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Cows at three Californian dairies in the United States of America have been quarantined after having been tested positive for the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) ‘H5N1’, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) has stated.
On August 28, California became the 14th American state with 196 dairy herds affected by the disease across the country.
California is the biggest producer of milk, butter and ice cream in the country and the second biggest producer of cheese.
In August alone, seven new confirmed cases of bird flu have been reported among dairy cows across four states including California.
According to a press statement issued by CDFA, the herds started showing clinical symptoms on August 25 after which the samples were collected by veterinarians for testing which confirmed the presence of H5N1 virus in the cows on August 30.
It is important to note that no human infections have been confirmed so far from California.
“We have been preparing for this possibility since earlier this year when HPAI detections were confirmed at dairy farms in other states,” Karen Ross, secretary of CDFA, was quoted in the press statement.
According to the CDFA, sick cows have been isolated and are undergoing treatment at the dairies.
As a precautionary measure and stated procedures, milk from sick cows is not allowed in the public milk supply. Also, pasteurisation of milk has been found to be effective in the elimination of viruses and safe for consumption.
According to the US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), four confirmed cases of human infections by HPAI have been found in dairy workers since April, 2024. These cases have been reported from from Texas, Colorado and Michigan.
The HPAI virus was first reported among the wild birds in the US in 2022 and since then it has been reported in 9,831 wild birds and 100,713,651 poultry birds and another 23 species of mammals.