U.S. health and agriculture officials are ramping up testing and tracking of bird flu in dairy cows in an urgent effort to understand – and stop – the growing outbreak.
Starting Monday, hundreds of thousands of lactating dairy cows in the U.S. will have to be tested – with negative results – before they can be moved between states, under terms of a new federal order.Why is this outbreak so unusual? Flu viruses are notorious for adapting to spread among new species, so detection in dairy cows raises concerns it could spread to people, Webby said.Scientists confirmed the virus in cows in March after weeks of reports from dairy farms that the animals were falling ill. Symptoms included lethargy, sharply reduced milk supply and changes to the milk, which became thick and yellow.
The data omitted some information about when and where samples were collected, but showed that the virus likely was spread by birds to cattle late last year, said Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist with the University of Arizona. Worobey said the ideal would be to screen every herd. Besides looking for active infections, agriculture officials also should be looking at whether cows have antibodies to the virus, indicating past infections, he said.More testing of workers exposed to infected animals is also crucial, experts said. Some farm owners and some individual workers have been reluctant to work with public health officials during the outbreak, experts have said.
Also, dairy farm workers should consider extra precautions, such as masking, hand washing and changing work clothes, Aliota said.
Outbreak Milk People Worobey Testing Cows University St. Jude Children 'S Research Hospital University Of Wisconsin-Madison University Of Arizona
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: CryptoAmb - 🏆 22. / 68 Read more »
Source: CryptoAmb - 🏆 22. / 68 Read more »
Source: YahooFinanceCA - 🏆 47. / 63 Read more »
Source: BNNBloomberg - 🏆 83. / 50 Read more »
Source: BNNBloomberg - 🏆 83. / 50 Read more »
Source: SaltWire Network - 🏆 45. / 63 Read more »