Since the bird flu was first reported in dairy cows on March 25, scientific inquiry has picked up to the point where findings and expert opinions are being made weekly. Meanwhile, farmers and ranchers are worried and looking for more ways to protect their herds and figure out more about the spread of the virus. And while the strong warning not to drink raw milk puts the avian flu virus in the food-borne disease category, that could just be the start of things This week, Scott Hensley, a professor of microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania, said the pandemic threat is currently low, but” it could rise quickly.
” That was a little more optimistic than last month’s prediction by former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield that its only a matter of time before humans are caught up in a bird flu pandemic. He said “bird flu will enter humans” and that it could have “significant mortality.” As it turns out, the mammary glands of dairy cows, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison report in the July 8th journal Nature, are targets for the H5N1 avian virus.
The findings may not be limited to dairy cows. A bird flu virus from an infected person in 2004 also made it to the mouse and ferret mammary glands. Additional experiments found that the virus wasn’t very effective at spreading through the air.
With the immediate impact on commercial poultry and dairy cows, Colorado was the center for Bird flu over the recent Indepen.