to markets, broader access to capital, making sure that that the cost of inputs goes down. Hopefully with our energy plan, we see that happening almost immediately. And I think that will move into a different era for prosperity for ag, but there’s no doubt it is a dire, dire forecast right now without significant change.”

During the the first Cabinet meeting in President Trump’s second-term, which was held Wednesday, President Trump floated 25% tariffs on the European Union.

“Obviously, tariffs always come up. I’m always saying, ‘let’s be very, very careful and intentional how we move here,’” Rollins said about the first Cabinet meeting. “The border came up, immigration deportations came up. So all the things that the ag community is concerned about that came up, course, I’m at the table. My job is to ensure that that our community’s voice is heard, but also to help effectuate the president’s vision. And we’re moving forward on all fronts.”

You can listen to the complete interview with Secretary Rollins below.

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Trump Administration Announces $1 Billion to Combat Avian Flu and Soaring Egg Prices

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 16:48:58 GMT

The Trump administration is investing up to $1 billion in new funding to combat impacts of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and soaring egg prices.

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins in the Wall Street Journal said, “There’s no silver bullet to eradicating avian flu.” She laid out a five-point plan to address the situation.

Dedicate up to $500 million to helping U.S. poultry producers implement “gold-standard” biosecurity measures. USDA has developed a successful pilot program, called Wildlife Biosecurity Assessments, to identify and implement more safety measures. USDA will pay up to 75% of the cost to address any identified biosecurity vulnerabilities at poultry farms.
Make up to $400 million of increased financial relief available to farmers whose flocks are affected by avian flu, and we will assist them in receiving faster approval to begin safe operations again after an outbreak.
USDA is exploring the use of vaccines and therapeutics for laying chickens. While vaccines aren’t a stand-alone solution, we will provide up to $100 million in research and development of vaccines and therapeutics, to improve their efficacy and efficiency. This should help reduce the need to “depopulate” flocks, which means killing chickens on a farm where there’s an outbreak. Note: USDA hasn’t yet authorized the use of a vaccine. Before making a determination, USDA will consult state leaders, poultry and dairy farmers, and public-health professionals. The agency will also work with trading partners to minimize potential negative trade effects for U.S. producers and to assess public-health concerns.
USDA will take other actions to lower the price of eggs. For starters, it will remove unnecessary regulatory burdens on egg producers where possible. This will include examining the best way to protect farmers from overly prescriptive state laws, such as California’s Proposition 12, which established minimum space requirements for egg-laying hens.
USDA will consider temporary import options to reduce egg costs in the short term. We will proceed with imports only if the eggs meet stringent U.S. safety standards and if we determine that doing so won’t jeopardize American farmers’ access to markets in the future.

Senate Ag Committee Chair John Boozman (R-Ark.) said, “Producers and consumers alike have experienced the economic burden of this outbreak since 2022. I applaud Secretary Rollins and the Trump administration for prioritizing a strategy to combat this evolving threat. I look forward to working with USDA to ensure all poultry and livestock producers’ unique challenges are taken into consideration and they have the tools they need to address animal disease risks.”

In the Wall Street Journal Op-Ed , Rollins said some of the money will come from cuts to USDA spending by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

“Egg prices are skyrocketing, and it isn’t simply a matter of inflation. Grocery prices rose by more than 20% on President Biden’s watch, but the average price of a dozen eggs went up 237%, from $1.47 in January 2021 to $4.95 last month,” Rollins said wrote in the Wall Street Journal. “This matters for American families because eggs are a healthy, accessible and generally affordable source of protein.”

By the Numbers: Soaring Egg Prices
USDA upped its 2025 egg price forecast to a 41.1% increase (range of up 15.0% to 74.9%), more than double the 20.3% rise they forecast in January. USDA started their 2025 egg price forecast in July 2024 looking for them to decline 7.6% versus 2024

“Retail egg prices increased by 13.8% in January 2025 after rising by 8.4% in December 2024,” USDA detailed. “Retail egg prices continue to experience volatile month-to-month changes due to an outbreak of HPAI that began in 2022. HPAI contributes to elevated egg prices by reducing egg-layer flocks and egg production. About 18.8 million commercial egg layers were affected by HPAI in January 2025, the highest monthly total since the outbreak began in 2022.”

Egg prices in January were 53% higher than January 2024 and “surpassed the previous peak prices in January 2023,” USDA detailed.

I just left a message for Chris Kempczinski, CEO of McDonalds USA, thanking him for the choice to not add surcharge to eggs. THANK YOU @McDonalds!!!

(note the egg mcmuffin🥰🍳) https://t.co/UhBUJicTje pic.twitter.com/kRu6DXYutg
— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) February 26, 2025

Avian Flu a Top Priority for Rollins
On Monday, Rollins met with poultry farmers and industry leaders in Texas to address the ongoing avian flu crisis. She toured a Cal-Maine Foods facility in Bogata before hosting a roundtable in Mount Pleasant, where discussions focused on outbreak response and mitigation strategies. Rollins criticized the Biden administration’s handling of the issue, emphasizing the Trump administration’s commitment to supporting farmers and stabilizing egg prices.

“Clearly, this is a massive issue for our poultry producers, especially our egg layers,” Rollins told AgriTalk’s Chip Flory, in an exclusive interview, during Top Producer Summit. “Ensuring that we have a plan, not just for the short-term to bring down egg prices, which the president is very focused on, but for the long-term. What are the best practices around the world? Why in America have we been hit so hard? Why did the last USDA, a couple of years ago, recognize it as a major issue, but not many steps were taken.”

Just hours after being confirmed, Rollins’ first official meeting at the White House was on avian flu. She told Flory it’s her top priority right now, and she’s gathered a team from within USDA and the White House to focus on the issue.

“I’ve been talking to governors. I’ve been talking to the companies that are facing this. I’ve been talking to grocery. I mean, we’ve been talking to everyone, trying to come up with a big toolkit to be able to really approach this and hopefully figure out a way to, again, solve it for the long-term,” Rollins said.

Flory followed up by asking Rollins if vaccines will be one of the tools used by USDA.

“Vaccines are being discussed right now. I think that there is a lot of opinion on that on both sides. And we’re working through all of that right now,” Rollins told Flory.

The big announcement released on Wednesday did not include any plans to approve vaccines to combat the disease.

Your Next Read:
As the Trump Administration Shifts Strategy on Avian Flu, it’s a Complicated Issue in Need of a Long-Term Solution

Trump Administration Shifts Strategy on Avian Flu

Tue, 18 Feb 2025 14:05:00 GMT

The Trump administration is rolling out a new strategy to combat avian flu, moving away from mass culling of infected flocks. Spearheaded by National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, the plan prioritizes enhanced biosecurity measures and medication to control the spread of the virus.

Key Points of the New Strategy

Biosecurity and Medication: Improved containment protocols and medication aim to reduce reliance on widespread culling.
Smart Perimeter Approach: Targeted containment methods will enhance efficiency in preventing outbreaks.
Collaboration: Government scientists and global academic experts are contributing to the plan’s development.

Recent Developments

Vaccine Approval: Zoetis received conditional USDA approval for an avian flu vaccine.
Industry Support: Major poultry and dairy organizations back vaccine use to control the virus.

Concerns and Challenges

Trade Impact: The National Chicken Council warns that vaccinating flocks could hinder poultry exports.
Efficacy of Previous Measures: Critics argue that the Biden administration’s mass culling approach was costly and ineffective.
Ongoing Outbreak: The flu has affected over 150 million birds since 2022, driving up egg prices and causing supply shortages.

Future Outlook

The plan’s success hinges on industry adoption and global trade acceptance. Balancing effective disease control with maintaining poultry exports remains a critical challenge for the administration.

NEC-Led Task Force on HPAI/Egg Prices to Confront Hurdles, Challenges

Hassett is working with industry experts and government analysts and officials, including those at USDA. Secretary Rollins late Thursday heard from various experts on the topic.

The emergence and spread of new avian influenza variants have significantly impacted egg prices, poultry production, and resulted in public health concerns, necessitating ongoing vigilance and adaptive strategies from both the industry and government agencies. Some of the issues:

Background

Bird flu was present during the first Trump administration (2017-2021). Several notable events related to avian influenza occurred during this period:

Outbreaks in 2017

In March 2017, an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H7N9 virus was detected in two commercial chicken breeder flocks in the United States.
This North American lineage HPAI H7N9 virus was genetically unrelated to the Asian lineage HPAI H7N9 viruses reported in China.

Policy Continuation

A USDA bird flu response plan, updated in May 2017 during Trump’s first administration, incorporated policy guidance based on lessons from influenza outbreaks during the Obama and first Trump administrations. The plan stated that “rapid depopulation of infected poultry is critical to halt virus transmission and must be prioritized.”

Depopulation Strategy

During a March 2017 bird flu outbreak, a USDA report indicated that “nearly 253,000 birds were depopulated.”
This depopulation strategy was a continuation of long-standing practices to prevent bird flu from spreading, as confirmed by agriculture experts.

While bird flu was present during Trump’s first term, the current widespread outbreak affecting cattle and causing human infections began in 2022, after Trump left office. The ongoing situation presents new challenges for the incoming Trump administration in 2025.

The Biden administration faced significant bird flu outbreaks during its tenure, with the H5N1 virus causing widespread impacts across the United States. Here’s an overview of the outbreaks and the actions taken:

Outbreaks

The current H5N1 outbreak began in 2022 and intensified throughout the Biden administration.
By early 2025, the virus had affected over 130 million birds, including both wild and domestic populations.
The outbreak expanded to dairy cattle, with 925 dairy herds across 16 states infected by October 2024.
Human cases were reported, with 67 confirmed cases and one fatality in the U.S. by early 2025.

Actions Taken

The Biden administration and then USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack implemented several measures to address the outbreak:

Funding and Resource Allocation

By January 2025, the administration had spent approximately $1.8 billion battling bird flu since the spring of 2023.
An additional $306 million was allocated in early 2025 for various response efforts.
In May 2024, nearly $200 million was provided to contain the outbreak, with $98 million for dairy farms and $101 million split between the FDA and CDC.

Testing and Surveillance

USDA implemented a Federal Order in May 2024 requiring testing of cattle before interstate movement.
In December 2024, a new mandate was announced to test the national milk supply for bird flu.
Enhanced testing and monitoring strategies were planned to better assess the presence of H5N1.

Biosecurity Measures

Vilsack emphasized the importance of improved biosecurity as a key strategy to limit the spread of H5N1.
USDA announced assistance for producers with H5N1-affected premises to improve on-site biosecurity.

Interagency Cooperation

USDA worked closely with the FDA on lab testing and with the CDC on public health matters.
A response team including four HHS agencies (CDC, FDA, NIH, and ASPR) was established to work with USDA. (ASPR is the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response.)

Public Health Initiatives

Funds were allocated to enhance hospital readiness and conduct research on therapeutics, diagnostics, and vaccines.
Local jurisdictions received funding to increase monitoring of high-risk populations, such as livestock workers.

Bottom Line: The above actions demonstrate the Biden administration’s multifaceted approach to addressing the H5N1 outbreak, focusing on containment, research, and protection of both animal and human health. However, despite these efforts, the outbreak expanded to dairy cattle, with 925 dairy herds across 16 states infected by October 2024. Human cases continued to occur, with 67 confirmed cases and one fatality by early 2025. Critics argued that the Biden administration’s response was not swift or comprehensive enough.

Vaccines

They are seen as impractical but could be used in targeted areas. Most available vaccines for avian influenza in chickens are administered through injection. This method, while effective, can be time-consuming and stressful for the birds, especially in large-scale poultry operations.

Currently, there are limited options for vaccinating chickens against bird flu via feed or water, but research is ongoing to develop more convenient methods of vaccine administration

New Variants

The disease is a moving target. USDA under then Secretary Tom Vilsack conditionally approved a vaccine made by Zoetis, containing a killed version of an H5N2 variant designed to work against circulating H5N1 variants. However, the effectiveness of vaccines may be compromised as new variants emerge, potentially requiring frequent updates.

Vilsack, during his tenure as USDA Secretary, took several steps regarding HPAI vaccines, but the situation has evolved over time:

Vaccine approval and funding. In 2016, Zoetis received a conditional license for its H5N1 vaccine and a contract award for the USDA’s National Veterinary Stockpile. This vaccine was approved under Vilsack’s leadership, as he served as USDA Secretary from 2009 to 2017, and then again from 2021 until Jan. 2025.
Vaccine fate. The Zoetis H5N1 vaccine approved in 2016 remained in the National Veterinary Stockpile until 2021 but was never used. This suggests that the vaccine was eventually discarded or removed from the stockpile without being deployed.
In August 2024, Vilsack authorized the first field trial of an H5N1 vaccine for cattle.

Of note: As of February 2025, Zoetis received a conditional license from USDA for its Avian Influenza Vaccine, H5N2 Subtype, Killed Virus, for use in chickens.

USDA has allocated significant funding for HPAI response:

In May 2024, Vilsack approved the transfer of $824 million from the Commodity Credit Corporation to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) for HPAI response efforts. This was in addition to a previous approval of $1.3 billion in emergency funds to tackle nationwide HPAI detections.
Former USDA Secretary Vilsack revealed that USDA was accelerating vaccine production for bovines, with seven potential vaccine candidates in development.

While not yet widely available, some alternative methods for vaccinating chickens against bird flu are being explored:

Spray vaccination: Some researchers have evaluated immune responses in chickens vaccinated via coarse spray with adenovirus-vectored avian influenza vaccines. This method shows promise for mass immunization of poultry, potentially eliciting both systemic and mucosal immune responses.
Drinking Water: As of now, there are no available vaccines that can be delivered through drinking water for avian influenza. However, this route of administration is being researched as a potential method for mass vaccination.
Aerosol/Spray: Only one vaccine is currently available for aerosol/spray administration. This method could potentially allow for easier mass vaccination of poultry flocks.

Challenges

The development of vaccines suitable for mass application methods outside hatcheries, such as via drinking water or spray/aerosolization, is still in progress. These methods would greatly simplify the vaccination process for large-scale poultry operations. Researchers are working on various approaches to make vaccination more practical:

Vectored vaccines: Some vaccines use viral vectors, like adenoviruses, to deliver avian influenza antigens. These may be more amenable to alternative administration routes.
Mucosal immunity: Spray and aerosol methods are being explored to target mucosal immune responses, which could provide better protection against respiratory infections like avian influenza.

Of note: While progress is being made, as of now, most approved and effective vaccines for avian influenza in chickens still require injection. The development of feed- or water-based vaccines remains an active area of research in the poultry industry.

Another Issue:

Changing variants of avian influenza significantly impact the egg price situation and overall poultry industry. Here’s how:

Emergence of New Genotypes. A new genotype of avian influenza, D1.1, emerged in wild migratory birds in September 2024 and subsequently spread to domestic poultry. This new variant has had severe consequences:

Increased spread across North America’s four migratory waterfowl flyways.
Spillover into poultry, humans, and even cows.
Caused a severe flu case in British Columbia and a death in Louisiana.
Scientists announced they found D1.1 in infected dairy cattle in Nevada for the first time. A dairy farm worker tested positive for H5N1, the state’s first reported human case.
Some scientists fear the D1.1 variant carries a new mutation that helps the virus copy itself more easily onto the cells of mammals, including humans.
Some scientists suspect a new strain is spreading via dust from bird droppings, carried by the wind.

Impact on Poultry and Egg Production.

The emergence of new variants has led to:

More than 20 million egg-laying chickens in the U.S. died in the last quarter due to the bird flu outbreak. This figure includes both chickens that died from the virus and those that were culled to prevent further spread of the infection. This recent toll represents the most severe impact on America’s egg supply since the outbreak began in 2022.
Reduction in the conventional egg-laying flock by 3.7% in January 2025 alone.
Significant drop in egg production, falling to 9.1 billion dozen in 2022 from 9.4 billion dozen in 2019.
The losses have affected all major production systems, including conventional caged, cage-free, and certified organic types (with some major differences as noted below).
Egg prices have soared to their highest levels in years, largely driven by the virus (details below).
The U.S. egg industry now has 8% fewer egg-laying hens than it did three years ago.
The federal government has allocated substantial funds to compensate farmers, with USDA spending $1.25 billion on payments to farmers since the outbreak started in 2022.
New bird flu outbreaks have also struck major egg-laying operations in Indiana and Georgia, leading to heists of the precious commodity and the sight of empty supermarket shelves where cartons of eggs should be.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul recently ordered all live-bird markets in New York City and some surrounding areas to shut down for a week to stem the spread of the virus. Three ducks at the Queens Zoo died of bird flu and as many as 12 birds at the Bronx Zoo that died after possible exposure are being tested for the virus.

The bird flu outbreak has significantly impacted the availability of organic and cage-free eggs, though in some unexpected ways:

Impact on Organic Egg Production

Less affected: Organic egg production has been less impacted by the bird flu outbreak compared to conventional egg production.
Smaller flocks: Organic egg-laying hens typically live in smaller flocks with more spacious conditions, which may contribute to their lower infection rates.
Price stability: Organic egg prices have been relatively more stable due to different pricing practices, with producers often setting long-term strategic prices with retailers.

Cage-Free Egg Availability

Disproportionate impact: Despite representing only about a third of U.S. egg layers, cage-free hens contributed to nearly 60% of all bird flu cases in 2024.
Supply challenges: The disproportionate impact on cage-free flocks has led to significant supply issues, especially in states with cage-free egg laws.
Recovery difficulties: Rebuilding cage-free flocks can be more challenging due to fewer sources and stricter regulations in some states.

Market Dynamics

Pricing anomalies: In some areas, like New York City, organic and cage-free eggs have been priced lower than conventional eggs due to existing contracts.
Potential price increases: As contracts expire, prices for organic and cage-free eggs may increase significantly.
State regulations: Nine states, including California and Colorado, have laws requiring eggs to be from cage-free hens, further complicating supply issues.

Other Issues:

Cage-free transition: About 40% of U.S. commercial egg layers are now in cage-free systems, up from just 30 million in 2015.
Supply/demand imbalance: The growth in cage-free egg demand has outpaced supply, exacerbated by bird flu outbreaks.
Bottom line: While organic eggs have been somewhat less affected by the bird flu outbreak, cage-free egg production has faced significant challenges. This has led to complex market dynamics, including unexpected pricing patterns and potential future shortages, particularly in states with cage-free egg laws.

Economic and Trade Implications.

Changing variants can affect international trade and economic stability:

The presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) restricts international trade in live birds and poultry meat.
New variants may lead to more stringent trade restrictions, further impacting national economies.

Human Health Concerns

As the virus evolves, there are increasing concerns about human health:

The D1.1 genotype has infected humans, with 68 confirmed cases and one fatality in the United States.
Experts worry that as the virus replicates, the chance of a mutation allowing human-to-human transmission increases.

Egg Prices

Egg prices in the United States have reached unprecedented levels, with the average cost of a dozen Grade A eggs hitting a record high of $4.95 in January 2025, but prices in individual states and stores can be much higher or lower. This represents a significant increase from previous years, with prices nearly doubling since 2024. The surge in egg prices has been particularly dramatic, with a 15% increase from December 2024 to January 2025 alone.

Several factors have contributed to the soaring egg prices:

Avian influenza outbreak: The primary driver of the price increase is an ongoing outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) that began in 2022. This outbreak has led to the culling of millions of chickens, significantly reducing the egg-laying population.
Supply chain disruptions: The bird flu epidemic has caused severe disruptions in the egg supply chain, with the population of conventionally caged chickens reduced by 8%.
Supply/demand imbalance: Consumer demand for eggs has remained steady despite the price increases, contributing to the supply-demand imbalance.
Shift in consumer preferences: There has been a growing preference for specialty eggs, such as cage-free and organic varieties, which are typically more expensive.
State Regulations: Some states, like California, have implemented stricter regulations requiring eggs to be sold from cage-free hens, further impacting prices.

Impact on consumers and businesses. The egg price surge has had widespread effects:

Grocery store limitations: Some grocery chains, including Trader Joe’s and Kroger, have placed limits on the number of eggs customers can purchase.
Restaurant surcharges: Restaurants like Waffle House have implemented per-egg surcharges to offset the increased costs.
Regional price variations: Prices vary significantly by region, with some areas seeing even higher costs. For example, in California, a carton of two dozen eggs can cost $13.49.

Egg Price Outlook

USDA predicts that egg prices could rise by up to 20% in 2025. The duration of high prices remains uncertain, as it depends on controlling the spread of avian flu and replenishing the egg-laying chicken population.

Experts suggest it may take at least another three to six months before prices begin to moderate. But some analysts say if a way can be found to deal with HPAI, egg prices would tumble. As consumers grapple with these high prices, some are adapting by reducing egg consumption or seeking alternatives. The situation continues to evolve, with both political and economic implications as the country faces this ongoing challenge in the food supply chain.

Does the U.S. import and export eggs? Yes.

Total egg exports from the U.S. in 2024 amounted to 172.8 million dozen eggs. This figure includes both table eggs and egg products (converted to shell egg equivalent). Breaking this down further:

Table egg exports: 84.3 million dozen
Egg product exports: 24,834 metric tons
The total value of egg exports in 2024 was $314.2 million, an increase of 5.9% compared to 2023.
In 2023, the U.S. exported $144.9 million worth of eggs, making it the 6th largest exporter globally. The U.S. maintains a positive trade balance in eggs, with exports exceeding imports by $139.6 million in 2023.

Imports

In 2023, the U.S. imported $110.15 million worth of eggs, primarily from Canada, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

The U.S. generally is a net exporter of eggs, with exports significantly outweighing imports.

The top egg-exporting countries globally in 2023 were:

Netherlands: $610.1 million (20.5% of global egg exports)
Poland: $463.4 million (15.6%)
Turkey: $224.5 million (7.5%)
Mainland China: $222.8 million (7.5%)
Germany: $181.5 million (6.1%)

The import of eggs into the U.S. is subject to strict regulations, including requirements for USDA import permits, veterinary health certificates, port inspections, and import quarantines. These measures ensure the safety and quality of imported eggs entering the U.S. market.

The U.S. gov’t has several potential options to address the rising egg prices:

Regulatory Actions

Investigate price gouging: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) could investigate potential antitrust violations or price gouging in the egg industry. Some lawmakers have urged the FTC to probe egg producers for potentially coordinating efforts to restrict supply and sustain inflated prices.
Ease FDA regulations: The National Chicken Council (NCC) has petitioned the FDA to modify policies that force the broiler industry to destroy safe, nutritious eggs. Relaxing these regulations could increase egg supply and potentially lower prices. The issue stems from a 2009 FDA rule known as the Shell Egg Rule, which requires all shell eggs to be refrigerated at or below 45°F within 36 hours of being laid. This rule, intended for table eggs, inadvertently affects surplus broiler hatching eggs. Broiler eggs intended for hatching must be stored at 65°F for up to five days before determining which eggs are needed for hatching. This process is incompatible with the FDA’s refrigeration requirements, forcing the broiler industry to discard surplus eggs instead of sending them to egg breakers for processing into liquid egg products.

The NCC has requested FDA to: Exercise enforcement discretion to allow surplus broiler eggs to be processed into egg products under USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) jurisdiction; Exempt surplus broiler hatching eggs intended for breaking from the refrigeration requirements in the Shell Egg Rule. NCC argues that the current policy results in significant waste, costing the broiler industry over $27 million annually. Allowing these eggs to be used would help alleviate egg shortages and high prices, especially during events like the recent highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak. The eggs would be safe for consumption as they would be pasteurized during processing, which is effective in controlling Salmonella.

As of February 2025, FDA has not yet granted the NCC’s request. The FDA denied a similar request on June 12, 2023, stating that the proposed action would not maintain the same level of public health protection as the current egg safety rule.

Policy Interventions

Address avian flu outbreak: The government could allocate more resources to combat the ongoing bird flu crisis, which has significantly impacted poultry populations and egg production since 2022.
Implement price controls: While controversial and unlikely under the Trump administration, the government could consider temporary price controls on eggs to limit further increases.
Increase imports: Easing restrictions on egg imports could help supplement domestic supply and potentially lower prices.

Economic Measures

Provide subsidies: The government could offer subsidies (incentives) to egg producers to offset increased production costs and encourage greater supply.
Offer consumer relief: Implementing targeted financial assistance or tax credits for low-income families could help offset the impact of high egg prices.

USDA has several potential measures to stabilize egg prices:

Enhance biosecurity: Promote and enforce stricter biosecurity measures across poultry farms to prevent the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).
Increase surveillance: Improve monitoring and early detection of HPAI outbreaks to minimize their impact on egg production.
Investigate price gouging: Collaborate with the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice to scrutinize potential anti-competitive practices in the egg industry.
Enhance price discovery: Implement new regulations to improve fairness and transparency in pricing mechanisms for poultry farmers.
Promote competition: Support smaller egg producers and encourage market diversification to reduce reliance on large conglomerates.
Expedite flock replacement: Facilitate faster repopulation of laying hen flocks after HPAI outbreaks.
Address labor shortages: Develop programs to alleviate workforce issues in the egg industry that hamper production.
Ease import restrictions: Consider temporary measures to increase egg imports and supplement domestic supply.
Implement purchase limits: Encourage retailers to set temporary limits on egg purchases to prevent panic buying and ensure fair distribution.
Monitor retail practices: Scrutinize grocery stores’ pricing strategies and promotional activities to prevent unjustified price hikes.
Invest in research: Fund studies on HPAI-resistant poultry breeds and alternative production methods to increase resilience in the egg industry.
Improve forecasting: Enhance data collection and analysis to better predict and prepare for future supply chain disruptions.

Challenges and Limitations

Government intervention in markets can have unintended consequences. Additionally, some factors contributing to high egg prices, such as inflation and increased production costs, may be beyond the government’s immediate control.

President Donald Trump, who campaigned on promises to lower food prices, is facing pressure from lawmakers to act. However, no specific plan has been announced to address the egg price crisis, but NEC Director Kevin Hassett has signaled that a plan is coming, which was released on Sunday.

Second Bird Flu Strain Found in U.S. Dairy Cattle, USDA says

Thu, 06 Feb 2025 18:37:24 GMT

U.S. dairy cattle tested positive for a strain of bird flu that previously had not been seen in cows, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Wednesday, ramping up concerns about the persistent spread of the virus.

The H5N1 virus has reduced milk output in cattle, pushed up egg prices by wiping out millions of hens, and infected nearly 70 people since April as it has spread across the country.

Genome sequencing of milk from Nevada identified the different strain, known as the D1.1 genotype, in dairy cows for the first time, the USDA said. Previously, all 957 bird flu infections among dairy herds reported since last March had been caused by another strain, the B3.13 genotype, according to the agency.

Reuters reported news of the detection of the second strain on Wednesday ahead of USDA’s announcement.

The second strain was the predominant genotype among wild birds this past fall and winter and has also been found in poultry, the USDA said. It was identified in dairy cattle through an agency program that began testing milk for bird flu in December.

“We’re seeing the H5N1 virus itself be smarter than all of us,” said Beth Thompson, South Dakota’s state veterinarian.

“It’s modifying itself so it’s not just staying in the poultry and the wild waterfowl. It’s picking up a home in the mammals.”

Wild birds likely transmitted the second strain to cattle in Nevada, said J.J. Goicoechea, Nevada’s agriculture director. Farmers need to ramp up safety and security measures to protect their animals, he said.

“We obviously aren’t doing everything we can and everything we should or the virus wouldn’t be getting in,” he said.

“We didn’t get a hold on it before,” Hansen said. “We want to avoid that same scenario from happening in Nevada.”

Dairy herds that were formerly infected may be at risk again from the second strain, experts said.

“Now it looks like we have new strains of virus that may escape some of the immunity associated with the other strains of viruses that could exacerbate the epidemics among animals and wildlife,” said Gregory Gray, a University of Texas Medical Branch professor studying cattle diseases. “It’s alarming.”

Your Next Read: Beef-on-Dairy: A Critical Solution to the Shrinking U.S. Cattle Herd

Iowa Secretary of Ag Weighs In on The H5N1 Battle, Vaccine Potential And Trade Sensitivities

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 13:43:49 GMT

Eggs continue to be a hot topic in the news as supplies are down, prices are up – and expected to go even higher – and consumers are understandably concerned.

At the center of the issue, fanning the on-going problem for poultry and dairy producers as well, is the Highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza A virus (HPAI H5N1).

AgriTalk Host Chip Flory broached the topic with Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig on Tuesday.

At the heart of their conversation was a two-part question – how does the U.S. address the virus and, in the process, prevent any potential negative ramifications on trade?

Naig says the federal government is taking what he described as a three-legged stool approach to addressing the problem in both industries.

He described the three legs of the stool as being USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), individual state animal health officials and industry.

“We work very closely with APHIS on this, meaning that they’re the ones that are providing the indemnity payments to producers. They are providing the disposal and cleanup assistance, but they must work in close collaboration with the states and state animal health officials,” Naig says. “And then, of course, you’ve got to have the third leg, which is industry.”

Biosecurity Measures
Naig noted that while the virus hit the poultry industry hard in 2015, it struck even harder in 2024.

“It’s not just in the Midwest or West, it’s been really all across the country now, affecting the egg laying industry, broilers and turkey production,” Naig says.

A significant positive, Naig says, is that biosecurity measures in the poultry industry appear to be preventing farm-to-farm spread. “The industry continues to get high marks for that, which wasn’t the case in 2015, which was so devastating because we didn’t have those strategies in place.”

“I believe, and our experience has been, that our USDA partners in this regard have been very strong,” he adds.

As Naig addressed the three-legged stool approach the U.S. is taking to addressing the virus in dairy, he says the three partners have more work to do.

“Frankly, there’s been a lot of criticism to share around the three legs, if you will, on how states have reacted, or how strongly USDA should have reacted, and what the industry is doing to try to contain that virus. So, I would say on the dairy side of things, it’s a different story (than in poultry). There’s a lot more work that’s yet to be done to even understand how that virus is impacting those (dairy) herds.”

What Is The Role For Vaccines?
Flory asked Sec. Nagy whether he believes a vaccine could be part of the solution to the virus or whether that would set up too many trade barriers. Flory also asked whether the virus is stable enough for a long enough period of time for a vaccine to be developed that would work effectively.

Both are questions the U.S. is grappling with as it tries to get ahead of the virus in dairy and poultry.

Earlier this month, Reuters reported the U.S. will rebuild a stockpile of avian influenza vaccines for poultry that match the strain of the virus circulating in commercial flocks and wild birds, citing the Department of Agriculture.

Naig told Flory that he believes a vaccine could be developed, with regard to poultry specifically, and its use negotiated into trade agreements.

“Those are challenges, and yet those are things that can be worked on and can be done, but it’s not easily done. I would want to put a flag there,” Naig says.

“I’m supportive of developing … we should try to figure out whether this can be an effective tool. If you’re in the broiler business or if you’re in the turkey meat business or if you’re in the egg business or maybe you’re in the genetics business, those are very different in terms of how you view that vaccine.”

Naig explains part of the different viewpoints on vaccine use have to do with the difference between poultry business segments.

“We need to recognize that those sectors are different in how they’ll view and potentially use a vaccine,” Naig says.

“Don’t treat them all the same. It’ll make way more sense for some than others.”

Naig did not weigh in on vaccine development for the dairy industry specifically.

The full conversation between Naig and Flory on AgriTalk is available below.

Your next read: Think Egg Prices Are Already Too High? USDA Says Retail Egg Prices Could Jump Another 20% in 2025

USDA Says Farm-level Egg Prices Could Jump Another 45.2% in 2025 Due to Avian Flu

Fri, 24 Jan 2025 20:54:38 GMT

The January 2025 Food Price Outlook released Friday shows while food price inflation has slowed overall, key sectors like eggs and beef remain volatile due to supply chain and input cost pressures.

Egg prices saw the biggest spike, according to USDA’s data, up 37% year-over-year. But the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows the price of Grade A eggs in December was up 93% since January 2024. And when you look ahead, USDA expects outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza to continue to cause egg prices to climb.

When it comes to USDA’s specific outlook released Friday, the agency uses recent trends in food prices based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Producer Price Index (PPI) data through December 2024.

Key Highlights of the report include:

Overall inflation trends:
- Food prices increased by 2.5% year-over-year as of December 2024
- Food-at-home prices rising by 1.8% and food-away-from-home prices increasing by 3.6%.
2025 forecasts:
- Food prices expected to rise by 2.2%, slower than the historical average.
- Food-at-home prices predicted to grow by 1.3%, while food-away-from-home prices are forecast to increase by 3.6%.
Insights Within Categories:
- Egg prices saw a sharp rise of 36.8% year-over-year in December 2024, with 2025 prices projected to climb by 20.3% amid ongoing supply constraints.
- Beef and veal prices are expected to increase modestly by 1.5% in 2025, following a 4.9% rise in 2024.
- Pork and fats/oils prices are forecast to decline in 2025, with decreases of 0.8% and 1.6%, respectively.
- Fresh fruit prices are anticipated to rise by 0.7%, while dairy product prices are expected to increase by 1.3%.

Producer Price Insights:

The PPI, which tracks wholesale prices, suggests continued volatility in farm-level and wholesale markets, with significant fluctuations predicted for eggs, milk, and fruits due to factors such as extreme weather and disease outbreaks. Farm-level egg prices are expected to see a sharp increase of 45.2% in 2025, with a wide prediction interval reflecting uncertainty.

Overall, while food price growth is expected to moderate compared to recent years, specific categories remain susceptible to sudden price shifts driven by global and domestic factors.

What’s the Deal with Egg Prices?

Sticker shock with eggs stared shoppers in the face to end 2024. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the increase is even more staggering. They show the average cost of a dozen Grade A large eggs was $4.15 in December, up from $3.65 in November and $2.15 in January 2024.

According to livestock economists at Texas A&M University, the widespread outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI, continue to be the culprit, driving egg prices to record highs across the U.S. Commercial laying flocks have been hit especially hard.

“There is seasonality to egg prices based on demand, but the cutting of supplies, in this case by disease, has driven prices higher,” says David Anderson, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension economist and professor in the Texas A&M Department of Agricultural Economics . “I wouldn’t be surprised to see them go higher in the next report, but there is price volatility when you consider the supply and demand factors in play.”

USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service reports since first detected in 2022, 1,410 flocks have been impacted, including 637 commercial operations. As a result, 134.7 million birds have been culled.

Georgia Hit for First Time By Avian Flu

Just last week, the largest poultry producing state in the nation reported its first case of avian flu. The Georgia Department of Agriculture confirming the virus at a farm in Elbert County. In reaction, the Georgia Depart of Agriculture says all poultry exhibitions, swaps, meets and sales have been suspended as a precaution. The Department says cleanup is currently underway and nearby operations are under quarantine.

According to Greg Archer, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension poultry specialist and associate professor in the Texas A&M Department of Poultry Science , one reason the HPAI is spreading so quickly is because of environmental conditions. According to Archer, the disease prefers temperatures below 90 degrees.

“Farmers take biosecurity seriously because they’ve been dealing with the threat for years,” he said. “The big question this time is the strain mutations and how outbreaks in poultry facilities are occurring.

Archer also says migratory birds have historically been the main carrier of the disease. The pathogen will enter the poultry house through migratory bird feces on the bottom of the show or by a truck of vehicle that transports materials or feed between farms.

The Time It Takes to Rebuild

Once a flock is hit, the operation culls the animals, and replacing lost birds takes times. According to Archer, it can take 20 or more weeks for birds to develop from incubated eggs to pullets to production-ready laying hens.

In some cases, entire farms are wiped out. Archer says farmers bring those farms back online in phases to stagger their production by new and older birds.

As they do so, the eggs produced by younger and older birds are typically smaller while hens in their prime lay large to jumbo eggs.

And the key in building back the supply of eggs in the U.S., according to Archer, is rebuilding the flocks impacted by avian flu.

The other recent wild card, is recent transmission patterns in new animals, including dairy cows and pigs.

Consumer Demand and the Unknown

Now the question is how much consumers are willing to pay, and if it will impact demand?

“Producers will be expanding their flocks to produce more eggs to meet demand and capitalize on the high prices, while consumers might cut back,” says Anderson. “That combination aligning with fewer instances of avian influenza as the weather warms up would likely put downward pressure on prices. There is a natural ebb and flow to egg prices from seasonal supply and demand, and HPAI has just added volatility to the market.”

California Issues State of Emergency Warning in Response to More Bird Flu Found on Dairies

Thu, 09 Jan 2025 17:03:14 GMT

California Governor Gavin Newsom recently proclaimed a State of Emergency to accelerate California’s response to avian influenza A (H5N1), or more commonly known as ‘bird flu.’

According to Newsom, this action comes as cases were detected in dairy cows on farms in Southern California, signaling the need to expand monitoring further and build on the coordinated statewide approach to contain and mitigate the spread of the virus.

“This proclamation is a targeted action to ensure government agencies have the resources and flexibility they need to respond quickly to this outbreak. Building on California’s testing and monitoring system — the largest in the nation — we are committed to further protecting public health, supporting our agriculture industry, and ensuring that Californians have access to accurate, up-to-date information,” Gov. Newsom said in a statement. “While the risk to the public remains low, we will continue to take all necessary steps to prevent the spread of this virus.”

State health officials have reported that cases of H5N1 have been found on 641 dairy farms. The first confirmed case in the state occurred earlier in August, but roughly half of the farms were identified within the last month.

So far, no person-to-person transmission of H5N1 has been reported in California, and nearly all infected individuals have had direct exposure to infected cattle.

According to Newsom, the state has implemented the nation’s most extensive testing and monitoring system to address the outbreak. This recent declaration aims to bolster the state agencies’ response by providing additional staff and resources for testing, heightened quarantine measures, and distributing personal protective equipment to high-risk dairy employees.

Since its initial detection in Texas and Kansas in March 2024, the virus has spread to dairy cattle in 16 states.

Your Next Read: USDA Announces New Federal Order, Begins National Milk Testing Strategy to Address H5N1 in Dairy Herds

Oregon Identifies 3 Human Cases of Avian Influenza in Farm Workers from Washington State

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 18:36:31 GMT

Avian influenza (bird flu) has infected three more people from Washington state after they were exposed to poultry that tested positive for the virus, according to health authorities in Washington and in Oregon, where the human cases were identified.

A total of 39 people have tested positive in the U.S. this year, including nine from Washington, as the virus has infected poultry flocks and spread to more than 400 dairy herds, federal data show. All of the cases were farm workers who had known contact with infected animals, except for one person in Missouri.

The people from Washington cleaned facilities at an infected chicken farm after birds were culled to contain the virus, the Washington State Department of Health said in an email on Thursday.

Officials tested workers who had symptoms, including red eyes and respiratory issues, and those with potential exposure to the birds, the department said. People with symptoms were told to isolate and given antiviral treatment, it added.

Oregon identified the three new cases after the people traveled to the state from Washington while infected, the Oregon Health Authority said in a Thursday statement. They have since returned to Washington, where public health staff are monitoring them, according to the statement.

There have been no infections among people living in Oregon and is no evidence of human-to-human transmission, the Oregon Health Authority said. It said the risk for infection to the general public remains low.

Since 2022, the virus has wiped out more than 100 million poultry birds in the nation’s worst-ever bird flu outbreak.

H5N1 bird flu was confirmed in a pig on a backyard farm in Oregon, the first detection of the virus in swine in the country , USDA said on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

Your Next Read: Influenza Expert Gets Real About the H5N1 Risk to Your Swine Herd

Exclusive: U.S. to Begin Bulk Milk Testing for Bird Flu After Push from Industry

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 18:35:20 GMT

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will soon begin testing bulk raw milk across the country for bird flu, a significant expansion of the agency’s efforts to stifle the rapid spread of the virus, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told Reuters.

The move comes after livestock and veterinary groups pushed the USDA to strengthen its current surveillance approach, calling it inadequate to contain the virus, according to state records and industry documents reviewed by Reuters.

The agency in early November will begin sampling milk in states where dairy cattle have contracted bird flu, including testing specific farms as needed to track the virus’ spread, Vilsack said in an interview.

USDA will then begin testing in states that have not identified the virus in dairy cows, he said.

The rapid spread of the virus in California, where nearly 200 dairy herds have tested positive since late August, contributed to the USDA’s decision that further surveillance efforts are needed, Vilsack said.

“These situations evolve over time and as they evolve over time there needs to be a recalibration and adjustment,” Vilsack added.

The effort adds to an emergency order issued in April that requires testing of cattle moving across state lines, and a USDA program that covers farmers’ costs for voluntary testing. Reuters previously reported USDA had softened those rules following pushback from state officials and industry representatives.

Bird flu has infected nearly 400 dairy herds in 14 states and at least 36 people, according to data from the USDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Virologists and federal health officials are also concerned the convergence of bird flu and seasonal influenza could enable the bird flu virus to mutate if people become co-infected, making it more easily transmissible among humans.

For now, the CDC has said the danger to the general population remains low.

The U.S. Animal Health Association, whose members include the largest dairy, egg, and poultry trade groups, and the American Association of Bovine Practitioners, a veterinary group, developed recommendations this autumn for how USDA could improve its approach, according to the documents, which have not previously been reported.

The USDA had previously said eliminating bird flu in the nation’s dairy cattle was possible using its prior approach.

The agency still wants to eradicate the virus, Vilsack said, adding that Colorado’s use of bulk milk testing eliminated new dairy cow cases in the state.

Dairy farmers in some states have resisted voluntary testing of their animals for fear of economic repercussions.

‘INADEQUATE’

The U.S. Animal Health Association passed a resolution on Oct. 16 at its annual meeting that emphasized the need for a coordinated state and federal surveillance plan, according to a copy of the document seen by Reuters, which has since been posted on the association web site.

“The narrow requirement of pre-movement testing of only lactating dairy cows moving interstate is inadequate,” it said. It recommends instead that the agency coordinate livestock sectors and states in a national surveillance and data collection strategy.

“We can’t wait for a virus to burn out. That strategy has not worked,” said Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, who has been involved in discussions about the new recommendations.

The American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP) in September also drafted recommendations on how the USDA could better contain the virus, with weekly testing of milk tankers, among other strategies, according to emails and a copy of the draft obtained from the Missouri Department of Agriculture in a public records request.

“The disease continues to spread and current voluntary surveillance is inadequate,” wrote AABP Executive Director K. Fred Gingrich II to a group listserv on Sept. 28.

He noted that just 50 of the nation’s 27,000 dairy herds at the time were enrolled in USDA’s voluntary herd testing program, and that 17.6 million commercial poultry birds had been killed after flocks tested positive for the bovine variant of bird flu, suggesting that dairy farms are fueling the virus’ spread.

There are now 64 farms enrolled in the voluntary testing program, according to USDA data.

The document was sent on Sept. 30 by Missouri’s state veterinarian to other state animal health officials and a USDA official at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which is managing the agency’s bird flu response, the emails show.

The bovine practitioners group’s recommendations came after it had participated in a September meeting of the American Veterinary Medical Association alongside representatives from the poultry, cattle and swine industries, the emails show.

Your Next Read: USDA Reports First H5N1 Detection in Swine

USDA Reports First H5N1 Detection in Swine

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 20:36:09 GMT

USDA announced on Oct. 30 the first reported case of H5N1 in a pig in an Oregon backyard farm. It’s important to note there is no concern about the safety of the nation’s pork supply as a result of this finding, USDA said. This farm is a non-commercial operation, and the animals were not intended for the commercial food supply.

“The confirmed case in Oregon poses no threat to consumer health or food safety; properly handled and cooked pork products remain safe for consumption,” Bryan Humphreys, National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) CEO said in a statement. “The entire pork industry remains committed to safeguarding food safety and human and animal health.”

The case was discovered on a backyard farm that includes a mix of poultry and livestock, including swine. The Oregon Department of Agriculture announced on Friday, Oct. 25, that poultry on this farm represented the first H5N1 detection in Crook County, Oregon. On Tuesday, Oct. 29, the USDA National Veterinary Services Laboratories also confirmed one of the farm’s five pigs to be infected with H5N1, marking the first detection of H5N1 in swine in the U.S., USDA reports.  

“The livestock and poultry on this farm shared water sources, housing, and equipment; in other states, this combination has enabled transmission between species. Although the swine did not display signs of illness, the Oregon Department of Health and USDA tested the five swine for H5N1 out of an abundance of caution and because of the presence of H5N1 in other animals on the premises,” USDA wrote.

The swine were euthanized to facilitate additional diagnostic analysis. Although test results were negative for two of the pigs, and test results are still pending for two others.  
The farm has been quarantined to prevent further spread of the virus. Other animals on the farm include sheep and goats that remain under surveillance.  

“USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) has conducted genomic sequencing of virus from the poultry infected on this farm, and that sequencing has not identified any changes to the H5N1 virus that would suggest to USDA and CDC that it is more transmissible to humans, indicating that the current risk to the public remains low,” USDA wrote.

H5N1 detections include viral genome sequencing to provide additional information of interest to medical professionals and the research community to improve understanding of the virus. Genetic sequencing for these samples is underway, but results may be inconclusive due to low viral levels in the samples, USDA said.   

Pork Producers Practice Biosecurity to Protect Pigs
Biosecurity is critical to eradicating H5N1 and other viruses. Not only does biosecurity protect the health of livestock, but it also protects the health of farmworkers and their families. For more information on protecting farmworkers, visit the CDC’s website .
___________________________________________________________________________
10 Powerful Take Homes to Enhance Biosecurity on Your Pig Farm
___________________________________________________________________________

The pork industry has worked alongside USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) since 2009 to carry out the swine influenza surveillance program to identify influenza viruses circulating in swine, proactively detect reassortment viruses that could impact public health, and gain knowledge to contribute to improved animal health diagnostics and vaccines, NPPC pointed out in a statement.

“Pork producers have always been proactive and diligent about implementing biosecurity plans as part of their daily production practices to assure animals wellbeing and food safety,” Lori Stevermer, NPPC president and Minnesota pork producer said. “This detection serves as a reminder for producers of all sizes to understand and address influenza virus risks.”

What’s Next?
USDA recently approved two vaccine field safety trials for vaccine candidates designed to protect dairy cows from H5N1, and continues to explore vaccine options for other species.   As USDA takes additional steps to protect the health of livestock, it will continue to work closely with CDC to protect the health of people and FDA to protect the safety of the food supply.

“These collective, collaborative efforts have helped protect farmworkers and farmers, the health and welfare of livestock animals, and reaffirmed the safety of the nation’s food supply. The U.S. government remains committed to addressing this situation with urgency,” USDA said.

Learn more about USDA’s response to HPAI in dairy cattle.

The situation is being monitored by local public health officials, Oregon Health Authority, Oregon State Veterinarian, Oregon Department of Agriculture, as well as USDA and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.   

Read More:
Get the Facts Straight on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza
Animal Health Experts Open Up About Future Disease Preparedness
How the Swine Industry Responded to H5N1 Outbreak in Dairy Cattle
A Message to the Ag Industry about H5N1

Double Trouble from Flooding and H5N1 hits Some Iowa Farms

Wed, 26 Jun 2024 13:17:15 GMT

Active flooding is still underway in parts of Iowa due to the more than 15 inches of rain that fell on parts of the state, particularly the northwest region, over the weekend, according to Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig.

“There were folks literally being rescued off of rooftops and flown out of the flooded areas,” Naig told AgriTalk Host Chip Flory on Tuesday. “After a couple of days, we will be able to come in and start to get a sense of what the enormity of what’s happened is and the size of the impact on the ag landscape.”

The devastation led to a disaster proclamation from Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and the evacuation of thousands of Iowa residents from the area.

Naig said when he talked with Reynolds early Tuesday morning, she described the damage from the rains and flooding as “extensive.” The flooding is still underway, with rivers in north-central Iowa now starting to crest, according to the National Water Prediction Service.

Naig said state officials won’t have a full sense of the crop damage or number of livestock lost in the region until the flood waters recede.

“This was already a wet part of the state, where there were some challenges around planting and replanting. They’ve just been inundated with rain throughout the spring,” Naig said.

“What we’re hearing about, certainly, is damaged and destroyed equipment. There are livestock facilities that folks are having trouble getting feed to because of washed-out roads, and there are power outages and water outages. These are just some of the things that are really challenging.”

Added Stress On Dairies
For dairy producers in northwest Iowa, the floods arrived on top of challenges they already faced from dealing with cases of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1) or efforts to prevent the occurrence of the disease.

“Unfortunately, a lot of our cases are in dairies up in that area,” Naig said. “Think of the added stress that those folks are experiencing right now.”

Naig said, in total, Iowa has confirmed 11 dairies and three poultry sites where H5N1 has been found.

“Don’t be surprised if you continue to hear about some additional cases in the state of Iowa, because here’s the point – we’re looking for it,” Naig said. “Our farmers are testing. Turns out, when you look for it, you can find it. I think this is a little wider spread than maybe what is just being confirmed.”

Naig said he commends the Iowa dairy industry for being proactive in reporting any positive cases. When cases are confirmed, he said the state can bring in a USDA epidemiological strike team to look for clues to how H5N1 is being transmitted.

“If we’re going to experience the pain of having positive cases, let’s learn as much as we can, so that we can craft biosecurity strategies to address those things that are found to be the cause of transmission,” he said.

Wide Range Of Symptoms And Outcomes
Naig added that the scope of H5N1 infections has varied between farms as well as in individual animals.

“I think maybe early on, folks said, ‘Oh, it’s really just a kind of a minimal milk production loss, and then everything gets back to normal.’ I don’t think it’s quite that way,” he said. “Some (producers) aren’t seeing clinical signs while others see acute infections and significant milk losses. We are also hearing about some cattle mortality, though it’s maybe because of a secondary infection or condition that actually causes that mortality.”

Naig told Flory he has asked USDA to provide compensation for animals that Iowa producers have had to cull or where death occurred.

“We continue to make that request because we are seeing some losses, but that’s still a work in progress,” he said. “And, of course, again, we’re trying to get research on the ground to determine how H5N1 is behaving. The other thing is we can’t treat this as a dairy disease. It is a dairy and a poultry issue. We’ve got to think about the larger livestock industry. That’s how we’re approaching it here.”

The conversation between Naig and Flory is available in its entirety below:

A Tale Of Two Crops: Farmers Struggle Against Flooding And Drought

Goodbye, El Niño. Hello, La Niña? The Big Transition to La Niña is Already Underway

USDA Identifies Ways HPAI H5N1 Has Likely Spread in Michigan Dairy and Poultry Operations

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 22:29:29 GMT

On June 9, the USDA issued a report that summarizes the findings from field epidemiological investigations of disease spread between premises for 15 dairy herds and eight poultry flocks confirmed with HPAI genotype B3.13 in Michigan.

The following information is pulled from the USDA’s 2024 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1) - Michigan Dairy Herd and Poultry Flock Summary (see Michigan Dairy Herd and Poultry Flock Summary ).

The information offers potential insights for how the dairy and poultry industries in states beyond Michigan likely have been impacted, as well.

A ‘Eurasian Lineage Goose’

Whole genome sequencing (WGS) of viruses from the dairy and poultry premises identified Eurasian lineage goose/Guangdong clade 2.3.4.4b, genotype B3.13 on the Michigan farms and suggests likely indirect transfer of virus from the dairy premises to the poultry premises.

USDA reports that interstate animal movement initially introduced the HPAI genotype B3.13 virus from Texas into a Michigan dairy. However, USDA says the continued disease transmission within Michigan has been determined to be multifactorial.

Transmission between farms is likely due to indirect epidemiological links related to normal business operations such as numerous people, vehicles, and other conveyances frequently moving on and off the affected dairy premises, with many of these indirect links shared between premises.

Importantly, USDA says, disease spread due to independent introduction of the virus onto dairy or poultry premises from migratory waterfowl is not supported based on both genomic and epidemiological data analysis.

Key findings identified to date and potential risk factors for local transmission in Michigan specifically, include:

Shared personnel between premises
o 20% of affected dairies’ employees and 7% of dairies’ employees family members work on other dairy premises

o 7% of affected dairies’ employees also work on poultry premises; 13% of affected dairies’ employees have family members who work on poultry premises

o 31% of dairies have employees who own livestock or poultry at their personal residence

Shared vehicles between premises
o 62% of affected dairy premises use shared vehicles to transport cattle, with only 12% of premises cleaning vehicles before use

Frequent visitors on/off premises
o 100% of affected dairy premises have regular visits by veterinarians, nutritionist/feed consultant, and/or contract haulers (e.g., cattle or manure); the majority of these visitors have direct contact with cattle

o 40% of affected dairy premises have regular visits for deadstock removal, with 20% having direct contact with cattle. Furthermore:

-53% of affected dairies utilized the same deadstock removal company and 40% had animals removed from the premises by that company within 30 days prior to clinical onset

o Milk haulers visit dairy premises, on average, 34 times within a 30-day time period. Furthermore:

-93.3% of affected dairy premises are part of the same milk co-op with at least one other affected dairy premises within the state (i.e., only one of the affected dairy herds is part of a milk co-op that none of the other 14 affected dairy herds belong to)

Disease Spread Between Dairy and Poultry Premises
Apart from the potential for resident wild birds or peri-domestic species to move and transmit the virus, the only other potential transmission routes found from dairy herds to the poultry flocks were through shared employment, housing, or movement of employees.

Approximately 22 employees of three poultry flocks worked weekend shifts at two different dairy premises. Shared housing between dairy and poultry workers was identified between three poultry premises and two dairy premises. It is also possible that dairy employees have social contact with poultry premises employees, USDA reports.

In Summary
The investigations discussed in this report, including the respective WGS information, indicate that HPAI H5N1 genotype B3.13 was introduced into Michigan through animal movement from Texas and subsequently spread within the state between dairy premises with spillover into poultry premises through multiple possible routes.

Factors that appear to be of greater risk for introduction into a dairy premises may be mitigated through enhanced biosecurity, increased animal testing, and potentially through within-state animal movement restrictions if they can be implemented without impacting animal welfare.

USDA says the willingness of Michigan producers to participate in these investigations has greatly increased the body of knowledge of HPAI H5N1 B3.13 detections in Michigan and throughout the nation; this report could not have been completed without them.

For more information on the H5N1 issue:

H5N1 Virus Found in Beef for First Time, FSIS Says

FDA Says New Round of Tests Prove the U.S. Milk Supply is Safe From H5N1 Virus

USDA Now Requiring Mandatory Testing and Reporting of HPAI in Dairy Cattle as New Data Suggests Virus Outbreak is More Widespread

Second Michigan Farmworker Tests Positive For H5N1 Virus

Thu, 30 May 2024 21:40:19 GMT

A second human case of HPAI (H5N1) was confirmed in a Michigan farmworker on Thursday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

This is the third human case (two in Michigan, one in Texas) associated with an ongoing multistate outbreak of H5N1 in U.S. dairy cows. In all three cases, cow-to-person spread is suspected but none of the cases is related.

Tim Boring, director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, says government officials are working closely with producers to understand the scale of the virus in dairy operations across the state.

“We’re learning more every day about the epidemiology of this virus and just how it spreads. I think it’s a manageable situation on the dairy side for us right now, but we have continued concerns around just how we can best mitigate the further spread,” Boring told AgriTalk Host Chip Flory on Thursday, prior to the CDC’s latest announcement.

Boring reports that Michigan has confirmed the virus in 23 dairies, primarily in the west-central part of the state.

The virus had been confirmed in at least 66 dairy herds in nine states earlier this week, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture: 20 herds in Michigan, 15 in Texas, eight in New Mexico, nine in Idaho, four in Kansas, four in Colorado, four in South Dakota and one each in Ohio and North Carolina.

Biosecurity Practices Are Helping
The H5N1-infected farm workers were not wearing a face shield or other personal protective equipment (PPE), according to Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, the chief medical executive of Michigan’s health department.

That “tells us that direct exposure to infected livestock poses a risk to humans, and that PPE is an important tool in preventing spread among individuals who work on dairy and poultry farms,” said Bagdasarian, in a prepared statement.

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) maintains the public health risk from H5N1 is low, the agency encourages the use of its recommended precautions by people exposed to infected or potentially infected birds and animals.

The use of good biosecurity measures is helping contain the virus and prevent its spread, Boring emphasizes.

“These biosecurity systems work; pasteurization works,” Boring says. “The screening to make sure that we don’t have infected animals of any kind with any disease making it into the food system works.

“As the FDA has talked about, this continues to be a communicable virus and where this continues to move – potentially further impacting human health down the road – is a real concern,” Boring adds. “That continues to be a driving force for us to address the virus on the animal side.”

Vaccine Development
Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced officials are moving forward with a plan to produce 4.8 million doses of an H5N1 vaccine for human use.

According to an article in Reuters , human exposures to the virus in poultry and dairy operations could increase the risk that the virus will mutate and gain the ability to spread easily in people.

The article noted that the U.S. and Europe are “taking steps to acquire or manufacture H5N1 bird flu vaccines that could be used to protect at-risk poultry and dairy workers, veterinarians and lab technicians, government officials said, moves influenza experts say could curb the threat of a pandemic.”

H5N1 Virus Found in Beef for First Time, FSIS Says

FSIS’ Final Results of H5N1 Testing Confirms Meat Supply is Safe

The complete conversation between Michigan’s Boring and AgriTalk Host Chip Flory is available here:

H5N1 Virus Found in Beef for First Time, FSIS Says

Tue, 28 May 2024 18:46:33 GMT

USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced Friday that the H5N1 virus was discovered in meat from a single cull dairy cow as part of testing of 96 dairy cows. APHIS said the meat was not allowed to enter the food supply and beef remains safe to eat.

The Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) had diverted the 96 dairy cows for testing because federal inspectors noticed signs of illness during their inspections.

In a statement, APHIS said viral particles of H5N1 were detected in tissue samples from one cow on May 22, 2024. To date, tissue from the remaining 95 dairy cows have tested negative for viral particles. No meat from these cows entered the food supply.

The samples were analyzed by APHIS using PCR to determine presence of viral particles. PCR testing does not differentiate between live virus or fragments.

FSIS and APHIS are working together to conduct traceback, including notification to the producer to gather further information.

H5N1 has been confirmed in dairy cattle in nine states, has been found in milk and has prompted the slaughter of millions of chickens and turkeys. But finding it in beef is a new development for the outbreak, which began in 2022.

FSIS said in its statement the actions taken provide further confidence that the food safety system in place is working. Further updates will be provided as testing is completed.

Ground Beef Tests Negative for H5N1, says USDA-APHIS

Thu, 02 May 2024 15:46:16 GMT

The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced results from testing 30 samples of ground beef on Thursday, showing that all were negative for H5N1.

The agency made the announcement on its website, available for review here .

USDA-FSIS said it collected the samples from “states with dairy cattle herds that had tested positive for the H5N1 influenza virus at the time of sample collection. The samples were sent to APHIS’ National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) for PCR testing.”

PCR stands for polymerase chain reaction. Such testing is done to identify the presence or absence of human pathogens in food. Common pathogens routinely tested for in food include E. coli and Salmonella, for instance. In the ground beef study, no virus particles were found to be present.

The USDA said it is working on two additional beef safety studies. According to the information posted online, these include:

1. Beef muscle sampling of cull dairy cows condemned at select FSIS-inspected slaughter facilities: FSIS is currently collecting muscle samples at FSIS-inspected slaughter facilities of cull dairy cattle that have been condemned for systemic pathologies. The samples will be analyzed by APHIS using PCR to determine presence of viral particles. The results are forthcoming and will be posted as soon as they become available.

2. Ground beef cooking study: ARS will be conducting a beef cooking study and will be using a virus surrogate in ground beef and cooking it at different temperatures to determine log-reduction of the virus. The results will be posted as soon as they become available.

The agency said the results from both studies will be posted as soon as they become available.

FDA Says New Round of Tests Prove the U.S. Milk Supply is Safe From H5N1 Virus

Thu, 02 May 2024 13:04:55 GMT

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is once again confirming the milk supply is safe with a new round of tests as proof. The latest round of tests come as the U.S. dairy industry continues to battle the outbreak of HPAI H5N1 in cows.

Just days after FDA and USDA confirmed viral material of highly pathogenic avian influenza was found in retail milk samples , FDA says further testing shows pasteurization is killing the virus. A lab at St. Judes Children’s Hospital is taking the genetic material found in the milk and culturing it in live eggs to ensure it didn’t regrow.

According to FDA, the additional testing confirms the safety of the commercial milk supply with what it calls substantial data. The tests were done on 297 samples of milk from 38 states. FDA also tested retail powdered infant formula and says all results were negative.

International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) tells AgWeb this also confirms the requirement of pasteurization, or heat treatment, of milk in order to move interstate in this country, works in killing all bacteria and viruses.

“The testing that the FDA has continued to release has only cemented that further,” says Matt Herrick, senior vice president of public affairs and communications at IDFA. “The results they received at the end of the week on Friday, determined that the virus was in fact dead. So it would not regrow and would not infect, and pasteurization, at the standard times and temperatures under the federal pasteurized milk ordinance, is effective.”

IDFA also adds more than 99% of all the milk and dairy products in our country are pasteurized.

“And that’s been ongoing for decades and decades,” he says. “And that’s what ensures the safety of our commercial milk supply.”

Related News: USDA Now Requiring Mandatory Testing and Reporting of HPAI in Dairy Cattle as New Data Suggests Virus Outbreak is More Widespread

A week ago Tuesday, the FDA also reassured consumers the pasteurized milk they drink is safe after the agency announced retail milk samples tested positive for fragments of HPAI H5N1. Further testing by a lab at St Jude’s Childrens Hospital showed the virus is not live, which means there is no risk to human health. However, FDA noted additional testing was still being done.

Dr. Richard Webby runs the lab at St. Jude that conducted the testing. He told AgWeb his lab confirmed there is no virus in any of the retail milk samples, but says it was a small sample set they’ve tested so far and more testing is coming. He says even with the limited tests completed so far, his findings show pasteurization is killing the virus.

“It is actually expected that RNA will remain in the milk after pasteurization. Heating (pasteurization) will kill the virus but won’t necessarily destroy the genetic material of the virus (RNA). On its own, the RNA isn’t infectious. It is important to reiterate that the presence of RNA does not mean there is live virus. In contrast, our data says there is no live virus,” Webby told AgWeb.

He says genetic material of the virus, or RNA, is similar to the DNA inside human cells and provides the code to make all of the proteins the virus needs. However, he says while it’s key for influenza viruses, this is different from other viruses in that on its own, the RNA can’t do anything.

“It has to be nicely coated in virus proteins and delivered properly to the inside of a cell. Pasteurization destroys this part,” he explains.

Related News: A Message to the Ag Industry about H5N1

Considering his lab was unsuccessful at regrowing the virus, he says the testing confirmed the RNA in milk is from dead virusses, and therefore, the milk can’t cause any infection.

“In my opinion, based on the small data set we have, yes, the milk is safe,” he says. “I am still consuming it at home.”

Webby points out there is much more researchers still need to learn about HPAI H5N1, especially in cattle. He says influenza in cows is new, and the industry continues to learn as more research is conducted.

In late March, USDA APHIS confirmed the mystery illness that was impacting dairy herds in the Texas Panhandle, New Mexico and Kansas now had a diagnosis: Influenza A. USDA says genetic sequencing revealed it was the same strain of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) that’s been in the U.S. for two years. The outbreak has now been confirmed in nine states , however, it’s unclear how many herds it’s impacting.

The CDC claims the outbreak has been confirmed in 36 herds , but testing of retail milk samples last week put that number into question. Viral fragments were found in nearly 40% of the milk samples tested, indicating the outbreak is more widespread that current government reports.

US to Test Ground Beef in States With Bird-Flu Outbreaks in Dairy Cows

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 19:59:33 GMT

The U.S. government said on Monday it is collecting samples of ground beef at retail stores in states with outbreaks of bird flu in dairy cows for testing but remains confident the meat supply is safe.

Federal officials are seeking to verify the safety of milk and meat after confirming the H5N1 virus in 34 dairy cattle herds in nine states since late March, and in one person in Texas.

Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization have said the overall public health risk is low, but is higher for those with exposure to infected animals.

Scientists believe outbreaks are more widespread in cows than officially reported based on findings of H5N1 particles in about 20% of milk samples. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that preliminary results of gold-standard PCR tests showed pasteurization killed the bird flu virus in milk, though.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will analyze retail ground beef samples with PCR tests that indicate “whether any viral particles are present,” according to a statement. Some
dairy cows are processed into ground beef when they grow old.

The USDA on Monday began requiring lactating dairy cows to test negative for bird flu before being moved across state lines as officials seek to contain the virus.

The department said this weekend that testing is not required for cows that are shipped over state lines directly to slaughter facilities from barns where they are sold. Those
cattle only need documentation showing they were inspected by a veterinarian.

The USDA said it inspects each animal before slaughter, and all cattle carcasses must pass inspection after slaughter to enter the human food supply.

Last week USDA said it had found bird flu in a lung tissue sample from an asymptomatic dairy cow that was sent to slaughter from an infected herd. The animal did not enter the food supply, according to the department.

The USDA is now collecting beef muscle samples at slaughter facilities of dairy cattle that have been condemned to determine the presence of viral particles, according to the statement. Any positive PCR tests for retail or slaughter samples will be evaluated for live virus, the USDA said.

The USDA will also use a “virus surrogate” in ground beef and cook it at different temperatures to determine how the virus is affected, according to the statement. It said cooking meat to a safe internal temperature kills bacteria and viruses

Colombia restricted the import of beef and beef products coming from U.S. states where dairy cows have tested positive for avian influenza as of April 15, according to the USDA.

There are no known cases of bird flu in beef cattle so far.

The human case in the current outbreak was in a Texas farm worker who suffered conjunctivitis following exposure to dairy cows.

(Reporting by Tom Polansek; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Marguerita Choy)

H5N1 Mandatory Testing For Interstate Movement Of Dairy Cattle In Effect

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 18:28:25 GMT

Effective today, the USDA-Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) federal order
requires mandatory testing for the interstate movement of dairy cattle.

The following information and direction are from the HPAI Detections in Livestock Page :

Prior to interstate movement, dairy cattle are required to receive a negative test for Influenza A virus at an approved National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) laboratory.

Owners of herds in which dairy cattle test positive for interstate movement will be required to provide epidemiological information, including animal movement tracing.

Dairy cattle moving interstate must adhere to conditions specified by APHIS.

USDA-APHIS says these steps are immediately required for lactating dairy cattle, “while these requirements for other classes of dairy cattle will be based on scientific factors concerning the virus and its evolving risk profile.”

Mandatory Reporting Laboratories and state veterinarians must report positive Influenza A nucleic acid detection diagnostic results (e.g. PCR or genetic sequencing) in livestock to USDA APHIS.

Laboratories and state veterinarians must report positive Influenza A serology diagnostic results in livestock to USDA-APHIS.

USDA-APHIS will provide reimbursement for testing at NAHLN labs, including samples submitted for:
(1) dairy cattle suspected of disease due to clinical signs,
(2) pre-movement testing,
(3) producers interested in the disease status of their asymptomatic animals, and
(4) samples taken from other animals on dairies associated with this disease event.

USDA Now Requiring Mandatory Testing and Reporting of HPAI in Dairy Cattle as New Data Suggests Virus Outbreak is More Widespread

A Message to the Ag Industry about H5N1

Properly Prepared Beef Remains Safe; Meat Institute Calls For Guidance to Protect Workers at Beef Facilities

A Message to the Ag Industry about H5N1

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 20:49:16 GMT

“We’re going on a bear hunt. We’re going to catch a big one… We’re not scared.”

So goes a beloved children’s book written by Michael Rosen. The story is a metaphor for how to address fear. Kay Russo, DVM, often reads it to her son and daughter, ages 4 and 6.

“This unfortunate family seems to deal with a lot of issues as they’re going on their hike,” Russo says. “Ultimately, every time they reach one of these issues, the book basically says, ‘You know, we can’t go over it. We can’t go around it. We can’t go under it. We have to go through it.’”

That story illustrates how the dairy industry must deal with the growing impact of H5N1, says Russo, Novonesis technical services manager for dairy and poultry. She’s watched the spread of the virus with alarm and urges U.S. leaders across dairy and agriculture to step up and take action.

“Address it head-on,” she says. “Don’t hide.”

As with all major threats, she says ag needs a comprehensive, cohesive plan to address the virus in dairy – and to also look at how to protect the beef, pork and poultry industries.

“At this point, I believe it’s important to take one day at a time and systematically answer the questions that we need to get answered in order to define a sustainable path forward,” Russo says.

“We have a very clear picture that it’s in the udder and is being shed in milk. But where else do we need to be concerned? That matters because that is going to define the control tactics to reduce spreading it from cow to cow. Those questions are ultimately going to be the pillar of our understanding and help to define strategies for controlling the virus in a sustainable way.”

On The Front Line
Help can’t come soon enough for dairy producers and veterinarians in the trenches working with cows.

Veterinarians such as Dr. Barb Petersen in Texas have been dealing with the virus in their clients’ dairy herds since at least March.

“It has been circulating here as early as February, based on retrospective feedback from owners and fellow veterinarians,” says Petersen, owner of Sunrise Veterinary Service in Amarillo.

By early March, she had begun sending daily emails and text messages to her Texas Panhandle dairy clients who needed answers and support.

Petersen, who has been in practice 15 years, did her best to provide both. But she didn’t know what she was dealing with. Neither did any other veterinarian Petersen reached out to within 200 miles of her practice.

“We started to text and email each other, and give summaries of ‘OK, here’s the test that this doctor has run. Here’s what another colleague has run,’” Petersen recalls.

“We tested for every single viral bacterial mycotoxin, lepto, rumensin toxicity, nitrates… I mean, you name it, every single thing that we vaccinate for, we tested for, for sure, right off the bat. And then even some of the things that we don’t or can’t vaccinate for. We tried to cast a really wide net.”

None of the initial tests, conducted by the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory (TVMDL), provided an answer.

Recurring Symptoms Emerge

Some members of the animal health community suspected winter dysentery – an acute, highly contagious gastrointestinal disorder that can affect housed dairy cattle of all ages.

Petersen was skeptical.

“The first clinical symptom I saw was cows that had indigestion. They had manure that wasn’t well-digested, manure with particles of feed in it,” she says.

As she checked more cows and talked with colleagues, more information came to light and she began to identify recurring symptoms: thick, colostrum-like milk; lesions on cow vulvas; high temperatures; respiratory distress; a drop in feed consumption; and a corresponding lack of rumination. None of it added up to winter dysentery.

“This is a really strong and fierce reminder to keep your hands on the cows,” Petersen says. “It’s wonderful to have data, but you have to trust and then verify.”

When Russo at Novonesis got news of the problem from a colleague, she called Petersen.

Russo has worked as a dairy veterinarian and is also a board-certified poultry veterinarian. She and Petersen discussed what kinds of tests had already been done and what health concerns had been ruled out.

“I said, ‘You know, I may sound like a crazy person, a tinfoil-hat-wearing person, but this sounds a bit like (highly pathogenic avian) influenza to me. We’ve seen this particular strain of influenza that’s been circulating, that’s been jumping into mammalian hosts,’ and I kind of left it there,” Russo recalls.

More conversations between Russo, Petersen and other veterinarians ensued. Russo encouraged Petersen to collect some of the dead birds she had encountered at the dairies and submit them to TVMDL for testing, which she did.

On March 19, Petersen received a call from the Texas lab, confirming the wild birds were positive for H5N1.

At about the same time, barn cats at the dairies Petersen worked with were getting sick and starting to die. They had consumed some of the H5N1-infected birds and milk that had not been pasteurized.

“I spent one weekend picking up dead birds and the next weekend picking up dead cats. It was very sad,” Petersen says.

Science Provides Answers
Petersen sent some of the dead cats and a pooled sample of milk to TVMDL pathologists for testing. Because of their heavy workload, she sent the same material to a former veterinary classmate at Iowa State University (ISU), Dr. Drew Magstadt, now a pathologist at the school’s diagnostic laboratory.

“Whenever I’ve gotten into a real jam professionally – like, you have a question that you can’t seem to find an answer to – the group of folks that have always helped me solve it have been pathologists,” Petersen says. “It’s been pathologists that I could give the clues to who helped finish the puzzle.”

On a warm March night in Amarillo, Petersen sat resting on her back porch at home when a text message from Magstadt popped up on her phone.

“There’s something in the results,” he wrote. “Can I call you?”

On the phone, Magstadt shared what he’d found in the lab tests done on the cats and milk: H5N1.

“I was like, ‘Are you serious?’” Petersen asked Magstadt. “Are you going to run those tests again?”

“Yes,” he said. “Just to make sure.”

The initial H5N1 confirmation flabbergasted Magstadt. The next day, he retested the samples to confirm the finding.

“I had thought we would find the results were negative and we would move on to other testing. So I was very, very surprised when the results came back positive,” says Magstadt, ISU clinical associate professor and a pathologist at the Iowa State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

The National Veterinary Services Laboratory (NVSL) then confirmed Magstadt’s findings. The documentation of H5N1 by NVSL in a sample of milk from a dairy cow represented an industry first.

“The most surprising part of this, in my mind, is the fact that we’re finding so much virus as we are in the milk, in the mammary gland,” Magstadt says.

‘Show Us The Data’
On April 23, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported it had detected “viral particles of H5N1 avian influenza” in pasteurized milk available for purchase at grocery stores.

Russo is quick to point out this doesn’t mean the actual virus is in milk. Rather, it’s the genetic material known as RNA.

“I think the FDA needs to show us the data,” Russo says. “The fact that there is viral material in some of the milk on shelves, as detected by rt-PCR. That test doesn’t say whether it is alive or dead. Virus isolation is necessary. The first tests have not grown virus, thankfully, but we need more data.”

No unusual human illnesses have been documented. Government health officials say they have seen nothing unusual in flu activity, according to a senior official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who was interviewed for this story. The overall assessment and risk to human health remains low from H5N1, the official says.

“CDC looks for a host of flu-like symptoms,” he told “U.S. Farm Report” host Tyne Morgan during a phone interview. “They do so by looking at people coming into emergency rooms, care systems, etc.”

Yet anecdotal evidence suggests the people most likely to be infected – dairy farm workers who have their hands on cows regularly – aren’t necessarily going to doctors for treatment.

The World Health Organization (WHO) website references just one “laboratory-confirmed case of human infection with an influenza A (H5N1) virus on 1 April 2024” on a dairy farm.

“It’s a mild, mild case and the only symptom he had was pinkeye,” Sid Miller, state commissioner of the Texas Department of Agriculture, told “AgriTalk” host Chip Flory at the time, as reported on AgWeb.

That Texas case marked the second confirmed human case of influenza A(H5N1) detected in the U.S. — and the first in the dairy industry. The first documented case, identified in 2022, involved a person in Colorado who worked with infected poultry that tested positive for the virus.

During his interview with Miller, Flory asked whether the virus could impact beef cattle at some point.

“You’ve seen what’s happened in the cattle markets,” Flory said. “They’re looking at it like this is a major problem for beef.”

Problems aren’t anticipated for Texas beef cattle, which consist primarily of feedlot cattle in the Panhandle, Miller replied.

“The cattle that get it are the older lactating cows, and we don’t have those in the feedlot,” Miller explained. “I think we’re OK, but we’re certainly going to research that.”

Tip Of The Iceberg?
So far, H5N1 has been officially confirmed in only 32 herds in eight states, according to data from USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).

Some veterinarians working with dairies in Texas believe the virus is more active than current data suggest. Nick Schneider, a consulting dairy practitioner, is one of them.

“The thing is, when you get into the Panhandle of Texas, I’m not sure there’s anybody (dairy farms) that did not have it,” says Schneider.

Texas is home to 335 Grade A dairies with an estimated 625,00 cows, according to information on the Texas Association of Dairymen website. More than 100 of those operations are in the Panhandle.

The virus likely is being under-reported by the dairy industry because the presence of the virus in dairy cows is new, and there are no reporting requirements, Russo says.

“It’s not a foreign animal disease like it’s considered in poultry, where there are reporting requirements,” she explains. “This is considered an emerging disease (in dairy cattle).”

The dairy industry needs to be “very forward looking” now and address the virus, advises Schneider, the Texas dairy consultant.

“Looking at what happened in the rearview mirror is great, but if you’re not looking at where you’re going, it’s really just a pointless endeavor,” he says.

To that end, he advises gaining insights and expertise in preparation for whatever new information emerges next.

“We need to think about this potentially being something we have to live with, as being a part of the industry in the future,” Schneider says. “I hope I’m wrong. I would love to be wrong about that. But it’s something that we definitely need to consider when we’re thinking of how we’re going to manage it.”

Lessons From Swine And Poultry
Russo also advocates learning the lessons from swine and poultry, which have faced a variety of viral challenges for years.

“It’s important that we don’t try to reinvent the wheel as the cattle industry, but sort of cross the aisle to interact with the poultry folks and the swine folks who have gone through this repeatedly over the years and learn from the defined principles they use and try to adapt them into the bovine space,” she says.

Both swine and poultry have modified their animal management practices from the farm to the marketplace as a result of those experiences.

“Poultry, for instance has very distinct biosecurity principles they abide by to include lines of separation,” Russo says. “One is they keep the outside world out. Another is their use of PPE (physical protective equipment) to protect employees and also the birds from anything that might be carried onto the farm.”

The latter is a message Dr. Barb Petersen has taken to heart. Petersen says she was exposed to H5N1 for more than a month before she learned about the virus and its ability to infect dairy cows and people.

“I’m very fortunate that I never got sick,” she says.

Her advice? “Protect yourselves and your people on the dairy. There’s been underreporting of the virus. Understandably, there’s been a lot of fear. But every dairy that I’ve worked with has – with the exception of one – had sick human beings at the same time they had sick cows.”

Based on that knowledge, Petersen has acquired PPE available through Texas Health and Human Services.

“All the states have personal protective equipment available. Go and get it for your dairies,” she encourages other veterinarians. “If a dairy is on the fence, just provide it to them, offer it to everybody.”

Petersen says she has worked with people infected by H5N1 who do not interact with dairy cows. “I’m talking owners and feeders who don’t usually touch cows,” she says.

Research is underway to determine how much of a health risk the virus poses to humans, Russo says.

“This is a rapidly evolving situation, and the people that are working on it are doing everything they can to ensure the safety of those individuals that are most at risk,” she says.

A Paradigm Shift
The virus continues to hit the U.S. poultry industry hard.

Cal-Maine Foods, the largest producer and distributor of fresh shell eggs in the U.S., announced April 2 that chickens at its facility in Parmer County, located in the southwest part of the Texas Panhandle, tested positive for the virus. As a result, Cal-Maine had to cull nearly 2 million chickens − 1.6 million hens and 337,000 pullets.

In the AgriTalk discussion aired earlier this spring, Flory asked Miller, the Texas ag commissioner, whether he believes state agriculture department investigators are in front of the latest issues with HPAI in dairy cattle.

“I think so,” Miller replied. “We’ve got about 10 months before the ducks and geese come back, so I think we’ll have it figured out by then.”

Moving forward, the U.S. livestock industry might operate in a new world – one where the H5N1 virus is endemic.

Russo is undaunted by the challenge.

“This is not insurmountable, but it’s an issue we need to address swiftly,” she says.

Culled dairy cows going into the food supply deserve special attention, she says.

“We need to do the work so that we can define those movement strategies for the practitioners that are being asked to write health certificates on these farms that have the virus circulating,” Russo says.

The dairy industry needs to be more proactive for the sake of the poultry industry, she adds.

“Putting our heads in the sand, and hoping it burns itself out is not going to work. It’s just not,” she says. “It would take down the entire poultry industry by doing that, because this is highly pathogenic to them.”

That is not hyperbole, Russo says: a dime-sized piece of manure with H5N1 can infect up to 1 million chickens or turkeys.

In essence, the livestock industry needs to go on a bear hunt, as the children’s story says.

‘We can’t go over it. We can’t go around it. We can’t go under it. We have to go through it.”

With that as the focus, solutions to H5N1 can be found and help delivered to livestock producers and veterinarians on the front lines and, ultimately, the U.S. agriculture industry can insure a safe food supply.

This story will be updated by Bovine Veterinarian and Farm Journal editorial staff as more information is available.

USDA Now Requiring Mandatory Testing and Reporting of HPAI in Dairy Cattle as New Data Suggests Virus Outbreak is Widespread

USDA Shares Recent H5N1 Avian Flu Sequences

Texas-Sized Problems Hit the Lone Star State, but Ag Commissioner says ‘Things are Getting Better’

Rare Human Case of Bird Flu Confirmed. Officials Believe it Began on Texas Dairy

USDA Now Requiring Mandatory Testing and Reporting of HPAI in Dairy Cattle as New Data Suggests Virus Outbreak is More Widespread

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 18:41:02 GMT

USDA is now ordering all dairy cattle must be tested prior to moving the animals across state lines as a way to help stop the spread of HPAI H5N1 impacting dairy herds across the country. This comes after a lab at Ohio State University detected genetic material of the virus in 38% of retail milk samples they’ve tested, data that also suggests the current outbreak is being underreported.

In a new Federal Order announced on Tuesday , USDA says in an effort to protect the U.S. livestock industry from the threat posed by highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza , there are a number of actions being taken with federal partners to limit the spread.

The following measures go into effect immediately:

Prior to interstate movement, dairy cattle are required to receive a negative test for the Influenza A virus at an approved National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) laboratory.
Owners of herds in which dairy cattle test positive for interstate movement will be required to provide epidemiological information, including animal movement tracing.
Dairy cattle moving interstate must adhere to conditions specified by APHIS.

USDA says forthcoming guidance will be released, but these steps will be immediately required for lactating dairy cattle, while these requirements for other classes of dairy cattle will be based on scientific factors concerning the virus and its evolving risk profile.

USDA is also requiring labs and state veterinarian offices to start mandatory reporting of Influenza A nucleic acid detection diagnostic results, which is PCR or genetic sequencing, in livestock. That must be reported to USDA APHIS.

Prior to Tuesday’s announcement, HPAI H5N1 in livestock was not currently a reportable disease.

“It’s not a foreign animal disease in dairy, like it’s considered in poultry -- same virus -- but in poultry, there are reporting requirements. This is considered an emerging disease (in dairy cattle). And with that, there are no reporting requirements,” one source told Farm Journal.

USDA also says while the virus is spreading between cows in the same herd, from cows to poultry, as well as spread between dairies associated with cattle movements, now some cows that don’t signs of the illness are still testing positive for the virus. One sample came from a cow in Kansas. USDA says on April 16, APHIS microbiologists identified a shift in an H5N1 sample that could indicate that the virus has an adaptation to mammals.

“While we are taking this action today, it is important to remember that thus far, we have not found changes to the virus that would make it more transmissible to humans and between people,” states USDA. “While cases among humans in direct contact with infected animals are possible, our partners at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) believe that the current risk to the public remains low.

Genetic Material of the Virus Detected in Retail Milk

On Tuesday, the FDA reassured consumers the pasteurized milk they drink is safe after the agency announced retail milk samples tested positive for fragments of HPAI H5N1. Further testing showed the virus is not live, which means there is no risk to human health. However, researchers say this does indicate avian influenza in the nation’s dairy herd is much more widespread than what’s currently being reported and USDA’s decision to stop the movement of cattle also confirms how quickly the virus is spreading.

In an update from the FDA, the agency said it tested milk samples by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and found the presence of fragments of the virus, which is not the same as infectious virus and currently poses no increased risk to human health.

Dr. Andrew Bowman, an associate professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine at The Ohio State University, is part of a lab that has focused largely on zoonotic transmission of influenza for decades. Historically, his research has worked on avian species and swine, but when the detection of influenza and cattle was announced, they started shifting gears and looked at cattle, especially considering there are no cattle influenza experts since it’s not a species that anyone really had on the list for influenza, nor was avian influenza in cattle a possibility that researchers were exploring.

Virus Material Found in 38% of Retail Milk Samples at Lab

The Ohio State lab is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) network for the Centers for Excellence in Influenza Research and Response. As the team worked together to generate scientific data, Bowman and the team needed to try to get a handle on the scope of the new outbreak of HPAI H5N1 in cattle. They decided it would be quicker and more efficient to test samples of retail milk versus visiting every dairy farm in the country.

“We’ve tested 150 samples, 58 of those have tested positive to date,” says Bowman. “We’ve screened them for the presence of influenza genetic material, so the viral RNA. Those that have tested positive, we have been forwarded to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, where they are conducting studies to see if there’s a viable virus in there. To date, none of them have been viable, but certainly they give the indication that there is viral genetic material in the region.”

Related News: ‘We Have To Go Through It’

Bowman says the team purchased milk from six different states, and the processing plant codes on those 58 positives represent 10 different states where the milk was processed.

“I think this certainly gives us some idea that it’s a larger problem than the handful of states in the 38 farms that had been reported,” says Bowman. “I think it’s much more common.”

The difference between finding viral RNA, which is genetic material, versus a live virus, is a major point in reassuring consumers the U.S. milk supply is safe, but it’s also a key metric in tracking how widespread the virus actually is.

“Just like if we find DNA at a crime scene, it shows somebody was there. But it’s not saying they’re there and active right now,” says Bowman. “We can piece that together and know that there was evidence that the virus was in the milk, but it’s been rendered inactive, likely by pasteurization.”

Bowman says viral RNA, which is what his lab detected in retail milk, does not cause humans to get sick.

“In fact, if we look for other pathogens, RNA and DNA, we probably find some of that as well. But we are using it as an indication of how widespread influence is in the US dairy cattle herd,” says Bowman.

APHIS continues to track the number of cases nationwide , and the latest look at confirmed cases of HPAI in domestic livestock shows 26 cases in 8 states. However, additional veterinary professionals have spoken to Farm Journal and said APHIS’ numbers aren’t accurate with what’s actually happen in the countryside and the virus is more widespread than what’s being reported.

U.S. Milk Supply is Still Safe

While the number of cases- and scope of the virus in the U.S. cattle herd- is currently under question, Bowman says their research indicates the U.S. milk supply is safe.

“At this point in time, there’s evidence that they are viral particles entering the milk supply, but those are not viable at this point in time, and we believe pasteurization is effective. All data supports that pasteurization is effective,” says Bowman. “It’s one of those cases where it’s a very limited sampling at this point. And we’re working hard to expand that to provide some assurance that this is the correct position to take.”

FDA confirmed again on Thursday that even though genetic material was detected in retail milk, pasteurization of milk destroys harmful pathogenic bacteria and other microorganisms, including HPAI and other viruses.

“The data cited by FDA is consistent with many other studies demonstrating that the legally required temperature and time for milk pasteurization will readily inactivate HPAI,” National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) said in a statement. “Viral fragments detected after pasteurization are nothing more than evidence that the virus is dead; they have zero impact on human health. Further, the federal PMO prohibits milk from sick cows from entering the food supply chain. Milk and milk products produced and processed in the United States are among the safest in the world.”

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) also reached out to Farm Journal to reaffirm the risk to human health remains low. A CDC senior official told Farm Journal CDC regularly scans emergency rooms and care systems for unusual illnesses, including flu-like symptoms, and the agency is seeing nothing usual with respect to flu activity. The CDC says the overall assessment is the risk to human health remains low.

The Biggest Unknown: How the Virus is Spreading Among Livestock

As researchers try to get a grasp on the scope, the biggest question remains how this virus continues to spread. Bowman’s lab has worked with influenza viruses for more than a decade, and he says influenza is difficult to address.

“Some of it is influenza, the virus itself because it’s a segmented RNA and has a different genome. It behaves differently than some viruses, it can mix and match and reassort. So that’s, that’s one challenge,” says Bowman. “In this case, we’re in a new species and we’re all having to quickly learn all the intricacies of, of cattle production and, and how we might be transmitting. And then we add into the fact that we’ve seen it in pigs and birds, and it’s not always a clinical presentation, they don’t always show signs of disease.”

Bowman says animals that are infected may be asymptomatic, so they could be a vehicle moving the virus.

“That’s certainly complicated, complicates understanding that the transmission dynamics and the ecology and epidemiology of influenza in any species, but especially in this case, it’s a new species that we’re really having to wrap our heads around,” says Bowman.

Bowman points out that with influenza, it’s always a question of who’s giving it to whom. His lab, along with others, are trying to piece that together, but their insights are only as good as the data that’s available. At this point in time, that data is limited. Bowman says as more data is collected, they’ll have a much stronger position to figure out what is happening.

Get the Facts Straight on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 19:12:13 GMT

Updated as of 4.10.24

Now that the mystery illness impacting dairy herds in multiple states has been revealed as the same strain of influenza virus [Influenza A (H5N1)] that has been impacting the U.S. poultry flock, pork producers are asking a lot of questions. Is this strain transmittable to pigs? Should livestock producers with cattle and pigs be concerned about cross-species transmission?

Those are all important questions, but understanding influenza is the best place to start, says National Pork Board chief veterinarian Dusty Oedekoven.

“Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) is influenza. HPAI is an official term defined by the severity of the mortality rate in poultry,” he explains.

Within strains of influenza A, the naming convention goes by two proteins on the outer surface of the virus: hemagglutinin (H type) and neuraminidase (N type). Typically, HPAI is of the H5 or H7 types, but there are many other possibilities as there are 18 hemagglutinin types and 11 neuraminidase types, he explains.

“Not all of those occur in poultry, not all of those occur in pigs, and not all of those occur in humans,” Oedekoven clarifies. “But the term highly pathogenic applies to poultry.”

He believes the reason it’s making headlines as HPAI is because it’s the same strain, H5N1, or similar strain that has been found recently in poultry where they have designated it as HPAI.

“Maybe that’s a narrow thing to tease apart,” he points out. “But in my mind, I hope we can separate that a little bit. This is influenza A virus.”

Influenza A viruses affect many warm-blooded animals, including birds and mammals. That’s nothing new, Oedekoven says. Influenza A viruses have been identified in cattle in the past, as well as swine and birds.

“If we think about influenza in domesticated species and humans, we are typically looking at the cycle between humans and pigs,” he says. “Pigs become amplifying hosts of influenza A viruses and the mixing vessel for different types of viruses, as are birds. Birds can get multiple viruses and those viruses mutate within the bird, and new strains evolve. That’s how we have new strains of the virus that emerge and become different strains.”

And that’s why receiving the annual flu vaccine is so important, he adds.

“It’s likely the vaccines we got last year were designed for a different strain than what we’re looking at this year because the virus reassorted and it’s slightly different. Scientists predicting which strain we might be dealing with for the vaccine are right sometimes, and sometimes they miss the mark a little and you may see more influenza in a given year,” he says.

Fact #1: The threat of influenza virus infection in people and pigs is ever present.

Oedekoven says he has not heard of the H5N1 strain being identified in pigs at this time.

“We know pigs are susceptible to influenza A viruses, and swine influe-nza is not uncommon in the U.S. We see outbreaks of routine swine influe-nza fairly frequently,” he says. “We don’t know if there’s any special higher risk of disease or illness or mortality for pigs due to this virus strain than any other swine influenza strain we have.”

The key is diligent observation. If producers see signs of illness in their pigs, Oedekoven urges them to contact their veterinarians.

On the same hand, if they see signs of respiratory illness or flu-like symptoms in people, seek advice from healthcare providers.

Influenza A viruses are common in people, just like they are pigs. Influenza viruses are constantly changing and reassorting.

“The threat of influenza virus infection in people and pigs is ever present. It’s why healthcare providers recommend people get annual influenza vaccines to prevent against new strains of the virus that are emerging all the time,” he says.

This doesn’t represent an elevated threat, Oedekoven adds.

“It’s recognition of a threat we know is there,” he says. “Influenza viruses exist and circulate in people all the time.”

Good sanitation and hygiene are important. If employers have workers who are ill with influenza signs, don’t let them come to work because they could potentially spread that disease to the pigs, which could cause more spread to other humans.

Fact #2: There’s no evidence to support a higher risk of influenza infection from cattle to pigs than exists otherwise.

“We’re not even sure yet to what extent this strain of influenza may be transmitted from cattle,” he says.

USDA reports bovine influenza A virus (originally referred to as HPAI in many reports) in dairy cattle was first identified in samples that included unpasteurized milk from one dairy farm in Texas and two in Kansas, as well as an oropharyngeal swab from another dairy in Texas. The virus was first confirmed in one Texas herd on March 21 by Iowa State University’s diagnostic lab that was helping Texas labs process samples more quickly. Affected farms also reported finding deceased wild birds on their properties.

“Most waterfowl and wild bird species can carry influenza viruses, but usually they don’t die from it. They are good carriers of it and can become infected and produce high levels of the virus and spread it. It’s always a good biosecurity practice to keep birds away from your pigs,” he says.

Remain Vigilant
Megan Niederwerder, executive director of the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC), encourages producers to keep close tabs on biosecurity protocols to reduce risk of pathogen exposure from wildlife.

“As part of the Swine Health Information Center’s Standardized Outbreak Investigation Form, there are several hazards associated with wild birds that can be proactively considered to enhance biosecurity,” Niederwerder explains.

Examples include surface water, wild bird access to inside swine barns, equipment stored outside, compost piles, mortality disposal boxes, open feed bags, open feed bin covers and feed spillage fed to pigs, she says.

“It is important to clean and disinfect tools and equipment with potential exposure to wildlife prior to utilizing inside facilities housing pigs,” Niederwerder says.     

Prompt investigation is key, Oedekoven says. This helps veterinarians and producers handle disease challenges better. USDA notes additional testing is underway, including genome sequencing, to characterize the strain(s) associated with the detections.

Spread the Word

Pork producers play an important role in disseminating truth, Oedekoven says. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, influenza has not been shown to spread through eating properly handled pork.

“You can’t get influenza from eating or handling pork,” Oedekoven emphasized. “There’s not a risk of acquiring influenza that way. The way that it is transmitted is through aerosolization and direct contact between infected animals, including humans.”

Read More:

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Veterinarians Answer Questions on Influenza

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Meat Institute: Properly Prepared Beef is Safe to Eat; HPAI is not a Food Safety Threat

Six Questions One Industry Veterinarian Says She Is Asked Most Often About HPAI

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 19:00:28 GMT

The emerging issue of Highly Pathogenic H5N1 Avian Influenza (HPAI) in the U.S. dairy industry changes on nearly a daily basis.

Novonesis (a merger of Chr. Hansen and Novozymes) hosted a webinar on the issue on Friday to update producers, veterinarians and other members of the agricultural community.

“It’s a rapidly evolving situation,” lead presenter, Kay Russo, DVM, Novonesis technical services manager for dairy and poultry, North America, stressed at the beginning of the program.

“I’m getting a lot of questions, and I’m sure everybody on this call has questions. Or if you’re a veterinarian, you’re receiving them,” she said. “Again, this is a rapidly evolving situation, and what may seem correct today may be different tomorrow.”

Here are the six questions Russo said she is most frequently asked, and what her answers to them are – for now. Russo’s answers have been lightly edited for clarity.

Question #1: Is HNAI spreading from cow to cow?

Answer: Initially the thought was that every one of these animals was exposed to the disease from a bird. But at this point, there is some consideration for the fact that this may be spreading laterally. How it’s spreading is still unclear. There is some postulation that the virus is being spread in the milking parlor. Could it potentially be a mechanical spread from cow to cow on the milkers’ hands, or perhaps (on) the milking machines? Is it possible in these parlors where the humidity is high, it’s a warm environment that we’re seeing some aerosolization of the virus, so I would say that’s possible too. But there’s more work that needs to be done. But for all intents and purposes at this time, I would suspect there is some lateral transmission.

Question #2: Why are calves, younger lactation cows and the feedlot cattle not getting sick?

Answer: Ultimately, I don’t know the answer to this. More work needs to be done. The question needs to be answered. Are they truly not getting infected with a virus? Are they resistant to it, perhaps? Or is it that they are getting infected and just not demonstrating the clinical signs? We milk a lot of these dairy cows three times a day, so there’s a lot of eyes on them. In some of these instances, with the calves or in the feedlot cattle, you’re not handling them as often. We need to rely on the science to answer these questions in order to provide guidelines. I keep saying this, and I will continue to say it, we do not know what we do not measure. And we cannot provide guidelines around what we do not know.

Question #3: Is this a risk to humans?

Answer: The short answer is that it can infect humans. I know that in New Mexico, they are offering free testing to individuals that are working regularly with these infected herds. And if they are symptomatic – we’re seeing conjunctivitis and high fevers in some of them –they are being distributed Tamiflu for their use and for their families. This is a rapidly evolving situation, and the people that are working on it are doing everything they can to ensure the safety of those individuals that are most at risk.

Question #4: Is milk safe?

Answer: The FDA has stated the pasteurization process should kill the virus, and we should not see it in any saleable milk.

Question #5: Will this be a market limiting disease outbreak?

Answer: This is the major concern here, folks. These are important markets for us in this country. At this point, this is something that is absolutely a consideration. The goal here is to keep the farms in business.

Question #6: Are dairy farms a risk to poultry operations?

Answer: We’ve seen two commercial layer operations, one in West Texas and one in Michigan, be positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza this week. I know that there’s considerable amounts of work behind the scenes to determine the origin of the virus that caused the outbreak in those situations. Ultimately, in this circumstance, it’s going to be important that the cattle folks and the poultry folks come to the same table and talk and manage through this. We want to be good neighbors. These are two major industries in our country, so it’s important that the dialogue is there and continues so that we can keep (everyone) safe.

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HPAI Now Detected on Ohio Dairy: Strange Bird Flu Concerns See Growth

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 19:03:23 GMT

Ohio has become the sixth state where dairy cattle have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), also known as bird flu. A recent news release from the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) reports presumptive positive results from dairy cows in Wood County.

According to officials, the cows arrived in Wood County on March 8 from a dairy in Texas. That dairy later reported a confirmed case of HPAI. The Ohio dairy operation alerted state officials when the livestock began showing signs of illness. State officials are awaiting confirmation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“We have official confirmation that we do have a case at a dairy in Wood County of HPAI, which is an influenza,” says ODA Director Brian Baldridge. “We’ve been working with this in the poultry industry for about the last two-and-a-half years and it has found its way into the dairy industry. We are working diligently with the dairy, with their vets and with our Animal Health division and our state veterinarian, Dr. (Dennis) Summers, on this issue.

According to the USDA, HPAI has now been detected in five other states, including:

Texas
Kansas
New Mexico,
Idaho
Michigan

“Clinically sick dairy cattle from affected herds range from 1% to 20%, with an average of 10% of the milking herd affected. There are no confirmed reports of death loss in dairy cattle directly attributed to these detections. Most sick cows begin recovering within a few days.”

“Federal and state agencies continue to conduct additional testing from sick animals and in unpasteurized clinical milk samples from sick animals, as well as viral genome sequencing, to assess whether HPAI or another unrelated illness may be underlying any symptoms,” the ODA reports.

The agency notes that clinically sick dairy cattle from affected herds range from 1% to 20%, with an average of 10% of the milking herd affected. Currently, there are no confirmed reports of death loss in dairy cattle directly attributed to these detections with most sick cows recovering within a few days.

HPAI symptoms in dairy cattle include:

Sudden drop in milk production.
Some severely impacted cows are producing thicker, more concentrated, colostrum-like milk.
Drop in feed consumption with a simultaneous drop in rumen function, accompanied by loose feces and some fever.
Impacted herds have reported older cows in mid-lactation may be more likely to be severely impacted than younger cows, fresh cows or heifers.
Some herds have reported pneumonia and mastitis.

Officials are strongly advising dairy producers to use all standard biosecurity measures. They note it’s important for producers to clean and disinfect all livestock watering devices and isolate drinking water where it might be contaminated by waterfowl. Farmers are also being asked to notify their herd veterinarian if they suspect any cattle within their herd are displaying symptoms of this condition.

For more on HPAI, read:

Twelve Cases of HPAI in Dairy Cattle Confirmed in Five States

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 18:54:11 GMT

To date, 12 cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) have been confirmed in dairy cattle in five states.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has made the confirmations in dairy herds in four states: Texas (7), Kansas (2), Michigan (1), and New Mexico (1).

In addition, the Idaho State Department of Agriculture announced March 28 that it had identified its first cases of HPAI in a Cassia County dairy cattle operation. The affected facility had recently imported cattle from another state and herd that had HPAI.

Fred Gingrich, DVM and executive director for the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP), says the virus identified in affected dairy cows is the same virus that has affected the U.S. poultry industry since 2022.

“The assumption is the initial herds were affected by wild migratory birds,” Gingrich told Chip Flory, host of AgriTalk, on Tuesday.

Gingrich adds that government agencies, veterinarians and livestock industry groups have more questions than answers at this point about how HPAI is infecting herds, and they are not ruling out cow-to-cow transmission.

“Clinically, it looks like that’s what is happening. Some of the newly infected herds outside of Texas had purchased animals from areas there that had affected herds. That indicates that we probably have some cow-to cow transmission,” Gingrich says. “What’s not known is how does that transmission occur? Does it occur through oral secretions, through the manure, urine, or aerosolized in respiratory secretions like it is in birds? Or is there some mechanical transfer when cows are in the parlor together?”

Adopt Good Biosecurity Practices
The many unknowns at this point make the need for producers to adopt good biosecurity measures more important than ever. Gingrich says the AABP and the National Milk Producers Federation have teamed up to release a set of biosecurity guidelines for producer and veterinarian use. The guidelines and recommendations are available at bit.ly/3TGYMul.

The key points in the guidelines, Gingrich says, encourage dairy producers to minimize any opportunity for the transmission of HPAI by: minimizing livestock contact with wild, migratory birds, isolating new animals on the farm, limiting any visits to your farm to only essential workers and practicing good, general biosecurity measures.

“If you’re moving either your own cattle home from a heifer grower, or you’re purchasing animals, talk to your veterinarian about any potential screening that you might want to do for those cattle, which is just a good practice for any potential disease,” Gingrich advises. “Certainly, you just need to be careful about herd purchases when we have unknowns with an emerging viral event.”

Producers should use the same general precautions, Gingrich adds, for beef cattle and other livestock as well.

“Currently, there are no reports of HPAI in the U.S. beef herd, but certainly producers and veterinarians should be on alert to monitor and watch for any symptoms,” he says.

Five states, Delaware, Idaho, Nebraska, Tennessee and Utah, are taking additional precautions to increase their biosecurity measures. Dairy Herd Management’s Taylor Leach reports the Nebraska Department of Agriculture (NDA) has issued a restriction on the importation of dairy cattle because of the recent HPAI outbreaks. Learn more here: New Regulation: Dairy Cattle Entry into Nebraska Now Requires Permit Amid HPAI Bird Flu Concerns

Silver Linings In The Clouds
When dairy cows are affected by HPAI, they tend to be only a small percentage of the total herd.

“It only affects about 10% of the cows in a herd, and it does not cause mortality, and we’re thankful for that,” Gingrich says.

Furthermore, any risk to the U.S. public from consuming dairy and meat is very low, because pasteurization destroys the virus.

Looking Ahead
Moving forward in the days and weeks ahead, Gingrich recommends that producers work closely with their herd veterinarians and sign up for HPAI alerts as they are released by the Centers for Disease Control, USDA and other federal and state agencies.

“I think the first thing is to be on the lookout for the disease symptoms in your herd; don’t hide it. We all need to work together to continue the investigation. If you have a sudden drop in appetite and milk production in your herd, the first person you should call is your veterinarian and work through to get a diagnosis, whatever that might be,” he says.

“Secondly, we want dairy farmers to know that the veterinary community cares about you. And we certainly understand that this is a scary time. So make sure that you’re relying on your veterinarian and USDA and organizations like AABP for reliable information,” he adds.

Gingrich offers counsel for veterinarians as well. “Be aggressive with diagnostics, as the investigation is ongoing. Make sure that you are working with your diagnostic labs and state animal health officials to collect the appropriate diagnostics that we have posted on the AABP website. If you’re an AABP member, we have a reporting portal where you can identify the herds with this syndrome.”

Learn more about this evolving issue in the following articles. You can also listen to the AgriTalk discussion between Dr. Gingrich and AgriTalk Host Chip Flory at the link below:

Rare Human Case of Bird Flu Confirmed. Officials Believe it Began on Texas Dairy

APHIS Now Thinks Wild Birds Are to Blame for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza’s Arrival on Four U.S. Dairies