Avian influenza spread to both cows and goats: Concern about milk production worldwide

Her gained the ability to infect (and) dairy, continuing her dangerous spread to mammals. As announced by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), bird flu was detected in Texas and Kansas cows. This is the first time it has been confirmed that the H5N1 virus can also infect cows. Large animals appear to have been infected with wild birds found dead in farms where they were raised. The worrying thing is that in several cases the dangerous virus was detected in unpasteurised milk samples, collected from sick cows. The good news is that pasteurization kills the viruses. Therefore, since consumers only drink pasteurised milk, there will be no problem. “At this stage there is no concern about the safety of the milk supply chain of trade,” notes the USDA. Independent experts agree with the announcement. “The highly virulent avian influenza virus (HPAI) has so far been detected in milk apparently unsuitable,” Dr. Jim Lowe, an associate professor of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, told the New York Times. In these cases milk was described as viscous and sticky, and was rejected, he explained. USDA explains in its communication that dairying is required to send only milk from healthy animals for processing. Milk from sick animals is destroyed so that it does not enter the food chain. In addition, ‘repeated pasteurisation has been shown to inactivate bacteria and viruses such as flu’, he adds. “Pasterization required for every milk available in interstate trade”. The spread of avian influenza in cows is known only a few days after confirmation that it was also found in goats. The relevant announcement was made by Minnesota officials. The samples from cows tested genetically so far have not brought mutations that make it easier to transmit the H5N1 virus to humans. However cows did not belong to the animal species for which there were suspicions that they might be infected with the virus. The highly infectious strain of avian influenza first appeared in Europe in 2020. Since then it has spread throughout the planet, reaching Antarctica. iatropedia.gr