Sick cows news digest: Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza detected in South Dakota dairy herd

Bluestem's been following the spread of avian influenza (HPAI) from wild birds to mammals to livestock.

Now it's here in South Dakota. The official South Dakota News agency published a news release, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Detected in South Dakota Dairy Herd:

PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR) and the Animal Industry Board (AIB) have received confirmation from the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Veterinary Services Laboratory (NVSL) of the detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza in a dairy cattle herd in South Dakota. This is the first confirmed case of HPAI in a dairy operation in South Dakota.

“South Dakota Dairy Producers encourage all dairy producers to closely monitor their herd and contact their herd veterinarian immediately if cattle appear symptomatic,” said Marv Post, Chairman of South Dakota Dairy Producers. “USDA continues to emphasize that pasteurization kills the virus and that milk and dairy products are safe to consume.”

Symptoms are mostly restricted to late-stage lactating cows and include a drop in milk production, loss of appetite, and changes in manure consistency. Producers are encouraged to enforce their biosecurity plans such as limiting visitors, separating new animals and sick animals, and cleaning pens, equipment, vehicles, clothing, footwear, and hands.

At this stage, there is no concern about the safety of the commercial milk supply or risk to consumer health. Dairies are required to ensure only milk from healthy animals enter the food supply chain. Additionally, the pasteurization process of heating milk to a high temperature ensures milk and dairy products can be safely consumed, as confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). In line with long-standing policy, the CDC does not recommend consuming unpasteurized milk or raw milk. Pasteurization has continually proven to successfully inactivate bacteria and viruses, like influenza, in milk.

USDA, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as state veterinary and public health officials, continue to investigate the emerging illness among dairy cows that is causing decreased lactation, low appetite, and other symptoms.

No word on the location of the dairy, though there are a lot of big dairies here along the Interstate 29 Corridor, Ariana Schumacher reported for Sioux Falls Live last June in The South Dakota dairy industry is booming:

The dairy industry is rapidly growing in South Dakota, specifically along the I-29 corridor. . . .

“The milk production has increased like 60%. In the same time, the numbers of cows increase more or less by 30%, so it’s in the top five states that increase milk constantly, year by year,” said Patricia Villamediana, South Dakota State University Extension dairy field specialist. . . .

Right now, there are only three main processing plants in the state: Bel Brands in Brookings, Valley Queen in Milkbank and Agropur in Lake Norden. . . .

The Valley Queen expansion is set to open January 2025 that will bring a 50% increase in reception of milk.

Villamediana expects that the number of dairy farms is going to decrease, but the number of cattle will increase as larger farms continue to grow, . . .

Elsewhere on the Forum Communications network Thursday, Schumacher reported on the outbreak for AgWeek in First case of highly pathogenic avian influenza found in South Dakota dairy herd.

At the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, Dominik Dausch had a lot more in South Dakota dairy herd tests positive for avian influenza, state ag department reports:

The South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources is reporting avian influenza, or bird flu, was detected in a South Dakota dairy cattle herd.

DANR and the state Animal Industry Board, a board assigned to the state ag agency, announced Thursday the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Veterinary Services Laboratory confirmed a positive detection of the virus in the herd April 9. This is the first confirmed case of bird flu in a dairy farm in South Dakota.

Beth Thompson, South Dakota state veterinarian and head of the AIB, told the Argus Leader on Thursday positive samples were taken from more than one cow.

Unlike avian influenza tracking within U.S. poultry, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, a sub-agency of USDA, has not revealed which county the positive tests originated from. 

"We're only going down as far as the state, mainly because we all want to protect the farmers and ranchers out there because there are fewer dairies that sit in some of these states," Thompson said. "This is going to be 'South Dakota 001.'" . . . 

Good not to know whether or not it's neighboring dairies. Perhaps I shouldn't restock on bird seed for those pesky migratory birds. Dausch continues:

. . . The spread of this strain of avian flu has been attributed to migratory wild birds, Thompson said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, infected birds can shed the virus in their saliva, nasal secretions and feces.

"We've got birds flying over us right now, and it's hard to say where they're stopping and dropping off their contaminants," Thompson said. "It's concerning. Our dairies tend to be fairly open air."

Still, Thompson found it "a little surprising" the virus has been discovered in cattle.

"There's all of this evidence from the last two years of what this virus can do," Thompson said. "We hope that this migratory season and whatever happened that some of this virus spilled over into cattle is a one-time event. But we can't say that for sure."

Because cows have not been widely dying off from the disease, avian influenza in dairy cattle is not considered highly pathogenic, Thompson said.

But the symptoms of the virus are still apparent, she added.

"The really big indicator is milk production drops completely," Thompson said. "Feed consumption goes down, and I think water consumption has also been going down too. Of course, if those two things go down, you get a little bit different manure consistency."

There's also herd-wide impacts to consider. The state veterinarian said she's heard of affected dairies temporarily losing milk production from 10% to 12% of their milk cows...

Read the rest at the Argus Leader. 

Dairy producers have enacted biosecurity measures, Tom Polansek reports for Reuters in Bird flu pushes US dairy farmers to ban visitors, chop trees:

CHICAGO, April 11 (Reuters) - Dairy farmers in the United States are raising their defenses to try to contain the spread of bird flu: banning visitors, cutting down trees to discourage wild birds from landing, and disinfecting vehicles coming onto their land.

 

South Dakota on Thursday became the eighth state to find highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a dairy herd, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported infections in North Carolina, Texas, Kansas, Ohio, Michigan, Idaho and New Mexico.

 

While the first cases appear to have been introduced to herds in Texas and Kansas by wild birds, the USDA said transmission among cattle was also possible. Agricultural officials in Michigan and Ohio said infected herds in those states received cattle from Texas. . . .

The first confirmed case in a dairy herd on March 25 and the second human case in two years on April 1 have heightened concerns in the U.S. about the spread of the virus to animals and people. Bird flu has decimated poultry flocks globally since 2022 and infected mammals ranging from seals and foxes to skunks.

 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the risk to humans remains low, but has asked states for plans to test and treat potentially impacted farm workers. . . .

The USDA has not issued quarantine orders for infected dairy herds but last week recommended minimizing the movement of cattle and testing milk samples from lactating cows if they must be moved. Producers were also urged to monitor livestock for illnesses; isolate newly added cows; and keep wildlife and domestic pets like cats away from farm buildings to reduce the spread of the virus.

 

The agency advised farmers to pay "special attention to good milking practices, such as equipment disinfection." In interviews with Reuters, animal-health authorities raised the possibility that milking machines may play a role in spreading infections among cows, though that has not been confirmed.

 

"We cannot rule out other possible modes of HPAI transmission, including equipment," the USDA said in an email. . . .

Obert, who is also executive director of the industry group Indiana Dairy Producers, said bigger farms face increased risks, in part because they maintain large stocks of feed that attract wild birds that could be carrying the virus.

 

Big dairies also often ship heifers, or female cows that have not yet given birth, to other states to be impregnated before returning to their home farms for milking, he said. . . .

Reporting in a news brief for the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy (CIDRAP), Lisa Schnirring in Avian flu virus detected in South Dakota dairy herd:

. . .Marv Post, chairman of South Dakota Dairy Producers, said, "South Dakota Dairy Producers encourage all dairy producers to closely monitor their herd and contact their herd veterinarian immediately if cattle appear symptomatic." He added that the USDA continues to emphasize that pasteurization kills viruses and that milk and dairy products are safe to consume.

Similar to the North Carolina announcement, South Dakota officials did not say if the affected herd had received cows from an earlier-affected state.

That silence brought to mind a report released by the Animal Welfare Institute, Long-Distance Transport of Young Dairy Calves. While the numbers of thousands of transported calves are dwarfed by the millions of birds now arriving in the Upper Midwest, a vector is still a vector, especially given the scale of the large dairies in this area. I hope animal transport doesn't contribute the spread of this disease to cattle or people.

Nor to the creation of new disease conspiracy theories.

Photo: Some Holstein dairy cows.

Related articles

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• Associated Press: Bird flu detected among commercial flock in southeastern South Dakota
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