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In this Issue:
- Headlines
- Avian Influenza Update
- EPA Sets PFAS Limits for Drinking Water
- DMC Reminder
- Class I Base Price Down in May
- It's Time to Crack Down on Farm Birds
- Upcoming Events
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Headlines
articles and press releases of interest this week
| Dairy Cattle Avian Influenza Update | |
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As of this morning (April 19) there are 29 herds with confirmed cases of avian influenza across 8 states: Texas (11), New Mexico (6), Michigan (5), Kansas (3), Idaho (1), Ohio (1), South Dakota (1), North Carolina (1).
On Wednesday, April 16, USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), in coordination with FDA and CDC, released new guidelines and FAQ documents for producers. Copies of those documents (in English and Spanish) can be found at the bottom of this section. In the new documents APHIS emphasizes several new recommendations and some established facts from previous releases:
- USDA will continue to refer to avian influenza in cattle as high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) or H5N1. Since the virus is not highly pathogenic in mammals, USDA says H5N1 is the most fitting description.
- Initial spread to cattle is still believed to be from contact with migratory wild birds, but USDA believes there is evidence to suggest spread to additional herds via cattle and equipment movement.
- USDA is not recommending movement restrictions at this time because they believe good biosecurity practices, pre-movement testing, and limited animal movement will limit disease spread sufficiently. Unlike in poultry flocks, H5N1 is not proving to be fatal among cattle.
- USDA maintains farmers should be on the lookout for the following signs and contact your veterinarian immediately if you see any of the following:
- Decreased herd level milk production
- Acute sudden drop in production with some severely impacted cows experiencing thicker, colostrum-like milk
- Decrease in feed consumption with a simultaneous drop in rumen motility
- Abnormal tacky or loose feces
- Lethargy
- Dehydration
- Fever
- USDA is still determining how cow-to-cow transmission is occurring. However, we do know that affected cows shed high concentrations of the virus in milk, so anything coming in contact with raw milk should be sanitized often. To date, USDA has not found significant concentration of virus in respiratory related samples.
- USDA does not believe mandatory herd testing for H5N1 is feasible, practical, or necessarily informative.
- There is no evidence the virus has altered to make itself more transmissible between humans and the CDC continues to consider the risk to the public to be low at this time.
- There is also little anticipated impact on the commercial milk supply as the number of impacted farms remains low and the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance governing the interstate commerce of milk ensures that only milk from healthy cows enters the food chain and all milk is pasteurized to kill bacteria and pathogens (including viruses).
There are a lot of resources available to producers at this time regarding biosecurity on your dairies. We have links to the National Dairy FARM Program Biosecurity handbook as well as other helpful documents on biosecurity best management practices. Also included is a link to the Secure Milk Supply Plan - a collaborative initiative of USDA, State officials, dairy industry representatives, and research universities. We encourage you to take at look at these documents as they provide the best information for producers.
USDA published its own updated recommendations. Below are just some of the recommendations from this latest document:
- Limit the number of vehicles and people coming on and off the farm. Create dedicated routes for vehicles that do come onto the premises to avoid unneeded traffic around barns, feed, and parlors.
- Establish a line of separation (ditch, road, fence, or imaginary line) that serves as the boundary between “on-farm” and “off-farm.” Any time a vehicle needs to move from off to on farm, set up a sanitization station to disinfect the vehicle.
- Raw milk should not be fed to animals. FDA recommends pasteurizing all waste milk fed to calves. Any milk that cannot be pasteurized should be discarded.
- Dedicate caretaker and equipment to work with sick animals. If you cannot devote resources just to tending to sick cows. Then work with sick cows last and sanitize equipment, boots, clothing, etc. before returning to work.
- All animals that move on/off the premises should be isolated to prevent disease spread. Disease symptoms may take a while to appear, and asymptomatic cattle have tested positive for H5N1.
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Use your own trailers to transport cattle and use an EPA-approved disinfectant to clean trailers between loads of cattle.
- USDA and FDA also recommend pasteurizing milk before discarding it so as not to lead to further spread via contact with other cows or wildlife with access to lagoons.
- CDC recommends workers working with or around cattle use personal protective equipment such as glasses/goggles, gloves, and masks to limit the exposure to milk, feces, or other material that may be contaminated with H5N1 virus.
- Workers should not eat, drink, chew gum in areas with cows and should avoid touching their face with gloves or unwashed hands (the lone case of a dairy worker with H5N1 presented as pink eye).
Finally, National Milk Producers Federation held a webinar for co-ops, dairy groups, and producers this Wednesday. We have included a link below for anyone who would like to view the hour-long webinar. It contains up to date presentations from USDA and veterinarians working with affected farms.
Georgia Milk Producers has been in constant communication with the Georgia Department of Agriculture and the State Veterinarian’s office as this situation develops. We appreciate the open lines of communications both to our state animal health officials and our partners nationally. If you have any questions about any of the information included in this email or if you have any questions about the ongoing avian influenza situation, feel free to email bryce@gamilk.org. We will do our best to connect you to the best sources for up-to-date information.
Remember C-P-R: Contact your veterinarian if you notice any persistent or unusual illness, Practice sound biosecurity measures on your farm, Remember the dairy food supply is safe thanks to pasteurization and food safety regs designed to ensure wholesome milk for all.
Resources for Dairy Producers
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Special thank you to GMP E-News sponsor Kreeger & Associates LLC. Check out www.kreegerdairy.com or call 517-294-3484 to learn more about current listings and upcoming auction events.
Want to showcase your business to dairy producers and industry professionals across the Southeast and US? Email info@gamilk.org to learn more about how you can advertise in the GMP E-News
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EPA Releases New PFAS Standards for Drinking Water and Eyes Limits in Agriculture Too | |
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Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency released its draft standard for PFAS chemicals (sometimes referred to as “forever chemicals”) in drinking water. PFAS stands for per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, and the chemicals are used in a wide variety of industrial and commercial products.
The agency is also studying the impacts of PFAS in land applying biosolids. In Maine, state regulators have identified over 50 farms which have high PFAS levels in the soil. Landowners are blaming the application of biosolids from municipal waste plants as part of a state-approved program throughout the late 20th century. Now the chemicals are showing up in the water, crops, and milk on those farms. One dairy farm in New Mexico has seen its production halted after groundwater contamination from an air force base utilizing PFAS-heavy firefighting foams caused its cows milk to test hot for the substances.
But the truth is, we don’t know exactly how the land applications of biosolids impacts crops grown in that soil. That’s why EPA’s agriculture adviser Rod Snyder stated this past week that the agency is “not suggesting [land application of biosolids sludge] needs to stop.” Snyder also confirmed that the agency is conducting its own agricultural risk assessment for PFAS chemicals and that assessment would be open for public comment when published.
It’s important for dairy farmers to recognize that discussions regarding the land application of sludge in this instance is not referring to land applying manure solids or slurry in accordance with a nutrient management plan. This is an evolving issue in the ag industry and one to keep an eye on moving forward
Further Reading
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DMC Signups Open Until April 29 | |
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Signups for the Dairy Margin Coverage Program are still open for eligible dairy farmers. The signup period ends on April 29. Contact your local FSA office to sign up today.
You can use the DMC Decision Tool provided by USDA to see early price forecasts and margin projections. While these figures are helpful, they are just projections and could change quickly due to a variety of factors.
Find Your Local FSA Office
DMC Decision Tool
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May 2024 Class I Base Price Declines | |
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Progressive Dairy’s Dave Natzke and Karen Lee have a blurb in the Progressive Dairy Economic Update this week detailing the May Class I base price’s dip to $18.46/cwt. This once again highlights the dairy farmers’ urgency in requesting a return to the higher-of Class I formula. According to Natzke and Lee, the Class I base price would be roughly $1.75/cwt higher under the “higher of.”
One of the stories linked in the headlines section at the top of this newsletter mentions the House Ag Chairman GT Thompson’s goal to have his chamber’s version of the Farm Bill released and marked up by committee before Memorial Day. In theory, this means we could see a 2024 Farm Bill passed this summer if a bipartisan deal can be brokered during an election year. The Farm Bill would prove to be the fastest way to return to the higher-of if House authors include that provision in their draft, and it remains in the final version signed into law this year.
On the Federal Order reform side, the return to “higher of” was a popular proposal among producer groups during the marathon FMMO hearing that lasted from late August into January. Attorneys from all petitioners have submitted post-hearing briefs supporting or opposing elements of the testimony presented by witnesses at the hearing. USDA is currently reviewing the hearing exhibits, testimony, and post-hearing briefs to determine if a draft rule amending the federal orders is necessary. If so, USDA will release that ruling sometime this summer (around July 1). From there, the industry will have time to submit feedback in the form of public comments. USDA will review those comments and make any changes it deems necessary before publishing its final rule and conducting a nation-wide (across all Federal Orders) referendum. If the referendum passes, we can expect implementation to take place a few months after that. It looks like early 2025 would be the earliest any changes through the FMMO process could be made.
Further Reading:
| It's Time to Crack Down on Farm Birds | |
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The following is an excerpt from Hoard's Dairyman Intel series by Hoard's Associate Editor Katelyn Allen. Visit hoards.com to read more from Allen and the Hoard's team.
Now that the strange symptoms observed in small pockets of U.S. dairy cattle that first gained widespread attention last month have been attributed to avian influenza, the question turns to how the disease is spreading. Since first being identified on dairies in Texas and Kansas, the disease has subsequently been confirmed in dairy animals in four more states as well as one person, an employee on an affected dairy. (For more details, USDA updates the detection of confirmed cases daily at this page).
Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has caused the culling of 85 million birds on poultry farms in the last few years. Those cases have been attributed to migratory waterfowl such as ducks and geese.
It has been reported that a slightly different strain of the same H5N1 virus is affecting dairy cattle, but it appears that all of the dairy cases came from one source. The case diagnosis, which had previously eluded veterinarians and scientists, was finally determined because avian influenza tests were conducted on the affected farms, which had reported dead birds on the property.
Those birds, however, were not the migratory waterfowl deemed responsible in the poultry cases, according to an article in Science. They were species that are more commonly observed around human habitats like “grackles, blackbirds, and pigeons,” the story explained.
Because the virus has not caused high morbidity or mortality in dairy cattle the way it has in poultry, the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP) announced this week that they will be referring to the disease as bovine influenza A virus. They encourage other officials and agencies to do the same. “The AABP does not believe that this disease should be referenced as ‘HPAI in cattle’ or ‘bird flu in cattle’ due to these differences,” AABP executive director Fred Gingrich and president Michael Capel wrote in a statement.
Read the Entire Article Here
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Until Next Time,
Bryce Trotter
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