Michigan cattle farmers are working with new protocols as the state monitors an outbreak of bird flu in cows.
But not all farms are feeling the impact from the emergency response equally.
As of June 11, highly pathogenic avian influenza has been detected in 25 Michigan dairy farms, according to the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD).
To reduce spread of the disease, MDARD Director Tim Boring signed an emergency order in May that mandates heightened biosecurity measures at dairy farms, including maintaining a log of visitors and disinfecting stations at points of entry to farms.
The new screening measures, experts say, are likely impacting bigger operations more than small farms.
“We raise our own cattle,” said Jacob Fyrciak, a fourth-generation dairy farmer in Fowlerville. “We raise them from calves all the way up ‘till they die.”
Fyrciak said the disease mainly spreads through animals brought into a herd from infected farms. With only five cows, his herd is tiny compared to larger operations, which can number in the thousands.
“We don’t buy cattle to bring it in, so it’s not as big a security risk for us as a herd that buys a lot of cattle,” Fyrciak said.
Zelmar Rodriguez, a veterinarian and dairy extension specialist at Michigan State University, works with farmers who have infected cows to learn more about the disease.
He agrees that small herds that are often outside and don’t bring in new cows are probably at lower risk of contracting bird flu.
But there are many unknowns about the outbreak, Rodriguez said, including how the bird flu jumped from birds to cattle in the first place.
Researchers also don’t understand how bird flu is transmitted between animals. Contaminated milk is a possibility, as is nose-to-nose transmission, Rodriguez said.
“When we enroll farms for the project, the first thing that producers tell us is, ‘we want to know how we got it and when it’s going to go away,’” he said.
In contrast to birds, which usually die from bird flu, cattle often recover.
Sick cows produce less milk and show other signs of illness, including eating less and fever. And if they don’t recover well, some farmers still need to cull affected animals, Rodriguez said.
So far, bird flu has only been detected in dairy cows, not in beef cattle.
While the enhanced biosecurity measures apply only to dairy herds, experts at Michigan State University Extension recommend that beef producers also review and tighten their biosecurity measures.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has not found bird flu in tested ground beef samples in states where herds are affected.
The overall risk to the public remains low, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Beef, pasteurized dairy products and eggs are still considered safe for consumers.
“It’s still safe to drink pasteurized milk,” Rodriguez said.