Bird Flu’s Jump to Cattle Took Dairy Farmers by Surprise (Part 2)

Dairy cattle have become an intermediary between avian influenza
found in wild birds and the handful of recorded H5N1 bird flu cases
in humans. Senior news reporter Meghan Bartels took a trip upstate
to Cornell University’s Teaching Dairy Barn. Early last year Texas
dairy farmers noticed lethargic cows producing off-color milk. One
of them sent Cornell researchers a sample, which genetic sequencing
determined to contain a strain of H5N1. That strain traces its
roots to the H5N1 virus that emerged in China in the late
1990s—which spread around the world thanks to migrating wild birds,
such as those found on the beach that associate health and medicine
editor Lauren Young visited in episode one of our three-part series
about bird flu. And outbreak of H5N1 has been running through
poultry farms since the early 2020s. Poultry farmers have been
forced to cull flocks, reinforce biosecurity protocols and change
the prices of eggs as a result. Dairy farms were less prepared for
the spillover and its unexpected transition into raw-milk-drinking
barn cats. While pasteurization makes milk safe for human
consumption, there’s no easy way to prevent the spread between
herds of cattle. In the next episode, multimedia intern and
producer Naeem Amarsy looks at how the virus made yet another
hop—this time into humans. Recommended reading: How the U.S. Lost
Control of Bird Flu, Setting the Stage for Another Pandemic
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bird-flu-has-spread-out-of-control-after-mistakes-by-u-s-government-and/ 
Bird Flu Vaccine for Cows Passes Early Test
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bird-flu-vaccine-for-cows-passes-early-test/ 
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Today in Science, our daily newsletter.  Science Quickly is
produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Naeem
Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was reported and hosted by
Meghan Bartels. This series is reported and produced by Lauren
Young, Meghan Bartels, Naeem Amarsy, Fonda Mwangi and Jeff
DelViscio. Special thanks to Becka Bowyer and Kaitlyn Serrao at
Cornell University and to Kimberly Lau, Dean Visser and Jeanna
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