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Chicken flu has been detected in cattle in a number of states. Its believed to be the primary time the illness has contaminated dairy cows.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Livestock in a number of states have examined constructive for chicken flu in latest days, the primary time the illness has unfold to dairy cows. Officers say the danger to the general public stays low. However as NPR’s Joe Hernandez studies, specialists say the pressure of chicken flu is stronger than others and is infecting extra animals than earlier than.
JOE HERNANDEZ, BYLINE: One of many first states the place dairy cows examined constructive for chicken flu was Texas. The infections had been troubling to native officers, however to this point they have not had a lot of an impression. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller says livestock have not gotten very sick, and farmers have not needed to do away with an excessive amount of affected milk.
SID MILLER: The excellent news is this isn’t a major problem. It isn’t going to bankrupt anyone. The cows principally have the flu for every week and so they recover from it.
HERNANDEZ: The USDA reported different confirmed instances in Kansas and Michigan, and says some dairy cows in New Mexico and Idaho are most likely additionally constructive. Officers consider wild birds probably gave the cows chicken flu, often known as extremely pathogenic avian influenza, but it surely’s the primary identified incidence in dairy livestock.
JOHANNA HARVEY: We have not seen this bird-to-mammal unfold in an agricultural setting. Ought to we’ve anticipated it? Presumably.
HERNANDEZ: Johanna Harvey is a postdoctoral researcher on the College of Maryland. She says wild birds shed the virus into the soil and water the place different animals can decide it up. However Harvey notes that this explicit pressure of chicken flu seems to be stronger than earlier ones, sickening extra animals and persisting by hotter months when different viruses would possibly usually taper off.
HARVEY: There are distinct modifications on this virus which have facilitated what we see as elevated international unfold and species impacts.
HERNANDEZ: Nonetheless, federal and state officers emphasize that the general public has a low threat of catching the virus, which will be unfold by shut contact with contaminated birds. The outbreak additionally is not anticipated to tie up the milk provide. Milk from sick cows is discarded, and pasteurization kills off micro organism and viruses, together with this one.
Joe Hernandez, NPR Information.
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