3 Central Valley dairies come down with the bovine bird flu

FRESNO, Calif. ( KSEE/KGPE ) – The California Department of Food and Agriculture confirmed three cases of the avian flu among Central Valley cows Friday.

“It is something that can transmit through a herd fairly quickly, and so that’s why identifying potentially sick cows… on the early side is so important,” Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO Ryan Jacobsen said.

Jacobsen says shoppers do not need to worry about buying milk at the grocery store, though.

“Right now, I would suspect that the consumer is going to be unaffected by this. It is definitely a concern when it comes to the farm side, simply because we want to make sure we’re not only keeping our bovine friends healthy but also making sure we keep our employees healthy,” Jacobsen said.

California joins 13 other states with similar diagnoses, according to the CDC, and Jacobsen says some of those outbreaks spread to humans. He emphasizes the importance of employee protection.

“In cases where it does make sense, PPE, masks, and other things are being offered to employees to try to protect themselves if there is a suspected case on the dairy,” Jacobsen said.

He says the avian flu can have long-term effects on infected cows, decreasing their ability to produce milk.

“There’s just a lot of due diligence going in to make sure that we’re doing what we can to protect our herd,” Jacobsen said.

He hopes through quarantining sick cows and testing cows coming from out of state, farmers will be able to stop the spread of the virus and protect their cows.

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