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Wash your hands. Dont drink raw milk.
All employees are provided free diposible ppe. Gloves, face masks, face shields. No one really uses them, and from what we know of the virus, the risk even for those of us who are handling animals every day, is very very low. Im not worried about catching bird flu, im worried about my cows catching it. The negative health impacts in humans is small and low. It hasnt crossed over strongly enough to cause us damage.
The farm workers that have been diagnosed with bird flu? It was conjunctivitis, aka pinkeye. Hardly something most people worry about.
But on the other hand, the cows do get sick. Fatality is nonexistant to low, except for the west coast for some reason, but the cows do run fevers and do lose milk production. Its a virus, so the best care we can support our cattle with are supportive. Push water and electrolytes, give medicine to lower fever. And wait. Same as if your kid gets the flu.
And last of all. Do. Not. Drink. Raw. Milk.
If your cat drinks h5n1 infected milk, it will develope brain swelling and die. Currently nothing happens to humans, that we know of. But If all we have to do to prevent that is pasteurization, why wouldnt we? And if a wild mutation is all it takes to get a spillover event into humans, why would we take that risk?
Yeah that all makes total sense, common sense, even lol, thank you. I was moreso wondering about any preventative measures or practices you could take to protect your cows from contracting the virus. I understand it spreads like any other virus, so I suppose there really isn't much else you could feasibly do. I appreciate your insight
Ah i understand. No problem.
The current vector that is infecting dairies is from infected wild bird populations. We cant stop that. Blackbirds pigeons starlings finches. Theres too much bird food around everywhere. Cow to cow transmittion from one location to another is not really a factor. Its wild birds.
My dairy has implemented extra tracking in the form of, well, its basically a fitbit for cows. And with the data we collect, we can detect sick cows when they are still subclinical. It gives us a huge heads up and improves the health of the herd because we can start supportive treatment sooner. But it is not preventative.
What we need is vaccinations. The poultry industry had vaccinations for decades for bird flu. They didnt use it. We could have a cow vaccine spun up in 6 weeks, but for some reason we couldnt get usda approval in the last year before trump. The likelihood of us getting that cow vaccine approved now... its not looking too good in my opinion.
I'm sure that this seems obvious to you, but it's not clear to me... are you saying that human to human transmission isn't worth worrying about, even if the virus mutated to be more infectious between humans?
Having a quick read, it seems like infections in humans range from unnoticeable to very severe, so I guess it's going to be a question of the ratio between severe and mild cases, which is unknown level given that we would need a mutation before it became relevant.
Did I just answer my own question?
In any case, this threat to your dairy must be very stressful. Good luck!
Obviously we dont want anyone to get sick. But the normal cases that we have seen so far, the symptoms are mild. These cases have been, for the most part, from individuals that had handled infected animals or had close proximity to them. Dairy workers, poultry farmers, back yard chicken enthusiasts, etc. The more severe cases tend to be individuals with compromised immune systems or pre existing conditions.
What we want to avoid, and what has not happened so far, is the virus spreading from human to human. All cases so far are believed to be from infected animals infecting a human. This is good. Just like with covid, or any novel disease for that matter, the worst thing you can do is have a spillover event where a new virus mutates just enough to infect a new species and the infection is contagious between individuals in that population . The new bird flu has not reached that stage. It may eventually, or it may never. But for the vast majority of the population, dont touch dead birds, dont drink raw milk, dont lick bird poop off of park benches. And you will be fine.