New York Times U.S. regulators confirmed that sick cattle in Texas, Kansas and possibly in New Mexico contracted avian influenza. They stressed that the nation’s milk supply is safe.
A form of avian influenza that is highly fatal in birds has been confirmed in U.S. dairy cattle in Texas and Kansas, the Department of Agriculture announced on Monday.
It is the first time that cows infected with the virus have been identified.
The cows appear to have been infected by wild birds, and dead birds were reported on some farms, the agency said. The Texas Animal Health Commission confirmed that the influenza subtype known as H5N1 has been identified and said that the virus resembled the version that has been spreading in birds across the nation.
The results were announced after multiple federal and state agencies began investigating reports of sick cows in Texas, Kansas and New Mexico. The illness has primarily affected older cows, causing symptoms that include reduced appetite, fever and a sudden drop in milk production. So far, the U.S.D.A. said, there had been few or no reports of deaths in the affected herds.
In several cases, the virus was detected in unpasteurized samples of milk collected from sick cows. Pasteurization should inactivate the flu virus, experts said, and officials stressed that the milk supply was safe.
“At this stage, there is no concern about the safety of the commercial milk supply or that this circumstance poses a risk to consumer health,” the agency said in a statement.
Outside experts agreed. “It has only been found in milk that is grossly abnormal,” said Dr. Jim Lowe, a veterinarian and influenza researcher at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.