Cows are pictured on May 30, 2024 at Merrymead Farm in Worcester Township. Photo by Rachel Ravina | The Reporter.
Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding told Lehigh Valley Live last week that the recent trend of bird flu affecting three dairy farmworkers in the United States is of concern to the state because the virus has jumped species from birds to cows.
“It’s gone from poultry into cows. That has not happened before,” Redding told Lehigh Valley Live during an interview at Merrymead Farm in Worcester recently during the seventh annual state Scooped: An Ice Cream Trail promotional event.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, H5N1 Type A bird flu has been confirmed in 66 dairy herds in nine states.
A farmworker in Michigan was diagnosed with H5N1 Type A bird flu, or Highly Pathological Avian Influenza (HPAI), the third such human case since the outbreak in U.S. dairy cows. While the risk remains low to humans – the worst symptoms are respiratory issues and mild eye issues, and have affected two workers in Michigan and one in Texas so far – those who work around cows are a higher risk for infection, per the report.
All in all, 220 people in Michigan this year have been monitors for bird flu symptoms, per an AP report.
Those who were infected, according to an AP report, got their symptoms after a direct splash of infected milk into the eye.
The United Farm Workers union refuse to wear protective masks due to working in “the wettest conditions imaginable,” per the report.
Naturally, the outbreak has prompted the government to develop a new mRNA vaccine, per the report.
According to Redding in the Lehigh Valley Live report, Pennsylvania has a long history with HPAI in poultry, including outbreaks in 1983-84 and 2022 that devastated the poultry industry, a $132.5 billion business in Pennsylvania.
Merrymead Farm President Steve Quigley told Lehigh Valley Live that bird flu in his cows is not a major concern because the farm is kept clean of cow waste, birds are screened out of the barn and milking areas, and the 135 Holstein stock spend minimal time outdoors, per the report.
“It’s all about the environment, and we have a very clean environment. We’re very particular with that,” Quigley said.
Read more on the bird flu situation in Pennsylvania here.
