Rob Lynch
H5N1, this virus has been around for years. This particular strain of virus has been in the US since 2022 but sometime February, March, there was a single spillover event where we've identified it in cows for the very first time here in the US.
Paul Treadwell
Welcome to extension out loud, a podcast from Cornell Cooperative. Extension. I'm Paul Treadwell, although the h5 n1 virus or avian influenza is usually associated with poultry, this spring, farms in the Midwest reported cases in dairy cattle, presenting new risks for dairy herds and farmers who work with them, while there are currently no known cases of h5 n1 in New York dairy herds Cornell and Cornell Cooperative Extension experts are careful in monitoring the situation to better understand the current state of h5 n1 I spoke with Rob Lynch dairy herd Health and Management Specialist with Cornell's pro dairy program.
Rob Lynch
I'm Rob Lynch. I'm a dairy herd health and management specialist for Cornell's pro dairy
Paul Treadwell
program. Hi, Rob. It's nice to see you again. It's been a few years since we've talked it's been a while. We're here today to really talk about h5, n1, and we've heard some news that it's happening in dairy cattle in the Midwest. What should people know about h5 n1 at this point? What? What's the most important thing for folks to know? Sure? Sure.
Rob Lynch
Yeah. So it's a interesting situation that's started around March, where we h5 n1 this virus has been around for years. This particular strain of virus has been in the US since 2022 but sometime February, March, there was a single spillover event where we've identified it in cows for the very first time here in the US. Okay,
Paul Treadwell
so can you tell me what you say spillover event? What does that mean?
Rob Lynch
So it's typically found in domestic poultry, in migratory birds, particularly waterfowl. And there they can be carriers of this virus, this ducks and geese, and they likely exposed some cows to this virus, and it's infected cows.
Paul Treadwell
It hasn't done that before. All right, so here in New York State at this point and June 11, it's not a concern. But what should people know about things like purchasing dairy products, purchasing meat? Is there a concern around that?
Rob Lynch
So we know dairy products and meat products are safe, and there's lots of good reasons for that. Primarily, we know pasteurization is very effective at killing off bacteria and viruses that would make us sick, including this virus. Okay, same thing goes with properly cooking of meat. USDA has done a bunch of more testing, and we know that just regular safe handling and cooking of meat makes me product safe as well. So no concern on the on the food that we eat. I guess one exception to that would be raw dairy products. Dairy products made out of raw milk, because they have not gone through pasteurization process. I would consider that to still be a risk a lot of pathogens, including this slide speaking to
Paul Treadwell
our dairy farming population, including both farm managers and farm workers. What should they be doing at this point that would help mitigate any impacts this might have? Yeah,
Rob Lynch
so we still in a unique opportunity where we do not have any affected dairy herds in the state of New York yet, okay, but we do see it spreading to new herds in states that already had affected dairies in them, and so that tells us that this virus is difficult to contain. Once it gets into a dairy and you're in the state, it's a lot harder to to keep it from spreading to others. And so now would be a time for us to really make sure that we're doing everything we can to minimize those chances, so we don't have to play catch up if we do end up getting infected herds down the road.
Paul Treadwell
I know when I get the flu, it's it lasts for a few days, and then it's over, and theoretically I'm better. So if you have a cow that either, if you have a cow that is infected, is it like a flu, or what is it like for a cow that's infected.
Rob Lynch
So what's been described when cows do catch this virus is they they're usually sick for about two three weeks. They will stop eating. They will dramatically decrease in their milk production, and that may show some other signs. Some have described some respiratory illness, fever, changes in manure, changes in rumination patterns, but the primary clinical signs that we look for would be dramatic drop in the production, dramatic decrease in feed intake. Those are the signs that are the most commonly noted
Paul Treadwell
and again over after a couple weeks, the cows should be back in production, and they
Rob Lynch
have all recovered. Okay. So it takes a few weeks. It takes a lot of supportive care. The cows do get pretty sick. I don't want to minimize it, and the workers work very hard at supportive care and to nurse those cows back to hell. But it behaves very differently than this same virus in commercial poultry flocks, where it is highly fatal.
Paul Treadwell
If I'm on a dairy farm and my cows have been exposed and I have a chicken coop on the farm, do I have to worry about the virus jumping from the cows to the chickens?
Rob Lynch
There's a concern there. So we're trying to figure out exactly. We don't know all the modes of which this has spread from one animal to another. We do know that it is spread from birds to cattle, okay, from cows to other cows and cows back to birds. We actually have identified three cases of dairy farm workers, people who contracted the virus from cows. So those are the scenarios that we they're aware of right now.
Paul Treadwell
And of those three cases, at least two of them, they've they had flu like symptoms, and yeah,
Rob Lynch
what was reported conjunctivitis, like pink eye, and two of them and a third worker, working on a dairy that hadn't affected cows in Michigan, I think, was described to having some respiratory signs. All recovering, all fine, but it's still worth avoiding Taria. But
Paul Treadwell
key message is milk and dairy beef products are still safe, and yeah,
Rob Lynch
pasteurization, again, has proven itself. The one additional risk here is milk until it's pasteurized, if a cow has this virus, she sheds tremendous numbers of this virus in her milk. Okay, so we see it raw milk handling. People who handle a lot of raw milk, there's a chance of getting exposed to this virus if they happen to be working with cows that are infected.
Paul Treadwell
Is there transmission from a mother to a calf?
Rob Lynch
Don't think that's all been sorted out yet, and some of this is the because, really, it's only been first identified since March, so there's a lot we still are learning about what this virus is capable of doing. And so we we know it's shed in milk. We know we've it's been identified in respiratory droplets, and so we consider those two sources of of exposure to to be things we can manage. Okay, so for folks who are working with cows, closely, personal protective equipment, wearing gloves, protective eyewear, 95 masks, washing your hands frequently. Do what you can to not touch your face until you've washed your hands, to try to minimize your exposure. You can get exposed to raw milk in the milking parlor. You can get exposed to raw milk when you're moving the milk from the parlor to the trucks and all up until it gets to the pasteurization step. Is a we consider that's a that is a risk, should there be infected animals represented in that milk supply. Thanks
Paul Treadwell
very much, Rob. We really appreciate your time. Hey, you're welcome, Paul, thank you for listening to this episode. For more information about this episode, including show notes and the transcript, visit extensionoutloud.com and be sure to subscribe to extension out loud on your favorite podcast directory you.
