While Wisconsin still has yet to see any cases of bird flu in dairy cattle, the head of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory warns the impact of the virus could hit rural communities hardest.
Wisconsin in December identified multiple H5N1 cases in commercial and backyard poultry flocks, but has yet to find any bird flu in dairy cattle. Keith Poulsen, director of the WVDL, says the cost of infection on farms primarily impacts producers.
“The burden is on the farmer,” he said this week during an interview on WisconsinEye. “You’re going to see milk drop, you’ll also see loss of production bonuses due to … milk quality, fat, protein, volume. They’re also going to see about 50% of turnover for animals that are affected.”
He emphasized the expense of restoring those herds, noting the cost of replacing a dairy cow is up to three times as high as it was just a year ago.
“That becomes really untenable to a lot of farms,” he said. “And because those replacement animal costs are even higher, we could see more farms actually selling out, if they’re getting to that point where maybe the kids are gone and there’s no one to take over … we might see fewer Wisconsin farms, which is a challenge for all of our rural communities.”
Meanwhile, DATCP plans to test Wisconsin dairy farms for bird flu on a monthly basis as the virus has been spreading across the country, raising concerns about the possibility of another pandemic. While human-to-human transmission hasn’t been seen, dozens of people across the country have been infected by bird flu since last April, including at least one case in Wisconsin.
Dr. Darlene Konkle, state veterinarian with the agency, says DATCP will leverage the existing National Milk Testing Strategy, which already tests milk coming from Wisconsin dairy farms for other pathogens. The agency is currently working with the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory on logistics for this plan.
“The actual dairy farmer … really shouldn’t see anything different,” she said. “Their milk gets picked up and tested regularly for other reasons, and we’re going to piggyback on that same system.”
Poulsen said the “end goal” of eliminating the virus from dairy herds nationally is still within reach, though getting it out of poultry entirely will be “a little bit more challenging” due to their higher susceptibility and the added variable of infected wild birds.
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