This coverage is made possible through a partnership between IPR and Grista non-profit environmental media organization.
Earlier this month Laurie Stanek shoveled hay to a group of young black and white Holstein cows, just a few among the 200 or so cattle on her family dairy farm. Located in northern Michigan’s Antrim County, she has been working there for nearly 50 years now.
The farm day starts early.
“We’re out here every morning at 5 o’clock to start feeding the babies,” she said.
But there are some additional tasks for Michigan farmers now that bird flu, or bird flu, has made the jump to cattle.
New state requirements include limiting the number of visitors and increasing disinfection practices such as cleaning boots and vehicles. Michigan also banned the display of poultry or lactating cows at events such as fairs. The US Department of Agriculture has be required that lactating cows that move across state lines receive a negative test result for bird flu.
“We are aware that the threat is there, and we won’t let just anyone in,” Stanek said, referring to the state’s requirement to limit visitors.
With outbreaks of bird flu in dairy cattle across the country, health officials stress biosecurity – that is, efforts to prevent the introduction and spread of disease.
Researchers are still working to understand how climate change affects the spread of bird flu. But, like Grist before reported, H5N1 spread outside of its typical seasons as migration patterns changed. And research has shown it generally climate change could join a host of other factors in the transmission of viruses between species more likely – something called “viral overflow”.
“We are in a place where the threat of emerging pathogens is much greater than ever before. Therefore, the need for biosecurity is even greater than it has ever been,” said Suresh Kuchipudi, a professor and chair of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public Health.
Some, like Kuchipudi, say scaling up biosecurity operations can help the agricultural sector become more resilient to climate change. But this is only one part of the complicated process of responding to the spread of viruses such as bird flu.
This strain of bird flu is called H5N1, and it is highly pathogenic, which means it is lethal to poultry. It was first detected in the 1990s rose over the past few years, spread to birds and mammals around the world.
The spread to cattle is new.
“I’m a virologist by training, and my other virologist friends and I all have to admit: None of us saw this coming,” says Kim Dodd, the director of the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Michigan State University. Animals such as foxes can contract influenza when they eat an infected carcass. But cattle do not eat meat.
“We did not expect to find [highly pathogenic] bird flu in dairy cattle, and to find that it amplifies so well, and that we have so much virus in the milk,” Dodd said. “And so that’s really a big part of trying to understand, you know, what do we need to do about that to help control the outbreak.”
The first confirmed case in cattle was reported in Texas earlier this year, and 11 more states have confirmed cases of the bird flu in dairy herds.
Michigan did reported most cases in the country. As of Wednesday, the state had confirmed 25 cases of flu in herds. It has too two of the three confirmed cases of the disease in humans – the other was a dairy worker in Texas.
In May, government officials declare the flu an “extraordinary emergency,” it calls a threat to animal health, human health, trade and the economy.
Officials and researchers have said Michigan’s high number of cases is an example of robust testing in response to the outbreak. In general, the response to the bird flu outbreak in cattle was modest stony. States have pushed back against federal efforts to address the virus, and public health experts have expressed concern about the lack of testing and warned that the true range is probably greater than officially counted.
Those involved in Michigan’s response have said part of his response is cooperation with farmers. “It takes two sides,” Dodd says. “It takes the people watching and the people testing, but it also requires the people who own the animals to open their doors and allow testing to happen.”
Among other things, H5N1 causes a decrease in cow’s milk production. This could devastate the poultry industry; since it was detect in commercial herds in the United States in 2022, this led to the deaths of nearly 100 million farmed birds.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has maintained that the danger to the public is relatively low. But dairy workers is more at now risk of exposure to bird flu while working with cows; the virus seems to spread largely through milk.
“We want to make sure that we limit the further spread of the virus, so that we continue to protect human health, and we don’t have as many viruses in the environment that could potentially mutate and affect people in a different way,” Tim said. Boring, the director of the state Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said.
One of the ways the state does this is by encouraging farms to follow biosecurity measures. It’s pretty low tech – like wearing protective gear and disinfecting equipment. How effective they are comes down to compliance.
“I’m sure they are serious. I’m sure they’re not fooling around. This is their livelihood, their investments,” said Jean-Pierre Vaillancourt, a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Montreal. But “if they’re not sharing data, and they’re not doing good surveillance to find out who’s where and what and all that, we already have a big problem.”
Climate change coincides with the spread of certain diseases as animals interact in new environments. While biosecurity can play a role in prevention or response, it likely won’t stop the next pandemic, Vaillancourt said. He argues that we should actually look at disease from a regional perspective.
“What can we do to reduce the spread between sites?” he said. “It requires the sharing of data.”
That’s where industry and institutions often fall short. Farms that have outbreaks can face stigma and lose money, and farm workers who test positive can deal with health and economic issues. Worker advocacy groups also spoke out worries that testing does not reach those on the front lines.
Some public health experts say the surge in bird flu in cattle is an opportunity to hone that response and protect animal and human life in the process.
“The fact is, [governments] have to learn how to get it right when the stakes are lower because there are less forgiving bird flu viruses than this one,” said Amesh Adalja, a scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
The agricultural industry will need to be part of any response to infectious diseases as the climate changes. Humans often interact with animals in agricultural settings. Preventing and responding to viruses also requires establishing trust with farmers.
“It’s going to be part of how you think about building resilience is that you kind of have this integrated approach,” Adalja said.
That approach is known as One Healthwhich many involved in public health have pointed to as a framework that recognizes the connection between humans, animals and the environment and seeks to address issues such as disease in a holistic way.
Game supervision systems and vaccine programs can help detect and control viruses such as bird flu.
And the dairy industry could learn something from those who work with pigs, Vaillancourt said. An effort called the Morrison Pig Health Monitoring Project involved farmers and the industry in keeping track of diseases in pigs.
The big picture, he said, is that everyone involved in livestock needs to think about stopping the spread of disease. Say a farmer needs to move some cows.
“How do we move them?” he said. “Which roads are we going to use to reduce the pollution of a site on our road. How do we clean the vehicles and disinfect ourselves when we go from one site to another?”
A few attempts were made as the virus spread. The federal government announced that it will spend $824 million in emergency funding on its response, and the USDA only launched a voluntary pilot program to test cow’s milk in bulk.
And agriculture officials in Michigan say more safety measures on farms could become a bigger part of the state’s approach to climate change.
“I think improving biosecurity in new ways that we haven’t considered before will increasingly be a component of robust climate resilience actions,” said Boring, the director of the state Agriculture Department. “So we’re seeing a little bit of that in real time here with our response to H5N1 here in the state.”
And back in Antrim County, Laurie Stanek said dealing with animal disease is just part of running a farm; they pay attention to the new rules and do what they have always done.
“A lot of it is just good herdmanship — just common sense,” she said. “You keep your animals healthy so that they in turn give you a healthy product.”
This, she said, is what their livelihood depends on.
