Bird flu outbreak leads to decline in dairy shows

Trenton McCabe and his Brown Swiss named Abigail won grand champion on opening day at the Woodbury County Fair in Moville.

“It's awesome,” Trenton said. “I was shocked because she wasn't acting as good as she did last year and they don’t always act like they do at home.”

The teen and his two-year-old bovine caught the attention of judge Fred Hall, a western Iowa dairy specialist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.

“That young cow had a good mammary system,” Hall said. “That's 40-plus percent of the cow's value. It's the 'factory' that produces milk.”

Hall, who judged several dairy shows this year, noticed entries fell in areas of northwest Iowa with bird flu outbreaks. For example, in Sioux County, with the highest number of dairy cows in the state, numbers were off at least 30%.

“Absolutely, it is a concern. It’s zoonotic, it can go from a bird to a cow to a human,” Hall said. “Fortunately, cows get sick and they go off production, but they don't die. You don't have to euthanize when they get it.”

Hall said human infections aren’t usually that severe either.

“When people get it, it's kind of like conjunctivitis, like pinkeye. You really don't even feel that bad, except your eyes are red and itchy,” Hall said. “But we're concerned because of the fact that can transmute. But we're blessed that in about 20 to 30 days, the cows come back in production and appear healthy again."

To prevent the spread of the virus at the fair, all entries required testing.

“Every cow or heifer that comes from a premises with lactating cows has to have a bulk tank test and then a sick pen test,” Hall said.

Trenton’s mother, Ashley McCade, wasn’t overly concerned about bird flu since the family owns a small, non-commercial herd.

“Even with that though, we were still required to test for it a week before the fair,” she said. "Then we just had to bring the papers to the fair, proving that the testing was done, and obviously it was negative.”

Hall said that since Woodbury County isn’t known for raising dairy cattle, the show saw about the same number of entries as in other years — around ten.

The McCabe family is trying to build support for dairy cattle at the Woodbury County Fair. They hope others will see Trenton’s success and follow his lead.

“We're really trying to increase our numbers by promoting and educating the kids that are walking through the fair that they're such a docile animal,” Ashley McCade said.

Trenton, who raised Abigail since she was a calf, plans to continue showing her during future Woodbury County Fairs.

“The nice thing is, with the dairy animals, they can come back year-after-year,” Ashley McCabe said. “Trenton can be a first-time showman all the way to a senior showman. That’s the economical part of it and the very nice thing about the dairy department.”