A disease looms over Tulare County’s dairy industry.
On a recent 98-degree afternoon, dead cows and calves were piled along the side of the road. Thick swarms of black flies buzzed and banged against the windows of an idling car, while crows and vultures waited nearby – watching the strained, bloated carcasses roasting in the October heat.
Since the H5N1 bird flu virus was first reported in California in early August, 124 dairy herds and 13 people – all dairy workers – have been infected.
And according to dairy experts, the spread of the virus has not yet diminished.
Two dead cows lie near a dairy farm in Tipton, California.
“I’m surprised how few cases have been reported,” said Anja Raudabaugh, CEO of Western United Dairies, a dairy trade organization in California, after learning that the latest case count was 105. “This thing doesn’t Don’t slow down.”
A similar observation was made by Jimmy Andreoli II, a spokesman for Baker Commodities, a rendering company with facilities in Southern California, who said his workers were picking up a wave of dead cows throughout the San Joaquin Valley .
“There has certainly been an increase in the number of fallen animals in recent times, and this must partly be attributed to the long, hot summer we have had. And some of it, you know, is definitely attributed to the H5N1 virus,” he said, noting that one of his drivers picked up 20 to 30 animals from a farm in one day.
He said that on some farms, cows are intentionally left by the side of the road to reduce contamination, preventing further spread between farms. In others, animals are left on site, but away from live animals and people.
Dairy farms in the Central Valley have been rocked by outbreaks of H5N1 bird flu in recent weeks. The mortality rate among infected cows was higher than expected, industry experts say.
Diseased carcasses are taken to Baker’s rendering site in Kerman, where the bodies are “recycled” and made into “high-protein” animal feed and fertilizer, or processed into liquids that are then used in fuels, paints, varnishes, lubricants “and everything”. different kinds of industrial products.
He said the Kerman plant was operating normally, without interruption of service, even with the massive influx of sick cattle. Although due to the large number of dead animals and the “additional time required for disinfection procedures”, in some areas, pickups have moved from a daily schedule to every other schedule. »
“All of our customers are served efficiently,” he said.
Despite the horrific scene at Tipton’s roadside, John Korslund, a retired veterinary epidemiologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said there was probably very little public health risk from crowding the animals – even if they were chosen and eaten by buzzards, crows. and flies.
“Upon death, virus replication stops and putrefaction and heat begin to neutralize the living virus,” he said. “The virus will survive on the surface of the carcass – not for long at 100 degrees – but the temperature and acidification will neutralize it pretty quickly in the carcass, at least flu viruses do.”
Raudabaugh said that although she and the dairy farmers she represents had heard about the virus for months before it hit, no one was prepared for the devastation and inequality with which the virus hit the California dairy herds.
She said that on some farms, cows appear largely unaffected, even if they are infected. While on others, animals die en masse. She said she knew of a farm where almost half of the animals died.
She also said some breeds were hit harder than others. For example, Holsteins seem to suffer more than Jerseys.
“The reason is that Holsteins produce more milk. So they have more volume for the virus to take advantage of,” she said, pointing to research showing the virus’s affinity for breast tissue.
When asked if the disease was killing them on their hooves, or if farmers were making tough decisions and euthanizing animals that seemed particularly ill with bacterial pneumonia, mastitis or bloat, she said it was the first answer.
Continued outbreaks of H5N1 in California dairy herds and declining milk productivity of recovered cows are causing growing concern among dairy farmers.
She said most animals that succumb to the virus are young – they are going through their second lactation cycle. (She said most dairy cows will have five or six lactation cycles before being taken out of production and turned into beef or rendering).
As a result, farmers are doing what they can to keep these young animals alive “given the extreme breeding and fair expense of raising these animals,” she said. “There is hope that on the other side of the virus, they will return to sustainable production for the farmer. So it’s definitely a last resort if they eliminate them.
It is unknown whether infected dairy cows will return to full production when they enter a new lactation cycle. Observations suggest that production falls significantly in the current cycle, often by as much as 60 or 70 percent.
She said depression is becoming an increasingly important problem for dairy farmers who are struggling with high mortality rates in their cattle herds, as well as the financial burden of the disease.
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1. Brandon Mendonsa, 37, a third-generation dairy farmer in Tipton, lost 28 head of dairy cattle to the H5N1 virus that he called covid for cows. There is no cure for the virus which gives symptoms similar to cattle flu and has led to a number of livestock deaths. A Holstein dairy cow at auction fetches $2,200.00, which would bring Mendonsa’s losses to $60,000. 2. Healthy dairy cattle bask in the morning light on the Mendonsa Farms property in Tipton, California.
If cows don’t return to full production, it could ruin many farmers, she said.
“There is real fear,” she said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has established a program to reimburse farmers for production losses due to the virus. The program covers the three weeks of production lost by a cow when she is removed from the dairy herd to recover, as well as the following seven days when production is still low.
But there are currently no programs to pay farmers or dairy workers affected by the virus, worrying infectious disease experts, as well as farmworker advocates who say there are no incentives for dairy workers to report their symptoms and self-isolate for 10 days (the current directive).
“The majority of California dairy workers have no protections. Most of them are immigrants. And I would say at least half of them are undocumented,” said Elizabeth Strater, national vice president and director of strategic campaigns for United Farm Workers.
“These are people who don’t have a particular relationship of trust with state and federal government officials.”
She said dairy work is coveted by immigrants — it’s not seasonal like crop work — and few Americans hunger for the dangerous, back-breaking work these positions require: two milkings a day (often 15 hours apart) and the movement of large, unpredictable animals.
“These workers are on the front lines of an infectious outbreak, and if they get tested one way or another and come back positive, they will be faced with something that will be a financial disaster,” he said. she declared. “Most people in the United States don’t want to miss two weeks’ pay, right? Not to mention these people who are already… among the poorest and with the least protections. Without a safety net.
She said her organization and others are trying to inform as many workers as possible.
“We’re sharing as much information about how important it is for workers to get the seasonal flu vaccine this year, even if they don’t always do it,” she said. “But the fact is, this seasonal flu vaccine doesn’t protect this worker, right? It protects me. It protects you. It protects the rest of the public from a situation in which a person co-infected with two types of flu exchanges this material with someone else.
The recombination of H5N1 with a human influenza virus – in which the two viruses mix to potentially become a more contagious or harmful virus – is a major concern for public health officials.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the current public health risk from H5N1 is low, but the agency said it is working with states to monitor people exposed to animals.
The morning sun rises above cows on a dairy farm in Tipton, California.
Although the number of workers infected so far with H5N1 remains small, conversations with Tipton residents suggest it is likely larger than has been reported.
“A lot of people have it,” said a woman working behind the cash register at Tipton’s Dollar General, one of the few stores in this small farming community just off Highway 99.
The woman declined to give her name, explaining that her husband works illegally at a dairy in Tulare County; she said her job was not protected or secure and she feared retaliation.
“So far the symptoms seem pretty mild,” she said. “People can continue to work. »
