Of the more than four dozen known cases of H5N1 virus infection in Oregon right now, most are birds. Some are cats. One is a human.
None are dairy cattle, at least not yet.
“I am ecstatic to be able to say that we do not have this virus in Oregon dairy cattle,” says state veterinarian Dr. Ryan Scholz. “We do weekly surveillance on all of our dairies.”
Scholz spoke with “All Things Considered” host Geoff Norcross about the steps to keep avian flu out of dairy operations, and about the state of the virus in Oregon at the moment.
This following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Geoff Norcross: Basically speaking, how does this virus spread?
Ryan Scholz: Wild waterfowl are really the critical piece in pretty much all of the different ways it spreads. Wild ducks and geese can carry this virus, and then the cases we see in domestic livestock, whether it’s poultry or other species, generally trace back to some sort of exposure with those waterfowl. When you start getting into larger operations, it’s often human-assisted. Someone didn’t clean their shoes off after they went walking at the park and walked through some duck droppings and brought that back.
Norcross: How can it get into humans?
Scholz: In humans, [almost] all of the cases so far that have happened here in the U.S. have been direct contact with infected animals. Almost all of those have been commercial dairy operations or commercial poultry farms.
Norcross: How big a concern is it for dairy cows to get infected?
Scholz: It’s something we’re definitely worried about. I am ecstatic to be able to say that we do not have this virus in Oregon dairy cattle. We’ve been doing a lot of surveillance to show that we don’t have it. So it’s not a risk in dairy cattle here in Oregon yet. It’s still a risk that we could get it.
Norcross: I’ve read that chicken farmers can get compensated if they have to cull infected birds. Are the same supports available for dairy farmers?
Scholz: To an extent. In poultry, we do cull those birds because they die from this virus. It’s a horrible virus. It’s highly lethal in poultry. In dairy cattle, it’s a much more mild infection, and they recover from it. So we don’t cull them, there isn’t necessarily the same kind of indemnity program.
But there are a number of compensation packages that are available through USDA for some of the costs. Purchasing enhanced personal protective equipment to protect their employees, there’s reimbursement for that. There’s reimbursement for that enhanced biosecurity they have to do to make sure that that virus doesn’t leave their farm on their vehicles, on people, anything like that.
Norcross: You mentioned earlier that, at the moment, you do not see any instances of this virus infecting dairy cattle. But are there incentives in place for farmers to actually tell you when they see symptoms of the virus in their herds?
Scholz: That’s part of it. This truly is economically devastating to a dairy. The reduction in production at the same time where you have all of these new costs, that is really hard to bear. But Oregon’s kind of unique. We do weekly surveillance on all of our dairies. There’s a sample that’s collected at each dairy in the state, and tested every week. We’ve been doing that for several months. We know the disease status of those dairies. That weekly testing has been shown in other states where they’ve had outbreaks to give us a little over two weeks’ head start before you start seeing clinical signs and sick cows.
Norcross: There’s a big question that’s hanging over all of this, and that’s about federal support. Are you confident that you have what you need from the USDA or CDC or whoever to detect and address avian influenza cases in Oregon right now?
Scholz: I am. On the animal side, USDA provides a lot of support. They provide a lot of coordination between states to make sure that everyone is doing things at the same level in the same way. They provide those reimbursements to owners when there’s a case. None of that has been impacted at this point. The actual boots-on-the-ground response when someone calls our office and says, ‘Hey, I think I’ve got some sick chickens here, a bunch of my chickens died last night.' That is done at a state level. It’s been a priority of the state to ensure that we are properly equipped to respond to these diseases within the state of Oregon. And that remains unchanged.
