Diseases

Hidden Pneumonia in Calves: Why More Dairies Use Ultrasound to Catch Respiratory Disease Early

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 20:06:16 GMT

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) remains one of the most common and costly health challenges in preweaned dairy calves. The challenge is that many cases develop long before calves show visible symptoms.

“By the time calves show obvious clinical signs of respiratory disease, lung damage may already be present,” says Aerica Bjurstrom, regional dairy educator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “That’s why tools that help us detect pneumonia earlier can make a big difference in calf health and long-term performance.”

Traditional diagnosis relies on symptoms such as coughing, nasal discharge, or elevated temperature. But these signs often appear late in the disease process. In many cases, calves may look completely healthy while still carrying lung infections.

This form of illness, known as subclinical pneumonia, can reduce growth, feed efficiency and even future milk production.

“The lungs can really act as an indicator organ,” Bjurstrom explains. “Respiratory disease often reflects larger management challenges, such as poor colostrum intake, nutrition issues, or environmental stress.”

The Hidden Pneumonia Problem

Research has shown that pneumonia often develops days before visible symptoms appear.

“Ultrasound allows us to see what’s happening inside the lung tissue, even when the calf looks normal from the outside,” Bjurstrom says. “In many cases, pneumonia can be present for days before any clinical signs appear.”

Studies suggest that 50% to 80% of pneumonia cases may remain subclinical for 7 to 14 days before producers notice symptoms. That delay can allow lung damage to progress before treatment begins.

“Sometimes calves with severe pneumonia don’t show obvious symptoms,” Bjurstrom says. “But an ultrasound exam can reveal lung lesions that tell us the disease is already present.”

How Lung Ultrasound Works

Lung ultrasonography allows veterinarians to examine calf lungs in real time using portable ultrasound equipment.

A normal lung appears air-filled on the scan and produces horizontal white lines that move with each breath. These lines indicate healthy lung tissue.

Changes in the image can reveal early disease.

“Comet tails are bright vertical lines that extend down from the lung surface,” Bjurstrom says. “A few may be normal, but severe or diffuse comet tailing can suggest interstitial disease caused by fluid or inflammation within the lung.”

More advanced disease appears as lung consolidation, where portions of the lung fill with inflammatory material instead of air. On ultrasound, these areas appear as solid gray regions.

Veterinarians often use a 0 to 5 lung scoring system to evaluate severity.

“This scoring system helps identify disease before calves begin coughing or showing nasal discharge,” Bjurstrom says. “Early detection allows for earlier treatment and better outcomes.”

Dr. Ollivett demonstrates positioning for thoracic ultrasound scanning on a calf’s right lung.

(Denise Garlow, University of Wisconsin)

Why Early Detection Matters

Even when calves show no visible symptoms, lung damage can affect their long-term performance.

In one study of more than 600 Holstein heifers, calves with lung consolidation detected at weaning were less likely to become pregnant and more likely to leave the herd before first calving.

Another study found calves with significant lung lesions in the first eight weeks of life produced 1,155 pounds less milk during their first lactation.

“These findings highlight why early detection matters,” Bjurstrom says. “Subclinical disease can still influence growth, reproduction, and milk production later in life.”

Improving Treatment Outcomes

Early detection can also make treatment more effective.

“When pneumonia is caught earlier, treatment tends to work better,” Bjurstrom explains. “We’re able to intervene before the disease becomes severe and causes permanent lung damage.”

Ultrasound can also help veterinarians monitor recovery.

“That monitoring aspect is important,” she says. “It helps ensure calves are improving and reduces unnecessary retreatment.”

A Management Tool for Farms

Beyond diagnosis, lung ultrasound is increasingly used as a herd management tool.

“Ultrasound gives producers objective information about lung health,” Bjurstrom says. “That can help guide decisions about treatment, culling, or adjusting weaning timing for calves that may need more time to recover.”

Regular scanning can also reveal herd-level trends tied to management practices.

“When used consistently, ultrasound becomes a benchmarking tool,” Bjurstrom says. “It can help farms evaluate colostrum programs, ventilation, sanitation, and other factors that influence calf health.”

A Growing Tool in Calf Health Programs

Portable ultrasound units have become more accessible and easier to use, making them more common in calf health programs. With proper training, scanning a calf’s lungs typically takes less than a minute.

“The equipment requires an initial investment, but the information it provides can be incredibly valuable,” Bjurstrom says. “Earlier detection can lead to better management decisions, improved calf growth, and fewer losses.”

As dairy farms continue adopting more data-driven management practices, lung ultrasound is giving producers a new way to detect disease sooner and protect the long-term potential of their calves.

“Lung ultrasound helps us move beyond waiting for visible symptoms,” Bjurstrom says. “It allows producers and veterinarians to identify problems earlier and take action before long-term damage occurs.”

Bovine Tuberculosis Detected in Michigan Dairy

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 19:18:18 GMT

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) has confirmed a case of bovine tuberculosis (TB) in a dairy herd in Charlevoix County, located west of Michigan’s Modified Accredited Zone (MAZ), where the disease is known to be present in the state’s white-tailed deer population.

(Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development)

According to state officials, the detection followed identification of bovine TB in an adult cow at a USDA Food Safety Inspection Service-inspected processing plant. Through animal traceability efforts, officials traced the animal back to its herd of origin. Subsequent testing of the herd identified additional bovine TB cases.

“This latest detection of bovine TB highlights two important realities: how challenging the disease is to address; and why it is so crucial to use all of our tools for detection to swiftly identify cases and take actions to limit disease spread,” say Nora Wineland, state veterinarian for Michigan. “While finding a newly affected herd is never ideal, this case demonstrates our systems for detection and traceability are working, allowing us to quickly implement measures to protect animal health and public health in Michigan.”

MDARD reports an epidemiological investigation is already underway to determine whether additional cases may be linked to the affected herd. There are currently two TB zones within the state: a four-county area in northern lower Michigan called the Modified Accredited Zone, and the remainder of the state’s 83 counties is referred to as the Accredited Free Zone.

This is Michigan’s second confirmed bovine TB case in the past 13 months. The previous case was identified in a beef herd in Alcona County, located within the state’s Modified Accredited Zone, in January 2025. With this latest detection, a total of 84 cattle herds have been confirmed with bovine TB in Michigan since 1998.

What is Bovine Tuberculosis?

According to USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), bovine tuberculosis is a chronic bacterial disease that can infect all mammals, including humans. It is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium bovis and spreads through both direct contact between infected and uninfected animals and indirect exposure, such as contaminated feed, water or the environment.

The disease progresses slowly, often developing over several years. Infection typically begins in the lymph nodes before advancing to the lungs and chest cavity, where it can cause serious lesions.

While cattle are the primary host, the disease can also be present in white-tailed deer and elk, as well as bison, goats and certain carnivores, including coyotes.

The Symptoms

Unfortunately, infected cattle are typically asymptomatic. Detection usually occurs during live animal skin testing or, more commonly, at slaughter through our national slaughter surveillance program, according to USDA. If cattle or bison show clinical signs of tuberculosis, the disease has advanced to affect multiple organ systems, which is rare.

Can it be Prevented?

Bovine TB most often spreads through close contact, especially nose-to-nose interaction between animals, or when cattle consume feed or water that’s been contaminated. In most cases, herds become infected one of two ways: by bringing in an infected animal or through exposure to infected wildlife.

While the prevalence of tuberculosis in cattle is extremely low in the U.S., with an estimated prevalence of 7 per 1 million cattle screened, it can occur. Producers should work alongside their veterinarian to help create a biosecurity plan.

How is it Identified?

According to APHIS, the primary source of tuberculosis surveillance is carcass inspection at all federal and state inspected slaughter establishments. The other main sources of tuberculosis detection are testing animals before interstate movement and during disease investigations. Live animal testing is performed with a screening test. If positive, the regulatory veterinarian will conduct a confirmatory test.

Can it be Treated?

Unfortunately, tuberculosis in livestock is not a treatable disease. When health officials find tuberculosis in a herd, it is managed by either depopulating the herd or by testing and removing reactor animals.

Respiratory Disease Follows Beef-on-Dairy Calves for Life

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 15:32:38 GMT

When beef‑on‑dairy calves first started moving off of dairy farms and onto the next stage of life, they didn’t get much attention. But today, these crossbred calves represent a significant revenue stream for dairy producers, bringing their early-life care into sharper focus.

“Beef-on-dairy calves have exploded in popularity,” says Melissa Cantor of Penn State University. “Holstein bull calves are worth good money, but the beef-on-dairy [market] has really exploded. We saw $1,500 prices for calves here in the Northeast in the past couple weeks.”

When calves are bringing in that kind of money, what happens early on matters — especially around bovine respiratory disease (BRD) issues. During a recent “The Dairy Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast,” Cantor spoke on how even mild respiratory disease early in life can leave a lasting mark that follows beef-on-dairy calves all the way to the packing plant.

Early Respiratory Disease Starts Small

Despite their rising value, many beef-on-dairy calves still receive minimal nutrition early in life. Cantor notes they are often limit-fed and given lower-quality colostrum. At the same time, respiratory disease often spikes around weaning, when stress, nutrition and environment collide.

“We see a lot of respiratory disease around weaning,” Cantor says. “So, we wanted to know: how does that affect long-term growth, and is there something we should change in how we raise these calves?”

To answer that question, Cantor’s team followed 145 beef-on-dairy calves from early life through slaughter. The team used ultrasound around weaning to spot any early signs of respiratory disease. However, when disease was identified, it often looked minor.

“It was just very early lung consolidation — about one centimeter,” Cantor explains. “It’s basically a tiny spot on the lung. The calves still looked healthy. But as a dairy farmer, you’d probably never notice it. Maybe they’d cough a little, but that’s about it.”

In the study, about 25% of the calves showed this level of lung consolidation, which Cantor says is typical for weaning-age animals. But while it appeared mild, it still had consequences.

Feedlot Performance Can Be Misleading

When the calves moved on to the feedlot level, researchers tracked how they ate and grew to see if early respiratory disease showed up later. They monitored feed intake, weight gain and finishing weights.

“We weighed them when they arrived at the feedlot, and we knew what their dry matter intakes were,” Cantor says. “Dry matter intake, acclimation to the diet, average daily gain in the feedlot, finishing weight — they were all the same despite if the calves had respiratory disease or not. We were shocked.”

In other words, calves that had been sick early in life caught up in growth. By the end of the feeding period, they looked just as productive as calves that had never shown signs of respiratory disease.

However, this changed at slaughter.

“We followed these crossbreds all the way out to slaughter, and we actually had carcass tracing on those animals,” Cantor says. “We were able to look at carcass dressing weight and marbling, which is huge.”

That’s where the impact of that early respiratory disease became clear.

“What was so interesting to me is that the marbling in those animals that had respiratory disease was less,” Cantor says.

Lower marbling leads to a lower carcass grade, reducing the animal’s final value.

“If we have a lower marbling score and a lower carcass grade, you’re going to get paid less for that animal, or even potentially get discounted,” Cantor says. “This is how these beef producers are being paid, and no one’s ever thought about managing respiratory disease to deal with these long-term effects.”

So why does early respiratory disease leave this lasting mark? One explanation Cantor offers relates to how calves use energy during critical stages of development. Even when intake and average daily gain even out, healthier calves can direct more energy toward fat deposition, while calves fighting illness may divert nutrients to support their immune system instead.

In short, when calves fight disease during these windows of fat cell development, nutrients may be redirected away from marbling, leaving them with lower carcass quality even if their growth appears normal later in life.

Spotting and Preventing BRD

While early respiratory disease can be easy to overlook, even mild cases can lower marbling and carcass grade at slaughter, reducing the animal’s value long after it leaves the dairy. And while this may not seem like a major concern for dairies that sell calves early, calf ranchers and buyers may avoid sourcing animals from farms with a history of BRD.

Because early cases can be easy to miss, it helps to watch for these symptoms:

Increased or labored breathing
Coughing
Ear droop
Nasal or eye discharge
Lethargy
Poor appetite
Fever
Diarrhea
Isolation from the group

To help reduce the risk of respiratory disease, focus on these prevention steps:

Provide adequate, high-quality colostrum
Maintain consistent milk feeding
Follow vaccination programs
Provide ample, dry bedding
Ensure proper ventilation
Keep housing draft-free
Maintain clean, sanitary facilities
Detect and treat disease early
Keep low stocking densities
Minimize stressors

For dairy farmers and calf ranches, early‑life management still matters, even if the calf leaves the farm soon after birth. Investing in colostrum, nutrition, housing and respiratory disease prevention protects not only calf health but also long-term value.

First Case of Avian Flu Detected in Wisconsin Dairy Herd

Sun, 14 Dec 2025 19:40:26 GMT

A case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has been detected in a dairy herd in Dodge County, Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) announced Sunday. This marks the first confirmed detection of the virus in dairy cattle in the state.

Dodge County, Wisconsin

(USDA)

The herd was identified through routine National Milk Testing Strategy screening, not the surveillance required for moving cattle across state lines. The affected farm has been quarantined, and any cattle showing signs of illness are being separated for treatment.

Bird flu has already been detected in poultry flocks in Wisconsin. On Dec. 9, state officials reported HPAI in a flock in Marquette County, which is just one county away from the affected dairy herd.

HPAI in dairy cattle has been documented in the U.S. before, with the first detections reported in March 2024 in dairy herds in Texas and Kansas. Since then, there have been more than 1,000 confirmed cases across 18 states, primarily through targeted testing and monitoring programs. While the pace of new detections has slowed in recent months, one additional confirmed case has been reported in California within the past 30 days, indicating the virus is still a threat.

HPAI Confirmed Cases in the Last 30 Days

(USDA)

Total HPAI Confirmed Cases

(USDA)

A Wake-Up Call for Dairy Biosecurity

The Wisconsin case comes as new research from Farm Journal highlights ongoing gaps in dairy biosecurity practices nationwide. A survey of more than 300 dairy producers, presented at the MILK Business Conference, found that while many operations report having biosecurity plans in place, consistent implementation and regular review remain a challenge.

According to the survey, 68% of farms with at least 250 cows say they have a biosecurity plan, yet 34% of those producers acknowledge they do not routinely review or update it. The findings point to vulnerabilities at a time when disease threats such as HPAI, New World screwworm and bovine spongiform encephalopathy continue to raise concern across the livestock sector.

(Farm Journal)

“We need biosecurity efforts to be more impactful at the ground level,” said Kirk Ramsey, professional services veterinarian with Neogen, who reviewed the survey results. “Not only to prevent major outbreaks, but also to protect employees and families from what could be carried home every day.”

As emerging diseases continue to challenge dairy operations, the research reinforces the importance of consistent, practical biosecurity measures to reduce risk and protect herd health.

What are the Symptoms of HPAI in Dairy Cattle?

As monitoring continues, officials are urging producers to stay alert for early signs of illness within their herds, as prompt detection and response remain key to limiting further spread. Signs of HPAI include:

Drop in milk production
Loss of appetite
Changes in manure consistency
Thickened or colostrum-like milk
Low-grade fever

State officials are monitoring the situation and working closely with the farm to contain the virus and prevent further spread. DATCP emphasized there is no concern for the safety of the commercial milk supply, as pasteurization eliminates the virus. The CDC considers the human health risk low.

Read more on HPAI in dairy:

5 Livestock Diseases That Could Impact U.S. Food Security and Economic Stability

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 20:44:59 GMT

Production animal disease outbreaks are not only animal health events but threats to economic stability and food security. A new report from The Farm Journal Foundation , The Mean Sixteen: Biosecurity Threats Facing U.S. Agriculture, estimates the collective annual costs to U.S. agriculture due to outbreaks of the top five livestock diseases could top $300 billion without proper preparation.

“It is absolutely crucial that the U.S. should support mechanisms to protect farmers from risks and make sure that our food supply chain can remain resilient even when challenges occur,” wrote Stephanie Mercier, senior policy adviser at Farm Journal Foundation.

Mercier identifies five diseases with the potential to disrupt U.S. livestock production, trade and response infrastructure at scale. These include foreign animal diseases as well as ongoing threats:

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD)
African swine fever (ASF)
New World screwworm (NWS)
Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI)
Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS)

Foot-and-Mouth Disease: Trade-Stopping Risk to U.S. Livestock

Foot-and-mouth disease, an infectious and sometimes fatal viral disease affecting a range of ungulates, remains one of the highest-impact foreign animal disease threats to U.S. agriculture. While the U.S., Canada, and Mexico are classified as FMD-free, outbreaks in Taiwan (1997), the United Kingdom (2001), and this year in Germany and Hungary, represent how relevant this disease remains as both an animal health and economic threat.

Modern production systems characterized by high animal density and frequent interstate movement would complicate containment efforts in case of an outbreak. In 2015, a report from Kansas State University found an FMD outbreak beginning in a U.S. state with high populations of vulnerable livestock could cost nearly $200 billion to the U.S. economy if no emergency vaccine program was implemented.

A 2018 provision to the farm bill mandated the establishment of an animal vaccine bank; FMD was chosen as the first disease for vaccine stockpile. While FMD vaccines reduce an animal’s chance of being infected, they are generally not administerd in FMD-free regions as it is difficult to distinguish between vaccinated and FMD-infected animals in a clinical setting. Further, World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) protocols allow for trade bans to be imposed on countries using these vaccines.

African Swine Fever: Persistent Threat to U.S. Pork Production

African swine fever has expanded globally over the past decade and remains one of the most significant threats to the U.S. swine industry causing hemorrhagic fever with high mortality rates. In 2018, a massive ASF outbreak in China resulted in the loss of half of the country’s swine herd, approximately 225 million animals, and cost the country’s economy around $111 billion. Since then, ASF cases have been reported in countries across much of Asia and Europe .

(Farm Journal Foundation)

It has been estimated an ASF outbreak in the U.S. would cost the economy nearly $80 billion, due to loss of exports and reduced industry revenue, but could also affect the crop sector due to decreased feed demand. The extensive feral hog population across much of the country would further complicate containment efforts.

There is no globally available ASF vaccine; however, in May 2025, the WOAH adopted their first international standard for ASF vaccines . This was followed by the release of field evaluation and post-vaccination monitoring standards in July.

New World Screwworm: Reintroduction Risk and Surveillance Dependence

The NWS fly lays eggs in an animal’s skin, often at wound sites, and the hatched larvae burrow into the animal, consuming the flesh. Prior to 2025, NWS had been largely absent in the Western Hemisphere north of Panama; however, since the beginning of the year, outbreaks have been creeping northward, with most recent detection being just 120 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The USDA estimates that if NWS were to cross the border into Texas, it could cost the state’s economy at least $1.8 billion while putting the rest of the U.S. beef sector at risk. In an effort to tackle this threat, the USDA announced a five-pronged plan to combat the pest including sterile fly production, closing of the U.S.-Mexico border to cattle trade and increased communication with state animal health officials.

The same sterile male fly technique that eradicated the pest in the U.S in 1966 is being applied for the current outbreak, with sterile fly production facilities open in Tampico, Mexico and opening in Edinburg, Texas .

While no NWS cases have been detected in the U.S. yet, the fly is still having an impact on the economy. With the U.S.-Mexico border closed to cattle imports , the already reduced U.S. cattle herd could shrink even further. With strong demand supporting U.S. beef prices, Omaha Steaks CEO Nate Rempe predicts ground beef prices could reach $10 per pound by the third quarter of 2026.

(Farm Journal Foundation)

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza: An Ongoing Multispecies Challenge

Highly pathogenic avian influenza remains an evolving threat to U.S. animal agriculture. Twice in the past decade, major outbreaks in the U.S. have devastated poultry operations with losses of over 50 million commercial birds from 2014 to 2015. The latest HPAI outbreak began in 2022 and has since been detected in flocks in all 50 states resulting in an estimated loss of 169 million birds as of April 2025.

(Farm Journal Foundation)

HPAI is a zoonotic disease with reported infections in humans, hogs, cats and dogs. In March 2024, HPAI was detected in dairy herds in Texas and Kansas. Since then, HPAI outbreaks have been confirmed in over 300 dairy herds across the U.S. in 14 different states.

The 2014 to 2015 HPAI outbreak is estimated to have cost U.S. agriculture over $1 billion when accounting for losses to both the poultry and animal feed sectors, as well as losses in land value. Both this outbreak and the subsequent 2024-25 outbreak caused significant spikes in egg prices, with March 2025 prices rising to 350% of those of the previous year. U.S. milk prices have not yet been affected by the outbreak.

(Farm Journal Foundation)

Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome: Endemic Disease, National Cost

The infection of hogs by PRRS has had a significant impact on the U.S. pork industry. First detected in the U.S. in 1987, PRRS infection causes pregnancy loss in sows and respiratory problems in pigs of all ages leading to poor performance. Unlike other animal diseases, PRRS infection can go undetected until issues with pregnant sows occur.

Analysis from Iowa State University shows PRRS caused an estimated $1.2 billion per year in lost production in the U.S. swine industry from 2016 to 2020. This marks an 80% increase over numbers reported a decade earlier.

With no cure at present, disease impact is minimized through biosecurity practices, vaccinations and management of infection with antibiotics. In April 2025, FDA granted PIC approval for the gene edit used in its PRRS-resistant pig. This technology could have a large impact on animal welfare, production costs and pork prices if adopted, though any impact is likely many years out.

Policy and Preparedness Implications for U.S. Animal Health

Across these diseases, the report identifies recurring gaps in U.S. animal health preparedness that extend beyond individual pathogens and suggests some key policy and infrastructure needs to help mitigate these threat risks:

Improved national biosecurity coordination including culling guidelines
Training for veterinarians for outbreak identification and reporting
Support for vaccine stockpiling programs and prioritized regulatory approvals for prevention and treatment products
Increased research support for both international collaboration and domestic work on biological control techniques of pests and pathogens, and disease-resistant genetic traits

“Investing in agricultural research, development and the long-term viability of our food supply chain is critical for protecting our national security and economy, and we are hopeful that our nation’s leaders will rise to meet this challenge before it’s too late,” Mercier writes.

The Farm Journal Foundation is a farmer-centered, non-profit, nonpartisan organization, created by Farm Journal in 2010, working to advance agriculture innovation, food and nutrition security, conservation and rural economic development.

Seeing the Whole Elephant: Systems Thinking and Animal Health

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 22:19:50 GMT

We all know the ancient parable of the blind men and the elephant: each man touches a different part of the elephant and becomes convinced he knows the whole animal. One feels the trunk and declares it a snake, another the leg and insists it’s a tree. Each observation is accurate, but each conclusion is deeply incomplete.

Veterinary medicine often falls into the same trap, not because of a lack of care but because of training to look closely. In a world where disease emerges from the interactions of nutrition, immunity, environment, behavior and management, the old parable reminds us the truth isn’t found in any single part. It’s found in the relationships between them.

Why Looking Closely Isn’t Enough

Pattern recognition is one of our greatest strengths. You learn to see classic presentations and link them with a diagnosis. For example, ketosis in a fresh cow or BRD in a calf with a cough.

But disease rarely lives in one organ system or one management practice. A narrow focus can deceive us. We might fixate on the ‘tusk’ because it looks sharp and obvious, while missing the constellation of forces actually driving the animal’s response.

Examples crop up everywhere:

A dairy lameness problem blamed solely on digital dermatitis, when the root cause is chronic wet bedding, poor ventilation and subtle changes in stocking density.
A calf barn respiratory outbreak attributed to infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, when the real sequence of events begins with colostrum quality, followed by fluctuating ventilation, then a weather front that pushes calves over the edge.
A feedlot dip in performance linked solely to a ration change, when heat stress, water access, bunk competition and handling stress created a cascade of interacting pressures.

Each diagnosis contains a piece of truth, but each is incomplete when treated in isolation.

Systems Thinking: Looking Between the Parts

Systems thinking is the discipline of understanding how elements interact to produce outcomes. It challenges us to stop asking what caused this and start asking how these factors combined to create this situation.

Dr. Brian Vander Ley of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln recently spoke on the topic.

“Systems thinking is actually a derivative of a field called ‘systems dynamics,’ which is a highly mathematical modeling field that’s used to predict the behavior of systems based on components in the system and relationships,” Vander Ley explains. However, systems thinking takes out the math component. “It’s a set of tools, processes and principles that enable us to focus on the relationship between parts of the system and not just some of the parts themselves.”

A system isn’t just a list of components. It is:

The feedback loops between nutrition and immunity
The way ventilation interacts with pathogen load
How handler behavior influences stress physiology
How management timing affects microbial dynamics
How one week’s decisions become the next month’s disease patterns

The iceberg analogy fits here too: What we see in the cow is only a small fraction of what’s really happening. The larger drivers of disease sit below the surface and remain invisible unless we deliberately go looking for them.

The heart of systems thinking is recognizing that diseases are rarely linear. They are networked. They emerge not from one factor but from several interacting simultaneously, sometimes amplifying, sometimes buffering each other.

In other words, the elephant is not just trunk + tusk + leg + ear. The elephant is the relationships that connect those parts into a living organism.

The Veterinarian as a Systems Navigator

Veterinarians already intuitively use systems thinking. You’re constantly piecing together physiology, environment and behavior. The challenge is doing it intentionally rather than incidentally.

This means asking broader questions:

Where did the system fail and why?
What feedback loops are reinforcing the problem?
Which variables are upstream versus downstream?
What invisible pressures are shaping what I can see?
What happens if one part of the system changes?

When we ask these questions, we stop thinking like the blind men — competing diagnoses based on isolated observations — and start thinking like systems analysts, integrating multiple perspectives into a coherent picture.

This is also dependent on communication within the animal care team.

“Communicating about it is really important, because we are really sure about our own experiences. When I go out and collect data with my own hands and my own eyes, I’m very confident in that data, and when I see information that’s very different, I tend to disregard that information,” Vander Ley says. “We want to engage in a kind of communication that allows us to appreciate that we’ve got different pieces of the elephant in hand.”

Having an open dialogue between owners, producers, veterinarians and academics allows for a broadened perspective for understanding what the problem is.

Case Example: Reframing a ‘Simple’ Mastitis Problem

Take a herd with climbing somatic cell count and increased clinical mastitis cases. A parts-focused approach might look at:

Teat-end condition
Milking protocols
Bedding
Culture results

A systems approach goes further:

How has cow flow changed through the parlor?
Are fresh cows being mixed too early?
Has ration moisture affected rumen health and lying time?
Are staff changes altering consistency in milking prep?
Has heat stress reduced rumination and immune resilience?
Are equipment cleaning routines changing due to workload?

Suddenly, the rising cell counts are no longer an udder health issue but a system problem — a signal, not a cause.

Stepping Back to See the Elephant

The parable of the blind men isn’t merely about limited perspectives; it’s about the illusion of certainty that comes from seeing only one piece of a larger, interconnected whole.

Veterinarians do some of their best work up close: palpating, listening to internal sounds, evaluating subtle signs. But the greatest diagnostic breakthroughs often come when we deliberately widen our view and consider not just the parts but the interplay between them.

Systems thinking doesn’t replace traditional diagnostic skills, it evaluates them. It turns isolated observations into meaningful patterns. It turns symptoms into stories. It turns disease into a map we can navigate instead of a puzzle we must solve.

In the end, seeing the ‘elephant’ means seeing not just the cow or the herd but the interconnected ecosystem that shapes every outcome.

Vesicular Stomatitis Outbreak in Arizona

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 16:34:09 GMT

USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has released a situation report on vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) after the virus was identified on two Arizona farms this month.

While both reported cases were in horses, VSV also affects cattle, swine and other ruminants. The farms on which the virus was identified both also house cattle, though none have been found to be clinically affected.

In response to this outbreak, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has announced temporary import restrictions on horses, ruminants and swine from the U.S. until further notice. The import of horses, swine and ruminants from VSV-affected states for all purposes is prohibited. Animals from other states that have been in a VSV-affected state at any point in the three weeks prior to import will be denied entry to Canada. Special accommodations have been made in collaboration with USDA regarding animal import for major Canadian livestock competitions and exhibitions.

What is Vesicular Stomatitis?

Vesicular stomatitis (VS) is a viral disease primarily spread by biting midges and flies, but can also be spread via animal-to-animal contact or exposure to saliva or fluid from ruptured vesicles. It is also important to protect yourself if working with infected animals as it is transmissible to humans causing an acute influenza-like illness.

VS is named for its characteristic vesicular lesions that form around the mouth, nose, udders and hooves. Along with these lesions, clinical signs of VS include:

excessive salivation (often accompanied by raised blisters on the lips, gums and tongue)
fever
feed withdrawal leading to weight loss

In cattle and horses, lesions around the hooves can lead to lameness, while teat lesions in dairy cattle can lead to mastitis and a severe drop in milk production. Affected swine usually first show signs of lameness caused by foot lesions.

Controlling Vesicular Stomatitis

While VS does not usually cause the death of an animal, it can lead to economic losses due to prevented animal movement and impacts on international trace. Farms with VSV positive animals must quarantine for 14 days after lesions appear on the last case at the location.

The last VS outbreak occurred from May 2023 through January 2024 affecting 319 locations across California, Nevada and Texas. VSV circulates annually between livestock and insect vectors in southern Mexico, only entering the U.S. when environmental factors support the northern movement of vectors.

If you suspect an animal might be infected with VSV, you should immediately contact local state and federal animal health authorities.

Harness the Full Potential of Your BRD Vaccine with the Right Adjuvant

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 16:03:14 GMT

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is one of the greatest threats to young calves, and gaining protection through vaccines isn’t always straightforward. Maternal antibodies, passed through colostrum, can block some vaccines from boosting immunity. The key to overcoming that hurdle? Choosing a vaccine with the right adjuvant.

Maternal Antibodies Can Interfere with Vaccines

“Years ago, vaccine response was so variable in young calves,” says Curt Vlietstra, DVM, Boehringer Ingelheim. “At the time, we didn’t know if their immune system simply wasn’t ready, or if there was a problem with the vaccines. With the research we have now, we understand that the majority of interference comes from maternal antibodies that are still present in the calf at the time of vaccination.”

Passed down from the cow via colostrum, maternal antibodies are not only a calf’s first line of defense against disease, but they also have the tendency to neutralize vaccines.

Those maternal antibodies naturally wane when the calf is between 2 and 6 months of age. As this maternal immunity dwindles, vaccination becomes critical in boosting and building calf immunity. The largest challenge in bridging these two forms of immunity is timing. Chris Chase, DVM, Professor, Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, South Dakota State University, says finding a vaccine with the right adjuvant can eliminate this guessing game.

Adjuvants Are Critical to Capturing Immunity in Young Calves

Adjuvants — although often overlooked — can determine whether a calf successfully develops a robust, lasting immune response, or remains vulnerable to BRD pressure. They work by drawing immune cells to the injection site, and helping the calf’s body recognize and remember the vaccine. Some adjuvants also slow the release of the vaccine, giving the immune system more time to respond.

“With the types of adjuvants we have now, we can get strong, long-lasting immune responses, even in calves with maternal antibodies,” Chase shares. “Although, just because a vaccine label says ‘adjuvanted’ doesn’t mean it offers the protection we need. It’s important that we ask what kind of adjuvant it is and what it’s proven to do.”

Over the last few decades, peer-reviewed studies and fieldwork have shown that Pyramid ^® vaccines can succeed, even in the face of maternal immunity, thanks to its unique adjuvant, Metasim^®. Specifically designed to address the challenges of early calfhood vaccination, the dual-phase technology of the Metasim adjuvant can stimulate a balanced, robust immune response in calves as young as 30 days of age.

(Boehringer Ingelheim)

“Historically, it was accepted as fact that maternal antibodies would block the injectable vaccine,” Vlietstra says. “Now we know Metasim works alongside the preexisting antibodies, not against them.”

Systemic Immunity Builds Long-Lasting Protection

Another key factor in vaccine selection is delivery method. For a time, intranasal vaccines were thought to be the only effective option to protect young calves against BRD. While intranasal vaccines can offer local immunity for calves at risk of BRD exposure soon after birth, some may miss the opportunity to stimulate robust, systemic immunity.

While local immunity helps block infection right where it starts (which is usually in the respiratory tract with BRD), systemic immunity is what builds broad, long-lasting protection, by training the calf’s entire immune system to respond.

When calves encounter BRD pathogens weeks or even months after vaccination, a strong systemic immune response helps them recognize and fight off infection more effectively, reducing severity of disease and its long-term impact on health and performance.

“In some ways, we’ve become very reliant on intranasals,” Vlietstra notes . “I’ve seen protocols that say, ‘This calf may not respond to an injectable, so let’s give another intranasal.’ That choice ends up potentially delaying systemic protection.”

Injectable vaccines with the right adjuvant have been proven to stimulate both local immunity in the respiratory tract, and systemic immunity that circulates in the bloodstream.

Even the Best Vaccine Needs Correct Timing and Care

“There are plenty of producers and veterinarians who have firsthand experience of vaccines not working,” Vlietstra says. “If we’re not seeing results, it’s time to evaluate how we’re using the product and when.”

It’s common to schedule vaccination alongside other times calves are being worked, like weaning or transportation. While this may save labor and time up front, vaccinating calves during other stressful events can limit immune response.

“If cattle have had a long truck ride, ideally, we’d let them unload and rest for 24 to 48 hours before we vaccinate,” Chase explains. “I know not all operations have the resources to do this due to labor constraints, but water and rest time after a stressful event will set cattle up for a better immune response.”

To get the most of any vaccination program, good animal handling, husbandry and biosecurity protocols play a role in preventing and controlling BRD. By staying on top of health management and using products according to label, vaccines are more likely to capture desired results.

“The world’s best vaccine is not going to overcome overwhelming challenges,” Chase stresses.

The needs of every herd are different. Working closely with a veterinarian is key to finding success tailored to your cattle and operation.

Success From The Start: Calf Health Starts Before Birth

Tue, 15 Jul 2025 13:11:35 GMT

If a calf struggles during its first 60 days of life, it’s going to carry that through all phases of production. Starting a calf, whether in a traditional beef or beef-on-dairy scenario, the right way is paramount to the lifetime health of that animal.

This is the message stressed by Dr. Taylor Engle, Four Star Veterinary Services, during episode eight of “ The Future of Beef Show ” podcast. He says success starts before a calf is born.

“There are a lot of really good genetics in the beef industry we can use. However, if you put that calf in an environment to fail, genetics does not play a factor,” he says. “We have to do everything right from an environmental piece to maximize the genetic potential.”

Check out the podcast to learn more about these five key messages discussed by Engle and the podcast’s hosts:

Environment matters more than genetics. Engle emphasizes if you put a calf in an environment to fail, genetics won’t save it. Management and early life conditions are critical to an animal’s success.
Calf health starts before birth. Proper care of the cow before calving, quality colostrum and a clean birthing environment are crucial for a calf’s lifetime health.

Engle encourages producers to think about the cow’s condition before, during and after breeding.

“Everyone gets really fired up — and rightfully so — about colostrum. Not all colostrum is created equal,” he says. “It’s what we are doing to set that cow up to have the best colostrum for that calf. Whether it’s beef-on-dairy or native, the right vaccines for the right diseases at the right time matters.”
Communication is key across the production chain. Sharing information about calf health, vaccination history and management practices between different stages of production can significantly improve overall animal performance.

Engle encourages producers to record vaccination and treatment information and then share it. Communicating with the feedyard is important to help the feeder decide on how to treat cattle.
Don’t be quick to treat — understand the root cause. Instead of immediately administering antibiotics, veterinarians should first investigate the underlying management or environmental issues causing health problems.

“We were trained to think it’s a disease, and more often times than not, there is a disease present. But there’s been something along the process where we have stressed that animal and caused disease,” he explains. “We’re always looking at it from an environmental standpoint and a management standpoint — the calf isn’t the culprit. What’s going on? Why did that calf break with respiratory disease? They don’t spontaneously get sick. Something happened. Was it a weather, feed or stressful event?”

He adds management strategies and mentality can be keys to determining the cause of a sickness.

“It’s a hard thing — whether you’re a nutritionist or vet — to have that hard conversation with a producer, be upfront with them and say, ‘It’s something we’ve done,’” he says. “A lot of times, there’s management practices that messed up along the way, and the result is a disease.”

In his practice, he works with the producer to help them understand and recognize the management strategies to improve the outcomes.

“In the beef industry, a lot of the mentality is, ‘We’ve never done it this way,’” he says.
“In comparison, in the poultry and pig industries, producers will say, ‘If it increases my production, I’ll do it.’ They have the mentality of being willing to give something a try to see if it increases health.”

Engle adds, “I always tell producers if you want A results, you got to give A effort,” he explains. “You can’t have a C -plus effort and expect A results.”
Stress management is more important than treatment protocols. Focus on reducing stress and creating optimal conditions for calves, rather than relying solely on medical interventions.

“The calves don’t lie,” Engle says.

He emphasizes the importance of careful observation, advising producers to “read calves every day” and make real-time adjustments.

Beef-on-Dairy Calf Health
Engle also has extensive experience with beef-on-dairy calf management and production and discussed how those animals compare to traditional beef calves, highlighting how multiple touch points and movements bring beef-on-dairy calves unique challenges — including different feeding systems and varied vaccine and management protocols at each location.

As a positive, he says, “In the beef-on-dairy space, we have all the data points, or we have the opportunity to collect all the data points. Then you can start making decisions.”

With this complex — but data-rich — production model, there is significant potential for improving calf health and performance.

Engle challenges producers to think holistically about animal health, management and production.

“It’s not the animal that’s usually causing the problems,” he says in summary. “It’s usually producer’s management or oversight. As farms have gotten bigger, the skill gap as we go higher actually closes. Everybody who has 10,000-head of cattle on feed, or more, probably knows a lot about feeding cattle. But what are you going to do for a competitive advantage that the next feedyard isn’t? I think a lot of that’s looking internally at your management strategies and your consulting team. It’s a team effort to get to where you want to be. Set those goals and look at what you need to do better to be where you want to be in the next five to 10 years.”

The Smell You'll Never Forget: A Calf Infested with New World Screwworm

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 16:41:21 GMT

“The stench…it’s like roadkill stewed in infection,” explains Jose Santiago Gallardo Espinosa, a cattle producer from Chiriqui, Panama, describing an animal that has been infected with New World screwworm (NWS). “You’ll smell it before you see it.”

He goes on to describe the appearance. “That little dehorning scrape you didn’t worry about? Now, it’s a fist-sized hole pulsating with maggots. Not on top, under the skin. Hundreds of cream-colored worms with screw-like spines, eating your cow alive.”

It’s a Plague in Panama

Gallardo is a Panamanian livestock production specialist and animal science professional with a diverse and practical background in cattle production, agricultural policy and international ranch management. He currently serves as the technical assistance team manager at Cooleche, R.L., where he leads strategic initiatives in cattle production and technical outreach.

“⁠This ain’t ‘just flies.’ We’ve buried calves eaten alive in 48 hours,” Gallardo stresses. “Post-calving cows are sitting ducks, I found one last week with maggots deep in her vulva, she was trembling as she tried to nurse her calf.”

An animal health professional treating an animal in Panama that has been infected by New World Screwworm.

(Jose Santiago Gallardo Espinosa)

To catch NWS and stop the spread, Espinosa encourages daily wound checks including navels on newborns, vulvas on fresh cows, sheaths on bulls, branding cuts and tagging nicks. Some red flags include a wound that swells overnight or oozes cloudy fluid and a milk tank mysteriously dropping.

“Treat every scratch like a ticking bomb,” he says adding if you find one with a wound acting a little strange, you should “peel back skin edges, and if you see rice-grain maggots with dark spines — sound the alarm.”

He says more than 6,500 cases have erupted across Panama, marching north through Central America like a plague.

“For years, our U.S.-Panama barrier kept NWS at bay,” Gallardo says. “We’d see maybe 25 cases a year — it was a nuisance, not a crisis. Then 2023 hit, and overnight our pastures became war zones.”

He says the reality in Panama is rainy season is maggot season.

“Here, in Chiriquí’s dairy country, it is the perfect storm,” he says. “Rainy season humidity of 90%, 85°F heat and flies everywhere. A single-infected cow bleeds $10/day in lost milk — its life or death for small dairies.”

NWS in Nicaragua

Ernesto José Sequeira Enríquez, an agronomist from Camoapa, Nicaragua, says NWS was eradicated from Nicaragua in the 1990s. He says he first encountered it during an internship in Brazil where he experienced the serious challenge the fly causes.

“When cases began appearing here again last year, I was able to use what I learned in Brazil to prepare veterinary supplies and train people on prevention and treatment,” he explains.

(Ernesto José Sequeira Enríquez)

He says it’s essential to enforce a daily inspection routine, checking every animal carefully for open wounds.

“When you find an infected animal, you’ll typically see a bleeding wound,” Sequeira says. “If the infestation has progressed, there will be a strong, foul smell due to tissue damage and the presence of larvae.”

He encourages U.S. producers to be prepared with sufficient supplies of veterinary medicines and insecticides for both treatment and prevention and to adjust management practices to reduce risk. For example:

When dehorning, branding or ear tagging, apply insecticide spray to the wound immediately.
Ensure proper care of newborn calves by disinfecting the navel with iodine solution as soon as possible, since that is the most common entry point for infestation.

“Although complete control of screwworm is not possible, taking preventive measures significantly reduces the economic and productivity impact of it,” he says. “Early detection and consistent preventive practices are critical to minimizing losses.”
Sequeira stresses a producer’s eyes and hands are their best tools to fight NSW.

“My warning to U.S. ranchers is this isn’t just a Panama problem,” he summarizes. “Newborn calves are maggot magnets. If you lose one calf to a navel infestation, you’ll never sleep again. Make inspections sacred — no excuses. Report fast and hide nothing.”

It’s Endemic in Brazil

Marcelo Costa is a veterinarian, professor and cattle business consultant in Brazil and Paraguay. In 1999, Costa was taught embryo transfer at Camp Cooley in Franklin, Texas. He then returned to his family’s third generation ranching operation where they started Camp Cooley Brazil.

“I have been dealing with screwworm all my life since it is endemic in Brazil,” Costa says. “Screwworm-infected animals happen all months of the year.”

A wound in the animal skin full of screwworm and new fly eggs in the skin borderline

(Marcelo Costa)

Like others, he has experienced finding infected animals with bleeding, foul-smelling wounds. He says animals show discomfort and may not follow the herd as normal.

“Newborn calves are usually the more attacked category because of the navel’s wet and bloody tissue,” he says. “If a screwworm infects the navel, it may open a door at the site for more severe infections that may cause diarrhea, pneumonia and other diseases.”

Costa stresses how much NWS costs producers beyond animal loss and decreased productivity.

“One of the biggest problems with NWS is the increased labor with vigilance and animal treatment,” he summarizes.

Guatemala Producers Are Learning to Cope with NWS

“Screwworm came to teach us the times are changing, and that any type of production is possible and open to any complication,” says Oscar León, a livestock production specialist and agricultural business administrator from Guatemala City, Guatemala. “Brazil learned how to cope with it, and Guatemala is in the process of it. The U.S. is not exempt from it, unfortunately. But with the adequate measures and prevention techniques, one can learn and teach others. We can make the impact less harmful on our production and wallets.”

(Oscar León)

León currently manages his family’s cattle operations and leads LAVAT S.A., a company that imports and distributes innovative animal health and nutrition products tailored to the needs of the Guatemalan livestock sector.

He explains it is important for producers to look for and treat any open wound or bruise as they are the first indicators.

“If an open wound smells like the scent of rotten meat, you will find the presence of screwworms feeding off live tissue,” he says. “Prevention and early timing are the best ways to treat screwworm. Make sure to take your time, observe your cattle, search for a bruise or wounds and treat them properly.”

He also stresses the importance of making sure everyone who works in the farm or ranch is aware of NWS and knows how to react if an infection is found.

Educating U.S. Producers

Chris Womack, a veterinarian and rancher from San Angelo, Texas, says he remembers helping his dad treat calves with NWS infestations.

“I can still remember the smell,” Womack says. “I thought it was cool because I was a little kid, and we dug maggots out of the calves. I can still smell it like it was yesterday, and it was horrible to look at them.”

Womack shares a historic context of NWS, which he says means “man-eater,” on the “Registered Ranching” podcast with Tucker Brown.

Womack also describes the emotional toll on the producer when faced with NWS.

“If you’re a steward of an animal and it has half of its head rotting off, or its abdomen is a gaping wound because the maggots are eating it up, or it gets in their ear and they’re walking around in circles with brain damage because they got meningitis, well, it’s devastating.”

Womack summarizes NWS isn’t just an agricultural issue, it’s a human health concern. Historical accounts and recent data from Panama show NWS can affect humans, particularly vulnerable populations like homeless individuals or those in areas with limited medical access.

Womack says the experiences with NWS during his childhood is the reason he is a veterinarian today. He says there is a generational ignorance in the U.S. regarding NWS, and that is something he is committed to fixing.

“The only way we can overcome ignorance is education,” he stresses.

Your Next Read: Breaking: Mexican Border Closed Again as New World Screwworm Comes Within 370 Miles of the U.S.

One Big Beautiful Bill Passes, What Does It Mean for Dairy Farmers?

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 15:00:00 GMT

After passing the “One Big Beautiful Bill act” (OBBB) last Thursday, the American dairy farmer has new legislation to hopefully help aid prices, offer tax relief and boost current insurance programs. Now that the dust has settled and the ink has dried, here is a closer look at what will affect the average dairy producer going forward.

The OBBB first and foremost extended the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) through 2031. This will ensure that producers have no gap in the insurance coverage that helps support income through the RMA. There are a few key changes made to make it a little more attractive to the producer such as changing the Tier 1 coverage limit from 5 million to 6 million pounds of milk per farm. As production per cow increases and farm sizes grow, this 20% increase was seen as necessary to support the farms that feed us. Another important change is farms can now use the highest production year from 2021-2023 as their baseline. There is also a 25% discount for producers to commit on multiple year enrollment on their premiums.

In an effort to ensure transparency for Class III and IV milk, both the House and Senate agreed that requiring a biennial USDA cost survey of dairy processors should be mandatory. The goal is to better align make-allowance estimates with timely real costs of producing cheese, butter and nonfat dry milk so the processor has less marketing power and help ensure the long-term pricing fairness.

As many dairy producers also have row crops, there are many benefits shared by extending the commodity and risk management programs like ARC and PLC as well. Higher payment caps (12.5%), higher ARC coverage (90%), higher reference prices and the ability to update base acres are a few of the highlights to help farmers.

There are many tax benefits on this bill as well. One key change is allowing farm implements to be deducted in full year one. Making it no longer a requirement to deduct large equipment purchases over several years. This puts the financial decisions in the farmer’s hands for how they want to expense large purchases. The bill also made the Section 199A deduction permanent to deduct up to 20% of business-related income as well as increasing the small business expense threshold.

For our future family farms, there are provisions that allow death tax exemptions which are now permanent. It increases the doubled Death Tax exemption which will aid in passing down farms and assets to the younger generation. While the new farmers are getting started, they have now increased the Beginning Farmer premium subsidy which helps cover a part of the cost of crop insurance and extended it from 5 to 10 years of aid.

On the animal health front, the bill ads verbiage that the USDA must spend $233 million per year on animal disease research and response efforts. This pumps significantly more money into the National Animal Disease Preparedness program as well as research in the vaccine production. With all eyes on screwworm lately, this is important for response time and veterinary preparedness to help diagnose faster as well as aid in the training of state responders on all diseases but highlights the importance of controlling threats such as new world screwworm.

While there are imperfections in all government programs, the aim of this bill was to help the American farmer and to support the family farm as well as the communities around them. We’ll learn more as time goes on about the good and the bad this bill brings but the intentions of the bill are clear and the benefits to the dairy farm, while subtle could be what makes the next five years a little easier on dairy farm economics.

Sarah Jungman is a commodity broker with AgMarket.Net and AgDairy, the dairy division of John Stewart & Associates Inc. (JSA). JSA is a full-service commodity brokerage firm based out of St. Joseph, MO. Sarah’s office is located in Winterset, Iowa and she may be reached at 515-272-5799 or through the website www.agmarket.net .

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New World Screwworm: The Billion Dollar Battle at the Southern Border

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 18:42:24 GMT

Nearly 60 years ago, the U.S. eradicated New World screwworm (NWS). Today, the risk of reintroduction is real. So real that Ethan Lane with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) says it’s not a matter of if NWS will reach the U.S. but when.

“We need to spend $300 million now to save us $8 billion down the line in eradication costs,” says Lane, who serves as the senior vice president of government affairs. “This is a marathon, not a sprint, and it’s going to take years to re-eradicate New World Screwworm and push it back to Panama.”

As the fight to keep NWS out of the U.S. ramps up, the economic impact on ranchers and the industry is top of mind.

“Successfully eradicating New World screwworm from the U.S. in 1966 cost stakeholders’ tens of millions of dollars,” says TR Lansford III, DVM, deputy executive director and assistant state veterinarian with the Texas Animal Health Commission. “The freedom from NWS provides an estimated $1 billion in direct benefits to livestock producers and $3.7 billion in benefits to the general economy annually.”

Financial Impact of NWS On Ranchers
Regular, large-scale outbreaks of NWS started occurring in the U.S. in the 1930s. According to APHIS, producer losses have reached:

1930s and 1940s — $5 million to $10 million per year
1950s and 1960s — $60 million to $120 million per year
1970s — $132.1 million per year (While the U.S. successfully eradicated the devastating pest, there have been outbreaks, primarily in Texas, since then.)

(APHIS)

Experts agree if NWS reaches the U.S., eradication today will be far more expensive due to the size of the cattle herd, speed and distance of cattle movement in commerce, and increased wildlife interfaces.

“Historically it cost tens of millions, and now it’s estimated to cost into the billions of dollars to eradicate this pest if it gets back to the U.S,” Lansford says.

Based on historical data from an isolated outbreak in Texas in 1976, per-head impact reached $452 in today’s dollars, totaling $732 million.

“[NWS] is a highly impactful foreign animal pest because it is expensive and deadly,” Lansford says. “Back in 1935, when screwworms were endemic in Texas, the state lost about 180,000 head of cattle alone in that year.”

Lansford says the industry will see decreased livestock production and increased veterinary services, medication, insecticide, labor and vehicle costs for the inspection and treatment of NWS.

“Infested wounds and/or mucous membranes and lesions created by this pest cause significant distress and damage to an animal, which can lead to chronic conditions making the animal less marketable and less productive in its lifespan,” he adds.

USDA Investment to Fight NWS
The reopening of Moore Air Base in Texas as a sterile fly distribution facility has an estimated price tag of $8.5 million. A brand new production facility, which would take two to three years to build would cost $300 to $600 million, depending on location and resources.

“That doesn’t include what it would cost to continue to operate one of those facilities,” Lansford says. “Certainly, research dollars also need to be spent to develop more effective treatments and other methods and modalities that we can use to help offset not only the infestations, but help prevent those infestations.”

USDA is also investing $21 million in the renovation of an existing fruit fly production facility in Metapa, Mexico, to further the long-term goal of eradicating NWS.

Border Closing Impacts U.S. Cattle Industry
Since May, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has suspended imports of live cattle, horses and bison from Mexico to keep NWS out of the U.S. Many U.S. cattle feeders depend on Mexican cattle to fill feedlots, especially now when the U.S. cattle inventory is at a 74-year low.

“Mexico exports, on average, 1.2 million head of cattle to the U.S. each year,” says Kathy Simmons, chief veterinarian for NCBA.

Obviously, that number will take a hit with the border closed, but Simmons says even prior to the May 11 suspension, mitigation protocols for NWS, including wound inspections, for cattle from Mexico allowed less than 25% of the usual numbers to cross the southern border each month.

As the U.S. fights to limit the impact of NWS, it’s a long-term battle, reminds Lane with NCBA.

“They’re getting those flies on that leading edge of the incursion. As I understand it, that is slowing the advance in a way that is very good to see,” he says. “The fact is, there are just so many different vectors. There are so many different ways this thing can move north, and we’re going into the hot season where flies thrive. So it’s really about slowing it, about preparing and about making sure we have the resources to meet it and push it back down as quickly as possible. But certainly everyone’s trying to focus right now on trying to hold the line as much as humanly possible.”

As Lansford has come to realize: “This pest will be one that leaves quite a mark on our economy.”

Your next read: How to Win Beef Consumers’ Trust: Authenticity and Responding to Concerns

Be Aware: Dangerous Asian Longhorned Tick Continues Migrating West

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 14:42:45 GMT

The Asian Longhorned Tick (ALHT) poses a serious threat to cattle health. ALHTs carry Theileria, which is a protozoan parasite that infects red and white blood cells. It can lead to anemia and, in some cases, death.

ALHTs are native to eastern Asia, eastern China, Japan, the Russian Far East and Korea but were introduced to Australia, New Zealand and western Pacific Islands. In other countries, it can also be called a bush tick, cattle tick or scrub tick.

In the U.S., ALHT was first detected in New Jersey in 2017. Since then, it has spread to more than 20 states with recent confirmations in Illinois , Michigan and Iowa .

According to USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) ALHTs are known to carry pathogens, which can cause disease and may also cause distress to the host from their feeding in large numbers. For example, a dairy cow may have a 25% decrease in milk production after becoming a host.

A female can reproduce without a mate and lay up to 2,000 eggs at a time. This can cause great stress on a heavily infested animal and result in reduced growth and production. A severe infestation can kill the animal from excessive blood loss.

Asian longhorned tick life stages and relative actual size.

(Photos of unfed ticks by Centers for Disease Control. Photos of engorged ticks by Jim Occi, Rutgers, Center for Vector Biology.)

What does it look like?

Unfed ALHTs range from a light reddish-tan to a dark red with brown, dark markings. While the adult female grows to the size of a pea when full of blood, other stages of the tick are very small — about the size of a sesame seed.

Adult females are a grey-green with yellowish markings. Male ticks are rare.

APHIS reports it only takes a single tick to create a population in a new location.

The above photos are of a AHLT engorged (on the left) and an adult AHLT not engorged.

(New Jersey Department of Agriculture)

ALHTs need warm-blooded hosts to feed and survive. They have been found on various species of domestic animals — such as sheep, goats, dogs, cats, horses, cattle and chickens — and wildlife. The tick has also been found on people.

What are the health risks?

APHIS says ALHTs are not known to carry Lyme disease, but they can cause tickborne diseases affecting humans and animals such as:

Rocky Mountain spotted fever
Heartland virus
Powassan virus

APHIS says those diseases have not been confirmed outside of a laboratory setting in the U.S. In addition, U.S. ALHT populations can transmit U.S. Theileria orientalis Ikeda strain (Cattle theileriosis) in the laboratory.

In an Iowa State University release , Grant Dewell, Extension beef veterinarian and associate professor, says cattle affected by Theileriosis will show signs of lethargy, anemia and difficulty breathing. They may develop ventral edema, exercise intolerance, jaundice and abortions.

“Although signs of Theileriosis are similar to anaplasmosis, younger animals and calves often display more severe signs compared to mature cows and bulls,” he says. “Due to anemia from both tick infestation and Theileria, the risk of death can be elevated. If cattle producers suspect either Theileria or ALHT, have a veterinarian collect appropriate samples and submit them to a veterinary diagnostic lab.”

According to an Oklahoma State University press release , under laboratory conditions ALHT is a competent vector of numerous pathogens that can cause disease in humans, including Rickettsia rickettsii (Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever), Heartland Virus and Powassan Virus.

In “ Clinical Infectious Diseases, ” Bobbi Pritt, MD, MSC, with the division of clinical microbiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., reported a human bite that occurred in New York in 2019. She says though the report of a human bite isn’t surprising, it proves the invasive longhorned tick continues to bite hosts in its newest location.

“This is extremely worrisome for several reasons,” she writes. “One reason is Asian longhorned ticks can carry several important human pathogens, including the potentially fatal severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) virus and Rickettsia japonica, which cases Japanese spotted fever. While these pathogens have yet to be found in the United States, there is a risk of their future introduction.”

Also, Pritt says several other human pathogens have been detected in the ticks, but it’s not clear if the ALHT species are able to transmit them to humans. They include Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, Rickettsia, and Borrelia species. Lyme disease is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria.

She warns the organisms are present in states where ALHTs have been found and that it’s possible the tick — known to be an aggressive biter— might be able to transmit Heartland virus given its close relationship to SFTS virus.

How to Tackle Ticks

According to APHIS, various strategies effectively mitigate tick populations on hosts and in the environment.

Regular tick treatments should be effective against ALHTs. Consult your veterinarian or agriculture extension agent about which products to use.
Check your livestock for ticks regularly.
Safely remove ticks from people and pets as quickly as possible. If you think you’ve found an ALHT, seal it in a zip-top bag and give it to your veterinarian for identification.
Habitat modifications can help prevent ticks on feedlots and pastures. This may include mowing grass, removing trees, reducing shade by thinning trees, understory removal and placing mulch barriers.
Apply acaricide using label instructions to tick habitats, such as woodland edges and grassy patches, during times when ticks are most actively seeking hosts. Although it varies by year, ALHTs are generally active from March to November. Consult your state and local regulations for approved acaricides.

“Cattle producers should aggressively control external parasites this summer,” Dewell summarizes. “Insecticide ear tags alone are not enough to control ticks. Consider incorporating a back rubber or regularly applying a pour-on during the summer. Pyrethroid-based products are also available that include a tick control label. If an increase in tick infestations is observed, an avermectin pour-on may be the best intervention.”

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Calf Milk Poses H5N1 Risk, Too

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 17:11:23 GMT

Soon after the discovery of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) strain H5N1 in dairy cattle, scientists learned that milk was a primary vector in spreading the disease from cow to cow.

But what happens when waste milk from the sick cows is fed to other animals? Early in the disease outbreak, domestic cats consuming raw milk from infected cows began dying. This prompted researchers at the USDA National Animal Disease Center in Ames, Iowa to conduct a study on the potential of passing H5N1 to preweaned calves via unpasteurized waste milk.

Four Holstein calves ranging from 7-11 weeks of age were fed approximately 1 quart of unpasteurized waste milk from experimentally inoculated cows twice a day for 4 days. One additional calf served as a control, and was fed milk from HPAI-free cows in the same experiment period.

Calves fed infected milk showed signs of illness that included nasal discharge, mild fever, mild lethargy, loose stools, and slightly increased respiratory effort for 5-6 days. The researchers noted that all symptoms were mild and may not be readily recognized in an on-farm setting with other environmental or health stressors.

Transmission of the H5N1 virus to the 4 calves fed infected milk was confirmed via nasal swabs collected 2-4 days after the feedings. Within 2 weeks after the experimental feeding trial, all calves in the study were humanely euthanized. Presence of the virus was further confirmed via tissue samples from lung lesions, lymph nodes, and tonsils from the 4 calves receiving infected milk.

The USDA researchers said the study underscored the importance of pasteurizing waste milk fed to calves, as pasteurization has been proven to kill the virus. This is especially crucial because research on infected herds has shown that cows begin shedding the virus in their milk up to 2 weeks before they start to show clinical signs of illness.

Meanwhile, researchers at the University of California-Davis have investigated a practical alternative to pasteurization of waste milk: acidification. In a study recently published in the Journal of Dairy Science , they noted that fewer than 50% of large dairy farms routinely pasteurize waste milk fed to calves.

They found that in a laboratory setting, acidification of waste milk with citric acid to a pH of 4.1-4.2 effectively deactivated the H5N1 virus. The acidification process takes only 6 hours and does not require refrigeration.

The UC-Davis researchers posed that acidification can be a practical, affordable, accessible method of preventing the spread of H5N1 to calves in operations that do not have pasteurization systems for waste milk.

Calves will be a critical control point in navigating H5N1 in the U.S. dairy industry. The USDA researchers noted that 1 out of every 10 dairy operations in the country raise their heifers off site, and most veal and beef-cross calves are transported to another facility for raising.

Protecting those calves from H5N1 will be a crucial element in preventing spread of the disease.

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Trump Administration Shifts Strategy on Avian Flu

Mon, 17 Feb 2025 00:38:30 GMT

The Trump administration is rolling out a new strategy to combat avian flu, moving away from mass culling of infected flocks. Spearheaded by National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, the plan prioritizes enhanced biosecurity measures and medication to control the spread of the virus.

Key Points of the New Strategy

Biosecurity and Medication: Improved containment protocols and medication aim to reduce reliance on widespread culling.
Smart Perimeter Approach: Targeted containment methods will enhance efficiency in preventing outbreaks.
Collaboration: Government scientists and global academic experts are contributing to the plan’s development.

Recent Developments

Vaccine Approval: Zoetis received conditional USDA approval for an avian flu vaccine.
Industry Support: Major poultry and dairy organizations back vaccine use to control the virus.

Concerns and Challenges

Trade Impact: The National Chicken Council warns that vaccinating flocks could hinder poultry exports.
Efficacy of Previous Measures: Critics argue that the Biden administration’s mass culling approach was costly and ineffective.
Ongoing Outbreak: The flu has affected over 150 million birds since 2022, driving up egg prices and causing supply shortages.

Future Outlook

The plan’s success hinges on industry adoption and global trade acceptance. Balancing effective disease control with maintaining poultry exports remains a critical challenge for the administration.

NEC-Led Task Force on HPAI/Egg Prices to Confront Hurdles, Challenges

Hassett is working with industry experts and government analysts and officials, including those at USDA. Secretary Rollins late Thursday heard from various experts on the topic.

The emergence and spread of new avian influenza variants have significantly impacted egg prices, poultry production, and resulted in public health concerns, necessitating ongoing vigilance and adaptive strategies from both the industry and government agencies. Some of the issues:

Background

Bird flu was present during the first Trump administration (2017-2021). Several notable events related to avian influenza occurred during this period:

Outbreaks in 2017

In March 2017, an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H7N9 virus was detected in two commercial chicken breeder flocks in the United States.
This North American lineage HPAI H7N9 virus was genetically unrelated to the Asian lineage HPAI H7N9 viruses reported in China.

Policy Continuation

A USDA bird flu response plan, updated in May 2017 during Trump’s first administration, incorporated policy guidance based on lessons from influenza outbreaks during the Obama and first Trump administrations. The plan stated that “rapid depopulation of infected poultry is critical to halt virus transmission and must be prioritized.”

Depopulation Strategy

During a March 2017 bird flu outbreak, a USDA report indicated that “nearly 253,000 birds were depopulated.”
This depopulation strategy was a continuation of long-standing practices to prevent bird flu from spreading, as confirmed by agriculture experts.

While bird flu was present during Trump’s first term, the current widespread outbreak affecting cattle and causing human infections began in 2022, after Trump left office. The ongoing situation presents new challenges for the incoming Trump administration in 2025.

The Biden administration faced significant bird flu outbreaks during its tenure, with the H5N1 virus causing widespread impacts across the United States. Here’s an overview of the outbreaks and the actions taken:

Outbreaks

The current H5N1 outbreak began in 2022 and intensified throughout the Biden administration.
By early 2025, the virus had affected over 130 million birds, including both wild and domestic populations.
The outbreak expanded to dairy cattle, with 925 dairy herds across 16 states infected by October 2024.
Human cases were reported, with 67 confirmed cases and one fatality in the U.S. by early 2025.

Actions Taken

The Biden administration and then USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack implemented several measures to address the outbreak:

Funding and Resource Allocation

By January 2025, the administration had spent approximately $1.8 billion battling bird flu since the spring of 2023.
An additional $306 million was allocated in early 2025 for various response efforts.
In May 2024, nearly $200 million was provided to contain the outbreak, with $98 million for dairy farms and $101 million split between the FDA and CDC.

Testing and Surveillance

USDA implemented a Federal Order in May 2024 requiring testing of cattle before interstate movement.
In December 2024, a new mandate was announced to test the national milk supply for bird flu.
Enhanced testing and monitoring strategies were planned to better assess the presence of H5N1.

Biosecurity Measures

Vilsack emphasized the importance of improved biosecurity as a key strategy to limit the spread of H5N1.
USDA announced assistance for producers with H5N1-affected premises to improve on-site biosecurity.

Interagency Cooperation

USDA worked closely with the FDA on lab testing and with the CDC on public health matters.
A response team including four HHS agencies (CDC, FDA, NIH, and ASPR) was established to work with USDA. (ASPR is the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response.)

Public Health Initiatives

Funds were allocated to enhance hospital readiness and conduct research on therapeutics, diagnostics, and vaccines.
Local jurisdictions received funding to increase monitoring of high-risk populations, such as livestock workers.

Bottom Line: The above actions demonstrate the Biden administration’s multifaceted approach to addressing the H5N1 outbreak, focusing on containment, research, and protection of both animal and human health. However, despite these efforts, the outbreak expanded to dairy cattle, with 925 dairy herds across 16 states infected by October 2024. Human cases continued to occur, with 67 confirmed cases and one fatality by early 2025. Critics argued that the Biden administration’s response was not swift or comprehensive enough.

Vaccines

They are seen as impractical but could be used in targeted areas. Most available vaccines for avian influenza in chickens are administered through injection. This method, while effective, can be time-consuming and stressful for the birds, especially in large-scale poultry operations.

Currently, there are limited options for vaccinating chickens against bird flu via feed or water, but research is ongoing to develop more convenient methods of vaccine administration

New Variants

The disease is a moving target. USDA under then Secretary Tom Vilsack conditionally approved a vaccine made by Zoetis, containing a killed version of an H5N2 variant designed to work against circulating H5N1 variants. However, the effectiveness of vaccines may be compromised as new variants emerge, potentially requiring frequent updates.

Vilsack, during his tenure as USDA Secretary, took several steps regarding HPAI vaccines, but the situation has evolved over time:

Vaccine approval and funding. In 2016, Zoetis received a conditional license for its H5N1 vaccine and a contract award for the USDA’s National Veterinary Stockpile. This vaccine was approved under Vilsack’s leadership, as he served as USDA Secretary from 2009 to 2017, and then again from 2021 until Jan. 2025.
Vaccine fate. The Zoetis H5N1 vaccine approved in 2016 remained in the National Veterinary Stockpile until 2021 but was never used. This suggests that the vaccine was eventually discarded or removed from the stockpile without being deployed.
In August 2024, Vilsack authorized the first field trial of an H5N1 vaccine for cattle.

Of note: As of February 2025, Zoetis received a conditional license from USDA for its Avian Influenza Vaccine, H5N2 Subtype, Killed Virus, for use in chickens.

USDA has allocated significant funding for HPAI response:

In May 2024, Vilsack approved the transfer of $824 million from the Commodity Credit Corporation to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) for HPAI response efforts. This was in addition to a previous approval of $1.3 billion in emergency funds to tackle nationwide HPAI detections.
Former USDA Secretary Vilsack revealed that USDA was accelerating vaccine production for bovines, with seven potential vaccine candidates in development.

While not yet widely available, some alternative methods for vaccinating chickens against bird flu are being explored:

Spray vaccination: Some researchers have evaluated immune responses in chickens vaccinated via coarse spray with adenovirus-vectored avian influenza vaccines. This method shows promise for mass immunization of poultry, potentially eliciting both systemic and mucosal immune responses.
Drinking Water: As of now, there are no available vaccines that can be delivered through drinking water for avian influenza. However, this route of administration is being researched as a potential method for mass vaccination.
Aerosol/Spray: Only one vaccine is currently available for aerosol/spray administration. This method could potentially allow for easier mass vaccination of poultry flocks.

Challenges

The development of vaccines suitable for mass application methods outside hatcheries, such as via drinking water or spray/aerosolization, is still in progress. These methods would greatly simplify the vaccination process for large-scale poultry operations. Researchers are working on various approaches to make vaccination more practical:

Vectored vaccines: Some vaccines use viral vectors, like adenoviruses, to deliver avian influenza antigens. These may be more amenable to alternative administration routes.
Mucosal immunity: Spray and aerosol methods are being explored to target mucosal immune responses, which could provide better protection against respiratory infections like avian influenza.

Of note: While progress is being made, as of now, most approved and effective vaccines for avian influenza in chickens still require injection. The development of feed- or water-based vaccines remains an active area of research in the poultry industry.

Another Issue:

Changing variants of avian influenza significantly impact the egg price situation and overall poultry industry. Here’s how:

Emergence of New Genotypes. A new genotype of avian influenza, D1.1, emerged in wild migratory birds in September 2024 and subsequently spread to domestic poultry. This new variant has had severe consequences:

Increased spread across North America’s four migratory waterfowl flyways.
Spillover into poultry, humans, and even cows.
Caused a severe flu case in British Columbia and a death in Louisiana.
Scientists announced they found D1.1 in infected dairy cattle in Nevada for the first time. A dairy farm worker tested positive for H5N1, the state’s first reported human case.
Some scientists fear the D1.1 variant carries a new mutation that helps the virus copy itself more easily onto the cells of mammals, including humans.
Some scientists suspect a new strain is spreading via dust from bird droppings, carried by the wind.

Impact on Poultry and Egg Production.

The emergence of new variants has led to:

More than 20 million egg-laying chickens in the U.S. died in the last quarter due to the bird flu outbreak. This figure includes both chickens that died from the virus and those that were culled to prevent further spread of the infection. This recent toll represents the most severe impact on America’s egg supply since the outbreak began in 2022.
Reduction in the conventional egg-laying flock by 3.7% in January 2025 alone.
Significant drop in egg production, falling to 9.1 billion dozen in 2022 from 9.4 billion dozen in 2019.
The losses have affected all major production systems, including conventional caged, cage-free, and certified organic types (with some major differences as noted below).
Egg prices have soared to their highest levels in years, largely driven by the virus (details below).
The U.S. egg industry now has 8% fewer egg-laying hens than it did three years ago.
The federal government has allocated substantial funds to compensate farmers, with USDA spending $1.25 billion on payments to farmers since the outbreak started in 2022.
New bird flu outbreaks have also struck major egg-laying operations in Indiana and Georgia, leading to heists of the precious commodity and the sight of empty supermarket shelves where cartons of eggs should be.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul recently ordered all live-bird markets in New York City and some surrounding areas to shut down for a week to stem the spread of the virus. Three ducks at the Queens Zoo died of bird flu and as many as 12 birds at the Bronx Zoo that died after possible exposure are being tested for the virus.

The bird flu outbreak has significantly impacted the availability of organic and cage-free eggs, though in some unexpected ways:

Impact on Organic Egg Production

Less affected: Organic egg production has been less impacted by the bird flu outbreak compared to conventional egg production.
Smaller flocks: Organic egg-laying hens typically live in smaller flocks with more spacious conditions, which may contribute to their lower infection rates.
Price stability: Organic egg prices have been relatively more stable due to different pricing practices, with producers often setting long-term strategic prices with retailers.

Cage-Free Egg Availability

Disproportionate impact: Despite representing only about a third of U.S. egg layers, cage-free hens contributed to nearly 60% of all bird flu cases in 2024.
Supply challenges: The disproportionate impact on cage-free flocks has led to significant supply issues, especially in states with cage-free egg laws.
Recovery difficulties: Rebuilding cage-free flocks can be more challenging due to fewer sources and stricter regulations in some states.

Market Dynamics

Pricing anomalies: In some areas, like New York City, organic and cage-free eggs have been priced lower than conventional eggs due to existing contracts.
Potential price increases: As contracts expire, prices for organic and cage-free eggs may increase significantly.
State regulations: Nine states, including California and Colorado, have laws requiring eggs to be from cage-free hens, further complicating supply issues.

Other Issues:

Cage-free transition: About 40% of U.S. commercial egg layers are now in cage-free systems, up from just 30 million in 2015.
Supply/demand imbalance: The growth in cage-free egg demand has outpaced supply, exacerbated by bird flu outbreaks.
Bottom line: While organic eggs have been somewhat less affected by the bird flu outbreak, cage-free egg production has faced significant challenges. This has led to complex market dynamics, including unexpected pricing patterns and potential future shortages, particularly in states with cage-free egg laws.

Economic and Trade Implications.

Changing variants can affect international trade and economic stability:

The presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) restricts international trade in live birds and poultry meat.
New variants may lead to more stringent trade restrictions, further impacting national economies.

Human Health Concerns

As the virus evolves, there are increasing concerns about human health:

The D1.1 genotype has infected humans, with 68 confirmed cases and one fatality in the United States.
Experts worry that as the virus replicates, the chance of a mutation allowing human-to-human transmission increases.

Egg Prices

Egg prices in the United States have reached unprecedented levels, with the average cost of a dozen Grade A eggs hitting a record high of $4.95 in January 2025, but prices in individual states and stores can be much higher or lower. This represents a significant increase from previous years, with prices nearly doubling since 2024. The surge in egg prices has been particularly dramatic, with a 15% increase from December 2024 to January 2025 alone.

Several factors have contributed to the soaring egg prices:

Avian influenza outbreak: The primary driver of the price increase is an ongoing outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) that began in 2022. This outbreak has led to the culling of millions of chickens, significantly reducing the egg-laying population.
Supply chain disruptions: The bird flu epidemic has caused severe disruptions in the egg supply chain, with the population of conventionally caged chickens reduced by 8%.
Supply/demand imbalance: Consumer demand for eggs has remained steady despite the price increases, contributing to the supply-demand imbalance.
Shift in consumer preferences: There has been a growing preference for specialty eggs, such as cage-free and organic varieties, which are typically more expensive.
State Regulations: Some states, like California, have implemented stricter regulations requiring eggs to be sold from cage-free hens, further impacting prices.

Impact on consumers and businesses. The egg price surge has had widespread effects:

Grocery store limitations: Some grocery chains, including Trader Joe’s and Kroger, have placed limits on the number of eggs customers can purchase.
Restaurant surcharges: Restaurants like Waffle House have implemented per-egg surcharges to offset the increased costs.
Regional price variations: Prices vary significantly by region, with some areas seeing even higher costs. For example, in California, a carton of two dozen eggs can cost $13.49.

Egg Price Outlook

USDA predicts that egg prices could rise by up to 20% in 2025. The duration of high prices remains uncertain, as it depends on controlling the spread of avian flu and replenishing the egg-laying chicken population.

Experts suggest it may take at least another three to six months before prices begin to moderate. But some analysts say if a way can be found to deal with HPAI, egg prices would tumble. As consumers grapple with these high prices, some are adapting by reducing egg consumption or seeking alternatives. The situation continues to evolve, with both political and economic implications as the country faces this ongoing challenge in the food supply chain.

Does the U.S. import and export eggs? Yes.

Total egg exports from the U.S. in 2024 amounted to 172.8 million dozen eggs. This figure includes both table eggs and egg products (converted to shell egg equivalent). Breaking this down further:

Table egg exports: 84.3 million dozen
Egg product exports: 24,834 metric tons
The total value of egg exports in 2024 was $314.2 million, an increase of 5.9% compared to 2023.
In 2023, the U.S. exported $144.9 million worth of eggs, making it the 6th largest exporter globally. The U.S. maintains a positive trade balance in eggs, with exports exceeding imports by $139.6 million in 2023.

Imports

In 2023, the U.S. imported $110.15 million worth of eggs, primarily from Canada, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

The U.S. generally is a net exporter of eggs, with exports significantly outweighing imports.

The top egg-exporting countries globally in 2023 were:

Netherlands: $610.1 million (20.5% of global egg exports)
Poland: $463.4 million (15.6%)
Turkey: $224.5 million (7.5%)
Mainland China: $222.8 million (7.5%)
Germany: $181.5 million (6.1%)

The import of eggs into the U.S. is subject to strict regulations, including requirements for USDA import permits, veterinary health certificates, port inspections, and import quarantines. These measures ensure the safety and quality of imported eggs entering the U.S. market.

The U.S. gov’t has several potential options to address the rising egg prices:

Regulatory Actions

Investigate price gouging: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) could investigate potential antitrust violations or price gouging in the egg industry. Some lawmakers have urged the FTC to probe egg producers for potentially coordinating efforts to restrict supply and sustain inflated prices.
Ease FDA regulations: The National Chicken Council (NCC) has petitioned the FDA to modify policies that force the broiler industry to destroy safe, nutritious eggs. Relaxing these regulations could increase egg supply and potentially lower prices. The issue stems from a 2009 FDA rule known as the Shell Egg Rule, which requires all shell eggs to be refrigerated at or below 45°F within 36 hours of being laid. This rule, intended for table eggs, inadvertently affects surplus broiler hatching eggs. Broiler eggs intended for hatching must be stored at 65°F for up to five days before determining which eggs are needed for hatching. This process is incompatible with the FDA’s refrigeration requirements, forcing the broiler industry to discard surplus eggs instead of sending them to egg breakers for processing into liquid egg products.

The NCC has requested FDA to: Exercise enforcement discretion to allow surplus broiler eggs to be processed into egg products under USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) jurisdiction; Exempt surplus broiler hatching eggs intended for breaking from the refrigeration requirements in the Shell Egg Rule. NCC argues that the current policy results in significant waste, costing the broiler industry over $27 million annually. Allowing these eggs to be used would help alleviate egg shortages and high prices, especially during events like the recent highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak. The eggs would be safe for consumption as they would be pasteurized during processing, which is effective in controlling Salmonella.

As of February 2025, FDA has not yet granted the NCC’s request. The FDA denied a similar request on June 12, 2023, stating that the proposed action would not maintain the same level of public health protection as the current egg safety rule.

Policy Interventions

Address avian flu outbreak: The government could allocate more resources to combat the ongoing bird flu crisis, which has significantly impacted poultry populations and egg production since 2022.
Implement price controls: While controversial and unlikely under the Trump administration, the government could consider temporary price controls on eggs to limit further increases.
Increase imports: Easing restrictions on egg imports could help supplement domestic supply and potentially lower prices.

Economic Measures

Provide subsidies: The government could offer subsidies (incentives) to egg producers to offset increased production costs and encourage greater supply.
Offer consumer relief: Implementing targeted financial assistance or tax credits for low-income families could help offset the impact of high egg prices.

USDA has several potential measures to stabilize egg prices:

Enhance biosecurity: Promote and enforce stricter biosecurity measures across poultry farms to prevent the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).
Increase surveillance: Improve monitoring and early detection of HPAI outbreaks to minimize their impact on egg production.
Investigate price gouging: Collaborate with the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice to scrutinize potential anti-competitive practices in the egg industry.
Enhance price discovery: Implement new regulations to improve fairness and transparency in pricing mechanisms for poultry farmers.
Promote competition: Support smaller egg producers and encourage market diversification to reduce reliance on large conglomerates.
Expedite flock replacement: Facilitate faster repopulation of laying hen flocks after HPAI outbreaks.
Address labor shortages: Develop programs to alleviate workforce issues in the egg industry that hamper production.
Ease import restrictions: Consider temporary measures to increase egg imports and supplement domestic supply.
Implement purchase limits: Encourage retailers to set temporary limits on egg purchases to prevent panic buying and ensure fair distribution.
Monitor retail practices: Scrutinize grocery stores’ pricing strategies and promotional activities to prevent unjustified price hikes.
Invest in research: Fund studies on HPAI-resistant poultry breeds and alternative production methods to increase resilience in the egg industry.
Improve forecasting: Enhance data collection and analysis to better predict and prepare for future supply chain disruptions.

Challenges and Limitations

Government intervention in markets can have unintended consequences. Additionally, some factors contributing to high egg prices, such as inflation and increased production costs, may be beyond the government’s immediate control.

President Donald Trump, who campaigned on promises to lower food prices, is facing pressure from lawmakers to act. However, no specific plan has been announced to address the egg price crisis, but NEC Director Kevin Hassett has signaled that a plan is coming, which was released on Sunday.

Second Bird Flu Strain Found in U.S. Dairy Cattle, USDA says

Thu, 06 Feb 2025 14:36:48 GMT

U.S. dairy cattle tested positive for a strain of bird flu that previously had not been seen in cows, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Wednesday, ramping up concerns about the persistent spread of the virus.

The H5N1 virus has reduced milk output in cattle, pushed up egg prices by wiping out millions of hens, and infected nearly 70 people since April as it has spread across the country.

Genome sequencing of milk from Nevada identified the different strain, known as the D1.1 genotype, in dairy cows for the first time, the USDA said. Previously, all 957 bird flu infections among dairy herds reported since last March had been caused by another strain, the B3.13 genotype, according to the agency.

Reuters reported news of the detection of the second strain on Wednesday ahead of USDA’s announcement.

The second strain was the predominant genotype among wild birds this past fall and winter and has also been found in poultry, the USDA said. It was identified in dairy cattle through an agency program that began testing milk for bird flu in December.

“We’re seeing the H5N1 virus itself be smarter than all of us,” said Beth Thompson, South Dakota’s state veterinarian.

“It’s modifying itself so it’s not just staying in the poultry and the wild waterfowl. It’s picking up a home in the mammals.”

Wild birds likely transmitted the second strain to cattle in Nevada, said J.J. Goicoechea, Nevada’s agriculture director. Farmers need to ramp up safety and security measures to protect their animals, he said.

“We obviously aren’t doing everything we can and everything we should or the virus wouldn’t be getting in,” he said.

“We didn’t get a hold on it before,” Hansen said. “We want to avoid that same scenario from happening in Nevada.”

Dairy herds that were formerly infected may be at risk again from the second strain, experts said.

“Now it looks like we have new strains of virus that may escape some of the immunity associated with the other strains of viruses that could exacerbate the epidemics among animals and wildlife,” said Gregory Gray, a University of Texas Medical Branch professor studying cattle diseases. “It’s alarming.”

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Dairy Report: Margin Pressure Continues to Mount for Dairy Producers

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 15:52:29 GMT

Dairy producers are starting the year off with margin pressure following the latest round of USDA reports. A rally in grain prices following a cut to corn yields helped push feed costs higher.

Milk prices were also under pressure. Class III February price futures fell to near $20.27 per cwt., down 65 cents, but did gain back some of those losses later in the week. Block cheese started last week at a two-month high at $1.94 but closed lower as some support melted in the wake of the WASDE report.

USDA is forecasting lower production in 2025 due to slower growth in output per cow.

Foot-and-Mouth Disease Found in Germany

First time in nearly 40 years Germany is dealing with an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. It was confirmed in a herd of water buffalo on the outskirts of Berlin. The disease causes fever along with mouth blisters in animals including cattle, swine, sheep and goats. German officials say they are taking steps to contain the disease.

The illness doesn’t pose a danger to humans, but they can transmit it. Officials say affected animals have already been euthanized and the country has already set up an exclusion and monitoring zone. The last case of foot-and-mouth disease occurred back in Germany in 1988.

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Some California Veterinarians Say Virus-Hit Dairies See More Abortions in First-Calf Heifers and Dry Cows

Tue, 14 Jan 2025 20:11:12 GMT

Triple-digit temperatures lasting for days and then weeks helped fuel a firestorm of highly pathogenic avian influenza A virus (HPAI A H5N1) cases on California dairy farms last summer.

“August wasn’t too bad, September was kind of rough, and then early October was severe,” recalls Dr. Maxwell Beal. “I think part of the problem was the cows had little relief from the heat even at night.”

But even with the onset of winter, Beal, with Mill Creek Veterinary Services, Visalia, Calif., adds that, “Cooler temperatures haven’t slowed the spread.”

Indeed, cases of the virus continue to trend upward in California. The state, the single largest producer of milk in the U.S., with 1,300 commercial herds and 1.7 million milk cows, holds the dubious distinction of being the current epicenter for HPAI H5N1.

As of Dec. 19, 2024, the California Department of Food and Agriculture had confirmed 650 dairy cowherds – roughly half of the commercial herds in the state – had been infected with the virus (see AHFSS - AHB - H5N1 Bird Flu Virus in Livestock - CDFA).

Bovine Veterinarian talked with several veterinarians in the Golden State and elsewhere about what their herds, producers and farmworkers have experienced and how they are addressing the virus. This is a summary of what practitioners shared.

Younger Dairy Animals Are Being Affected, As Well As Lactating Cows.

Among production animals on the dairy farm, lactating cows have taken the brunt of the virus infections so far, but that doesn’t mean other segments in cowherds aren’t or can’t be affected.

“I’m hearing reports from California veterinarians of sick young calves and challenges with cows resuming production and reports of dry cows aborting,” says Dr. Barb Petersen, owner and operator of Sunrise Veterinary Service, Amarillo, Texas. Petersen helped confirm the first case of HPAI H5N1 identified in U.S. dairy cattle last spring.

One of those reports came to her from Beal in California.

“I tell people, ‘Don’t sleep on your heifers, calves or your bulls, because there could be issues that we don’t know about yet simply because that’s not been our focus,’” says Beal, who reports that his virus-hit dairies have all experienced an uptick of abortions in first-calf heifers.

“One thing that happens at every affected dairy is we lose more calves, that were already called pregnant, and they’ll be all over the map as far as gestational age,” he says.

“It happens to dry cows, it happens to big calves, and these heifer abortions were all at 180- to 220-days (DCC), somewhere in there,” he adds. “Whether that’s directly caused by the bird flu or it’s caused by the clinical symptoms of the flu, I don’t know. And it’s the same for other veterinarians in our practice to the point that we will go back and reconfirm pregnant animals that we had already reconfirmed.”

Dr. Blaine Melody has had similar experiences: “We’ve consistently seen more early embryonic death and fetal loss at various days of gestation. We have recommended clients switch from long-acting dry cow tubes to lactating if we’re given the heads up before clinical outbreak, via early non-negative bulk tanks,” says Melody, a partner at Lander Veterinary Clinic, Turlock, Calif.

The Virus Amplifies Existing Health And Management Issues.

While HPAI H5N1 is associated with high morbidity and mortality in birds, this hasn’t been the case for dairy cattle in most regions of the country. Most affected animals reportedly recover with supportive treatment, and the mortality/culling rate has been low at 2% or less, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.

That percentage fits with Beal’s experience in California, but dairy producers in some parts of the state have reported higher mortality levels. Some have experienced cow mortality rates as high as 15% or 20%, according to a Reuters article published in October. See Cows dead from bird flu rot in California

“Cows that get H5N1 are compromised, so any other health issues that are present in the dairy increase,” Beal explains. “Staph aureus, mastitis, mycoplasma, all of them go up.”

“The virus takes the problems that are already on your dairy that you’ve either figured out how to cope with or they’re just sitting at a low level, and it exacerbates them for probably a month,” he adds.

Melody says management quality plays a huge role in what producers and their employees must deal with when the virus hits.

“If you have overcrowded pens, bad cow comfort, poor nutrition management, poor transition cow management or any other underlying risk factors, you will have a worse outcome with a clinical HPAI outbreak. That’s a given,” he says.

In mid-December, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a State of Emergency to address the virus in California dairy cattle, ramping up monitoring, quarantine efforts, and resource deployment. See California Issues State of Emergency Warning in Response to More Bird Flu Found on Dairies

The number of farmworkers infected with the virus is likely higher than what’s being reported.

Officially, there have been 66 confirmations of human being infected by the virus in the U.S. See H5 Bird Flu: Current Situation

Melody, Beal and other veterinarians told Bovine Veterinarian they have seen presumed infected employees on farms working with cows.

“Some of these workers are at potential risk, because we don’t know all the ways this virus is spreading yet,” Melody says.

“They just put their heads down and work, so they can keep their paycheck,” Beal adds.

Drenching Cows Can Help, But Rest Can Do As Much Good In Some Scenarios.

Both Beal and Melody say drenching can help clinical HPAI cows, but veterinarians and their producers need a good plan for the treatment to work well.

Beal says there is a significant learning curve for people who have never or seldom drenched a cow. Employees on some of the infected dairies he works with went from never using the practice to suddenly treating hundreds and even thousands of cows a day.

In that intense scenario, Beal says it’s nearly impossible for employees to succeed.

“When you run a drench hose through 1,000 cows, you will not do as good a job with that last cow as you did with the first one,” he explains.

There is real potential to cause more harm than good to the animal physically, Melody adds.

“Drenching can help, but if you’re locking cows up too long or drowning cows because you’re drenching lots of cows and you’re exhausted, that undoes any good you’re trying to accomplish,” he says.

Beal says after working with a couple of outbreaks, he decided to try a different approach.

“We started to use a let-the-cows-rest approach, and I felt like we were still doing just as much good for the animals and not exhausting our staff in the process,” he says.

However, he continued to encourage workers to drench the ones that were clinically dehydrated or exhibiting signs of duress.

“I would say the ones that showed clinical signs to the degree that they warranted treatment has averaged around 30% in a herd,” Beal says. “The ones that are obviously clinically affected we need to treat, but not necessarily the ‘she’s got a runny nose,’ cows.”

What Is Your Definition Of Disease?

Melody says one of the challenges is how veterinarians and producers define disease as well as their definition of severity. With regard to HPAI H5N1, he has observed inconsistent practices and varied approaches to reporting, because people don’t have a consistent benchmark for reference.

“When you get HPAI on dairies, every cow that gets sick is then called a flu cow, but you can’t conflate that it’s all influenza,” he says.

Melody also encourages practitioners to keep a tight rein on their treatment protocols and to maintain consistent practices with regard to regulations.

“If you make things gray, when it comes to regulatory standards, we can quickly start to spiral, because you start going, ‘Well, we made this exception for this, so why not here too?’” Melody says. “Stay with your established playbook, and don’t deviate from it.”

Melody and Beal both say they have been frustrated at times by slow turnarounds by state laboratories responsible for providing test results. Their advice: Be a squeaky wheel with regard to getting virus test results.

“Many testing labs are overrun with samples, and the process gets bogged down, or the results don’t get to the veterinarian because of confidentiality rules,” Melody says.

“Some people are shipping animals that are infected but don’t know it because they didn’t get the information back in a timely fashion from the bulk tank tests,” Beal adds. “There needs to be a reworking of the testing protocols.”

Nutrition And Cow Comfort Practices Can Help Affected Animals Return To Good Production Levels.

Melody and Beal say most of their clients’ cows return to a good level of production post infection.

“Now, do they all come back 100%? No, I haven’t seen that on any of my dairies,” Beal says. “If people compare production now to last December, there’s likely a deficit. Some of the cows are ending up 5 lb. to 6 lb. under where they were this same time last year. That’s not unusual.”

Beal adds that veterinarians who can talk with their clients about what ramifications to expect from the disease, before it ever reaches their herd, can probably save a significant number of cows from being culled in the future.

What can improve that scenario for virus-impacted cows in the future is investing dollars in nutrition and facilities as farm resources permit, Melody adds.

“Renovate your dry cow barn, put some shade over those animals, put a little extra metabolizable protein into the fresh cows right now to make sure they’re getting off to a good start,” Melody advises. “Do good management, the things that you know are going to make your cows strong. Those things will pay for themselves whether you’re in the midst of a virus outbreak or wanting to help cows in the long-term.”

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‘No Established Gold Standard’

Dr. Blaine Melody, a partner at Lander Veterinary Clinic in Turlock, Calif., says somatic cell counts (SCC) are not a gold standard for defining parameters of the HPAI A H5N1 virus. He says SCCs can be wildly different for each farm because of management differences — whether dumping not dumping milk, sturdy versus frail cows, good or bad preexisting milk quality practices.

“My goal is trying to get as close to an apples-to-apples comparison between farms, and you can only decipher that by knowing the farms and asking more questions when people start throwing numbers around,” he says.

Melody offers one real-life example from his experience:

“Two dairies get HPAI at the same time,” Melody says. “One farm gets hammered with a 15% cow clinical mastitis case rate for the duration of the epidemic. The other farm may say it never had any HPAI clinical mastitis cows and only treated a handful of febrile cows with no milk, respiratory or GI disease. You look at their records and can confirm that to be ‘true.’ You ask more questions and also learn that the primary method of identifying mastitis is different between those two farms: the first farm strips and visually screens each quarter for abnormal milk, while the second does not and relies solely on milk conductivity sensors.”

“The vast majority of these clinical cows in our area are mild cases of mastitis with no effect on the udder or cow,” he adds. “This thick, clinical HPAI milk did not get flagged with conductivity sensors. Even within the same brand there can be modified settings farm to farm. The truth in this example ‘lied’ in the salable milk quality when their SCC more than doubled.

“The importance is understanding the farm management differences and knowing what further questions to ask rather than jumping at naked numbers that are often without clear denominators,” Melody says.
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200-Plus Mammal Species Infected

While researchers have learned a lot about HPAI A H5N1 since its confirmation in a Texas dairy herd in March 2024, much is still unknown, including the various ways the disease might spread and which animals it infects.

According to USDA’s APHIS, in addition to dairy cows, more than 200 other mammal species in the U.S. have been infected by the virus since 2022. One of the hardest hit animal populations on farms are barn cats, which often consume colostrum and raw milk, not to mention potentially infected birds and vermin.

Other U.S. mammals infected with the virus include a bottlenose dolphin, foxes, bobcats, mountain lions, coyotes, skunks, harbor and grey seals, opossums, squirrels, minks, otters, black bears, brown bears, polar bears, and a single pig on a backyard farm in Oregon, confirmed in late October.

Your Next Read: I’m Going Into 2025 With Increased Concerns About HPAI H5N1

USDA Announces New Federal Order, Begins National Milk Testing Strategy to Address H5N1 in Dairy Herds

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 19:32:32 GMT

Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is announcing the start of its National Milk Testing Strategy (NMTS), which builds on measures taken by USDA and federal and state partners since the outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 in dairy cattle was first detected in March 2024. Today, USDA is issuing a new Federal Order, as well as accompanying guidance, requiring that raw (unpasteurized) milk samples nationwide be collected and shared with USDA for testing. This new guidance from USDA, which was developed with significant input from state, veterinary and public health stakeholders, will facilitate comprehensive H5N1 surveillance of the nation’s milk supply and dairy herds.

“Since the first HPAI detection in livestock, USDA has collaborated with our federal, state and industry partners to swiftly and diligently identify affected herds and respond accordingly. This new milk testing strategy will build on those steps to date and will provide a roadmap for states to protect the health of their dairy herds,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “Among many outcomes, this will give farmers and farmworkers better confidence in the safety of their animals and ability to protect themselves, and it will put us on a path to quickly controlling and stopping the virus’ spread nationwide. USDA is grateful to our partners who have provided input to make this strategy effective and actionable, and we look forward to continued collaboration in seeing this through.”

This NMTS is designed to increase USDA’s and public health partners’ understanding of the virus’ spread in the United States through a structured, uniform, and mandatory testing system that will help swiftly identify which states, and specific herds within them, are affected with H5N1; support the rapid implementation of enhanced biosecurity measures to decrease the risk of transmission to other livestock; and importantly, inform critical efforts to protect farmworkers to help lower their risk of exposure. USDA believes this additional step is needed to proactively support effective biosecurity measures, which is key for states and farmers to contain and eliminate H5N1 infections from their livestock and to eliminate HPAI in livestock across the U.S. dairy population.

“This testing strategy is a critical part of our ongoing efforts to protect the health and safety of individuals and communities nationwide,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “Our primary responsibility at HHS is to protect public health and the safety of the food supply, and we continue to work closely with USDA and all stakeholders on continued testing for H5N1 in retail milk and dairy samples from across the country to ensure the safety of the commercial pasteurized milk supply. We will continue this work with USDA for as long and as far as necessary.”

The Federal Order released today makes three new requirements. First, it requires the sharing of raw milk samples, upon request, from any entity responsible for a dairy farm, bulk milk transporter, bulk milk transfer station, or dairy processing facility that sends or holds milk intended for pasteurization. Second, the Federal Order requires herd owners with positive cattle to provide epidemiological information that enables activities such as contact tracing and disease surveillance. Finally, like USDA’s April 24 Federal Order, it requires that private laboratories and state veterinarians report positive results to USDA that come from tests done on raw milk samples drawn as part of the NMTS. The first round of silo testing under the Federal Order and the NMTS is scheduled to begin the week of Dec. 16, 2024, although some states are already conducting testing compatible with the NMTS.

This new Federal Order does not override or supersede USDA’s April 24 Federal Order , which still requires the mandatory testing of lactating dairy cows prior to interstate shipment and requires that all privately owned laboratories and state veterinarians report positive test results connected with those tests. The new Federal Order announced today is intended to complement and enhance this existing order.

National Milk Testing Strategy

As part of the National Milk Testing Strategy, APHIS will work with each state in the contiguous United States to execute testing in a way that works for the state and that aligns with the NMTS standards. Once a state begins testing under the NMTS, APHIS will place that state into one of five stages based on the HPAI H5N1 virus prevalence in that state. As states move to another stage, we will have a stronger picture of our progress towards eliminating HPAI H5N1 at state, regional and national levels. These stages include:

Stage 1: Standing Up Mandatory USDA National Plant Silo Monitoring

USDA will immediately begin nationwide testing of milk silos at dairy processing facilities. This national sample will allow USDA to identify where the disease is present, monitor trends, and help states identify potentially affected herds.

Stage 2: Determining a State’s H5N1 Dairy Cattle Status

Building on the results of silo monitoring, in collaboration with states, USDA will also stand up bulk tank sampling programs that will enable us to identify herds in the state that are affected with H5N1.

Stage 3: Detecting and Responding to the Virus in Affected States

For states with H5N1 detections, APHIS will work quickly to identify specific cases and implement rapid response measures, including enhanced biosecurity using USDA’s existing incentives programs, movement controls and contact tracing.

Stage 4: Demonstrating Ongoing Absence of H5 in Dairy Cattle in Unaffected States

Once all dairy herds in a given state are considered to be unaffected, APHIS will continue regular sampling of farms’ bulk tanks to ensure the disease does not re-emerge. Bulk tank sampling frequency will progressively decline as the state demonstrates continual silo negativity (e.g., weekly, monthly, quarterly if continually negative). If a state becomes affected, USDA will re-engage detection and response activities, and the state will return to Stage 3.

Stage 5: Demonstrating Freedom from H5 in U.S. Dairy Cattle

After all states move through Stage Four, APHIS will work with the states to begin periodic sampling and testing to illustrate long-term absence from the national herd.

As of this announcement, the following six states will be included in the first round of states brought into the program for testing: California, Colorado, Michigan, Mississippi, Oregon, and Pennsylvania.

As states begin testing under the NMTS and as they move through the five stages, their progress will be shared at USDA HPAI in Livestock Testing . While the majority of states will enter the NMTS at Stage 1, we anticipate states with ongoing testing may meet the testing requirements described above in Stages 2-4. USDA will work closely with states to determine each state’s status. While the majority of states will enter the NMTS at Stage 1, we anticipate states with ongoing testing may meet the testing requirements described above in Stages 2-4. USDA will work closely with states to determine each state’s status.

Webinars and Additional Information

USDA will co-host information sessions for all state animal health officials and state dairy regulators the week of Dec. 9 to learn more about the National Plant Silo Monitoring and sampling procedures. These sessions are scheduled for Tuesday Dec. 10 and Wednesday Dec. 11 to allow multiple opportunities for dairy regulators and industry stakeholders to participate.

APHIS has been working diligently to educate and inform key state and animal health partners about this Federal Order and National Milk Testing Strategy, as well as to establish written agreements with states to support how they can work with USDA under the new strategy.

APHIS has also sought and received input from state animal and public health partners about potential needs for the strategy and implementation across their various states, particularly for standardized sampling tools, outreach, and potential personnel and fiscal resources from USDA.

In the coming weeks, APHIS will include additional states in the NMTS. Throughout this process APHIS will continue to support and offer resources to states that develop bulk milk testing plans in a way that meets the needs of each state and the importance of the response. APHIS will work with each of the 48 contiguous states to participate in the program.

USDA’s Multifaceted Effort to Address H5N1

Since confirming the initial H5N1 infections in cattle in March 2024, USDA has taken significant steps to better understand and control the virus’s spread. This response was aided by APHIS’ more than 50 years of experience in research and managing influenzas across other animal species, and by long-standing partnerships with state animal health officials that allow for the swift establishment of all testing and response activities. APHIS and state partners have seen significant success in responding to detections identified through state-level testing programs, and the NMTS builds on these efforts and will better identify the prevalence of the virus and guide response steps nationwide.

USDA has provided all H5 livestock testing through the NAHLN laboratory network, free of charge, regardless of whether it was performed for pre-movement testing under the current Federal Order; through the Dairy Herd Status Program; under testing programs that some states have designed pursuant to their unique authorities; prior to intrastate movement to fairs, exhibitions, or sales as part of state testing programs; or for producers interested in learning the status of their livestock herds. As a result of this testing, USDA has received samples from each of the 48 contiguous states over the course of this outbreak, with all confirmed positive findings being reported through the APHIS website, and whole genome sequences of each detected virus uploaded to public databases.

USDA continues to stress to farmers nationwide that effective biosecurity practices are the best weapon against the spread of disease, and that all farms should review their current biosecurity measures and ensure best practices identified over the past eight months are incorporated, even if H5N1 has not been detected in their state or region.

USDA strongly encourages herd owners to participate in the already available producer support programs, which help to cover the cost such as biosecurity programming, PPE for employees, and veterinary care. Producers can find more information at Financial Assistance | Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service , or at your nearest USDA Farm Service Agency county office .

USDA Research Related to H5N1 in Dairy Cattle

USDA has been working collaboratively with its federal partners at HHS to better understand the origin of the emergence of the virus and its potential impact in both bovines and humans. USDA has leveraged its laboratories, researchers, and regulatory agencies to address this issue and, in partnership with FDA, help ensure the safety of our nation’s food supply. This includes lab and personnel support for FDA-designed studies to test the safety of milk and dairy products and reaffirm the efficacy of pasteurization for the safety of products on retail shelves. USDA FSIS has also completed a series of studies on beef , which demonstrate that safely cooking beef inactivates the H5N1 virus, if present. USDA APHIS has also prepared and shared two separate epidemiological reports on the virus and its spread, which can inform biosecurity practices and next steps.

To learn more about USDA’s response to HPAI in dairy cattle, visit www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-poultry-disease/avian/avian-influenza/hpai-detections/livestock .

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How Dairy Producers are Boosting Profitability

Wed, 27 Nov 2024 14:00:00 GMT

In the ever-competitive world of agriculture, dairy producers are continuously exploring new avenues to ensure the sustainability and growth of their operations. In the face of fluctuating market dynamics and economic pressures, innovative profitability strategies have become crucial, particularly in the dairy industry.

Alternative Profit Strategies
With the spotlight on profitability, many dairy producers have turned their attention to alternative profit sources. This shift has been especially significant during times when milk prices are less than favorable. Robin Schmahl from AgMarket.Net highlights the beef-on-dairy strategy as a pivotal approach to increasing income. By integrating beef genetics into dairy herds, many producers have successfully split their breeding practices between sexed semen and beef, leading to substantial income boosts over recent years.

Understanding Market Dynamics
Market dynamics play a critical role in shaping milk production. According to Phil Plourd, head of market intelligence at Ever.Ag Insights, the unfavorable economic conditions have historically squeezed milk production. Despite this, he remains optimistic about the upcoming 12 months, suggesting they present the best profit potential for dairy producers in recent times. His observation that “Historically, more money generally means more milk,” underlines the intricate relationship between economic conditions and milk yield.

Challenges with Dairy Replacement Heifers
The adoption of beef-on-dairy practices has, however, led to a decrease in the availability of dairy replacement animals. This scarcity has driven up prices, presenting a challenge for producers, especially those planning for expansion. Larger operations are now strategizing ways to secure replacements either through internal growth or external purchases well in advance.

“I don’t think they’re going to wake up three days before they open the new dairy and say, ‘Oh, wait, I need heifers,’” Plourd says.

Adapting to Market Signals
While there is potential market growth with higher milk prices, current dairy heifer inventory doesn’t entirely align with this trend. However, Schmahl points out that the increased milk prices offer producers more flexibility, allowing them to invest in replacements or retain older cows to maximize their output.

Risk Management in a Volatile Market
Efficient risk management strategies are crucial to navigating the ups and downs of the market. Schmahl emphasizes the importance of engaging in risk management without capping potential gains. He recommends option strategies or revenue protection, advising producers to remain flexible and informed as they plan for the future.

“You don’t want to limit your upside,” Schmahl insists, while cautioning producers about using futures, encouraging a balance between protection and opportunity.

As the dairy industry continues its evolution, staying informed and adaptable is essential for producers looking to capitalize on emerging trends. By employing innovative strategies and maintaining a sharp focus on market signals, dairy producers can navigate economic challenges to secure and enhance their profitability.

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USDA Reports First H5N1 Detection in Swine

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 23:27:10 GMT

USDA announced on Oct. 30 the first reported case of H5N1 in a pig in an Oregon backyard farm. It’s important to note there is no concern about the safety of the nation’s pork supply as a result of this finding, USDA said. This farm is a non-commercial operation, and the animals were not intended for the commercial food supply.

“The confirmed case in Oregon poses no threat to consumer health or food safety; properly handled and cooked pork products remain safe for consumption,” Bryan Humphreys, National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) CEO said in a statement. “The entire pork industry remains committed to safeguarding food safety and human and animal health.”

The case was discovered on a backyard farm that includes a mix of poultry and livestock, including swine. The Oregon Department of Agriculture announced on Friday, Oct. 25, that poultry on this farm represented the first H5N1 detection in Crook County, Oregon. On Tuesday, Oct. 29, the USDA National Veterinary Services Laboratories also confirmed one of the farm’s five pigs to be infected with H5N1, marking the first detection of H5N1 in swine in the U.S., USDA reports.  

“The livestock and poultry on this farm shared water sources, housing, and equipment; in other states, this combination has enabled transmission between species. Although the swine did not display signs of illness, the Oregon Department of Health and USDA tested the five swine for H5N1 out of an abundance of caution and because of the presence of H5N1 in other animals on the premises,” USDA wrote.

The swine were euthanized to facilitate additional diagnostic analysis. Although test results were negative for two of the pigs, and test results are still pending for two others.  
The farm has been quarantined to prevent further spread of the virus. Other animals on the farm include sheep and goats that remain under surveillance.  

“USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) has conducted genomic sequencing of virus from the poultry infected on this farm, and that sequencing has not identified any changes to the H5N1 virus that would suggest to USDA and CDC that it is more transmissible to humans, indicating that the current risk to the public remains low,” USDA wrote.

H5N1 detections include viral genome sequencing to provide additional information of interest to medical professionals and the research community to improve understanding of the virus. Genetic sequencing for these samples is underway, but results may be inconclusive due to low viral levels in the samples, USDA said.   

Pork Producers Practice Biosecurity to Protect Pigs
Biosecurity is critical to eradicating H5N1 and other viruses. Not only does biosecurity protect the health of livestock, but it also protects the health of farmworkers and their families. For more information on protecting farmworkers, visit the CDC’s website .
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10 Powerful Take Homes to Enhance Biosecurity on Your Pig Farm
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The pork industry has worked alongside USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) since 2009 to carry out the swine influenza surveillance program to identify influenza viruses circulating in swine, proactively detect reassortment viruses that could impact public health, and gain knowledge to contribute to improved animal health diagnostics and vaccines, NPPC pointed out in a statement.

“Pork producers have always been proactive and diligent about implementing biosecurity plans as part of their daily production practices to assure animals wellbeing and food safety,” Lori Stevermer, NPPC president and Minnesota pork producer said. “This detection serves as a reminder for producers of all sizes to understand and address influenza virus risks.”

What’s Next?
USDA recently approved two vaccine field safety trials for vaccine candidates designed to protect dairy cows from H5N1, and continues to explore vaccine options for other species.   As USDA takes additional steps to protect the health of livestock, it will continue to work closely with CDC to protect the health of people and FDA to protect the safety of the food supply.

“These collective, collaborative efforts have helped protect farmworkers and farmers, the health and welfare of livestock animals, and reaffirmed the safety of the nation’s food supply. The U.S. government remains committed to addressing this situation with urgency,” USDA said.

Learn more about USDA’s response to HPAI in dairy cattle.

The situation is being monitored by local public health officials, Oregon Health Authority, Oregon State Veterinarian, Oregon Department of Agriculture, as well as USDA and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.   

Read More:
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How the Swine Industry Responded to H5N1 Outbreak in Dairy Cattle
A Message to the Ag Industry about H5N1

Navigating HPAI: Supporting Producers and Safeguarding Cows

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 17:04:24 GMT

The first person who will notice illness in the herd is the one who works hands-on with the cows. It’s a cow that just looks off, a drop in production or changes in cow activity and behavior that triggers a call to the vet, monitoring or treating. Treatment is on a case-by-case basis, depending on which cow it is and what’s going on.

But for matters of trade and human health, the health of the entire U.S. herd must be addressed systematically. Rosemary B. Sifford, DVM; Deputy Administrator; USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service says disease monitoring actually looks very similar on the state and national level. “Except, of course, we’re looking across all the herds. In some cases, we do have surveillance programs in place for diseases that we that we know are of concern for us.”

She adds, “Our trade partners are very interested in what controls we put in place and how we eradicate diseases, so we share that information, and that helps to build their confidence, and allows us to trade, even sometimes in the face of an outbreak.”

Top of mind right now is Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), and Sifford says that although this battle has been a long one, the USDA team can effectively follow protocols that have been laid out for other viral diseases in the past.

“Our action strategy is really made up of four key parts,” she says. “Understanding the virus in the cattle, understanding how it’s moving and what the effects are on the cattle, how it’s distributed amongst the cattle herd, and being able to address that by mitigating the movement of the virus, and then providing support to the producers to ensure business continuity.”

Ken McCarty, one of the owners of McCarty Family Farms in western Kansas identifies factors that are largely beyond their control as events they are closely watching. Events such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the ongoing war in Ukraine, and their subsequent effects on fuel and commodity markets exemplify these difficulties.

“Those sort of ‘black swan events’ that used to be once in a decade now appear to be occurring yearly or every couple of years,” McCarty explained. In response, the farm aims to price-proof their operations, ensuring they can withstand these unpredictable shifts.

HPAI was not on the 2024 radar for McCarty Farms. Nonetheless, their prior planning for foreign animal disease outbreaks allowed them to quickly adapt and take necessary actions. As they put it, “It’s those types of events that are midterm challenges that we’re always trying to prepare for.”

Sifford emphasizes that farmers are not alone in prevention or treatment for HPAI. “We do have a number of financial incentives available to help producers through all of this, from covering the testing and some of the veterinary costs, to having somebody come out and help you with a biosecurity plan or audit, personal protective equipment for employees,” she says.

“We really encourage producers to be involved in the status program, because this is an important way for us to understand where the virus is and what’s going on, and it gives producers a level of confidence that they’ve maintained the biosecurity necessary to keep from having to worry about the virus.”

Find more HPAI resources and support at www.aphis.usda.gov .

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Why Do Cows Take a Production Hit on Dried Distillers Grains with Solubles?

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 20:26:55 GMT

Dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) are the most common co-product derived from ethanol production. The fraction of corn remaining after ethanol production is high in protein and can serve as an economical substitute for soybean meal in lactating dairy cow rations.

However, it has been widely observed by dairy producers and nutritionists that reduced production responses – in terms of milk yield, components, or both -- are almost a given when soybean meal is swapped out for DDGS.

Ohio State University graduate student Kirsten Clark, under the supervision of Dr. Chanee Lee, conducted a research study to better understand and potentially head off the seemingly inevitable production hit that cows take when consuming DDGS as a protein source.

Clark and her team speculated the reason for the production change was due to the high sulfur (S) content in DDGS, due to either toxicity or a shift in dietary cation-anion difference in the ration. Another potential culprit: high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in DDGS compared to soybean meal.

To test their theories, they enrolled 60 lactating cows in the study, which was recently published in the Journal of Dairy Science. Cows were segregated into one of 5 TMR feeding groups:

Soybean meal (SBM) – A relatively traditional ration with soybean meal as the main protein source, and 178 mEq/kg DM of DCAD.
DDGS (DG) – A modification of the SBM diet with DDGS added at 30% (DM basis) by replacing mainly soybean meal, soy hulls, and supplemental fat, with a DCAD value of 42 mEq/kg DM.
Soybean meal plus sulfur (SBM+S) – The standard SBM diet, modified with an additional dose of dietary sulfur in the form of sodium bisulfate, resulting in a DCAD value of 198 mEq/kg DM.
Soybean meal plus corn oil (SBM+CO) – The standard SBM diet, supplemented with added fat via corn oil; 165 mEq/kg DM of DCAD.
DDGS with elevated DCAD (DG+DCAD) – The DG diet with elevated DCAD – achieved via supplementation with sodium bicarbonate and potassium carbonate – to achieve 300 mEq/kg DM of DCAD.

All cows were fed the standard SBM ration for the first 10 days of the trial, then switched to their respective trial rations for 5 weeks.

The researchers monitored milk and components production; blood parameters; and nutrient digestibility of all feeding groups. Their main conclusions were:

The experiment confirmed that milk fat depression occurs when high DDGS are included in a lactating ration, and that high PUFA is a dietary factor associated with low milk fat.
The high sulfur content of the DDGS ration did not appear to have a direct effect on the reduced production responses of the DG group. However, it did have an indirect effect, in that the negative ionic charge of sulfur lowered DCAD, impairing the acid-base balance of the cows and likely contributing to milk fat depression.
High PUFA content also appeared to be a factor in causing reduced production responses to a high DDGS diet.
Increasing DCAD to 300 mEq/kg DM in the DG+DCAD group eliminated the milk fat depression observed in the DG diet alone.

The authors concluded that preventing impairment of milk and component production when feeding at least 20% DDGS can be achieved by raising the DCAD to approximately 300 mEq/kg DM. They said combining DDGS with elevated DCAD can be a useful strategy in lowering feed costs and increasing income over feed cost without reduced production responses.

The Cost of the World’s Top-12 Dairy Diseases

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 20:38:58 GMT

What is the world’s most expensive dairy disease? And what countries are hit hardest by these costs?

Dr. Philip Rasmussen, researcher from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, recently explored these questions in a study soon-to-be published in the Journal of Dairy Science . Rasmussen’s team for the project also consisted of researchers from Canada, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

The 12 diseases were pre-determined by the researchers. The factors used to estimate financial loss from each disease were milk production, fertility, and culling. The financial estimations did not include treatment costs.

Loss due to reduced milk production was valued using a standard price of milk. Fertility losses were based on increased calving interval, which was measured using the number of days calving was delayed, daily milk production, and the price of milk. Culling costs were estimated using the increased risk of premature culling, based on the price of replacement cows and heifers, minus the sale price of cull cows.

An important consideration in the financial estimates was the fact that, in many cases, cows may suffer from more than one disease at the same time. To avoid double-counting the total cost of disease due to these “comorbidities,” the researchers adjusted the data using the statistical associations between diseases. Without this measure, they estimated the mean aggregate global losses would have been overestimated by 45%.

The global ranking of the 12 diseases, in terms of annual loss in U.S. dollars, netted out as follows:

Subclinical ketosis -- $18 billion
Clinical mastitis – $13 billion
Subclinical mastitis – $9 billion
Lameness – $6 billion
Metritis – $5 billion
Ovarian cysts – $4 billion
Paratuberculosis/Johne’s disease – $4 billion
Retained placenta -- $3 billion
Displaced abomasum – $0.6 billion
Dystocia – $0.6 billion
Milk fever/hypocalcemia – $0.6 billion
Clinical ketosis – $0.2 billion

In total, the economic losses due to dairy disease totaled about $65 billion per year.

There were wide-ranging differences between disease effects in various regions of the world. For example, subclinical ketosis accounted for about 35% of the losses in Oceana (including Australia and New Zealand), but only 24% of the losses in Europe. Conversely, 25% of Europe’s losses were due to clinical mastitis, which contributed only 10% to Oceana’s losses.

Across the 183 countries modeled, the average comorbidity-adjusted total annual loss was about $351 per cow. By country, this amount ranged from just $72/cow in Nigeria, to as high as $1,900/cow in South Korea.

Measured against human population, the countries most affected by dairy disease were New Zealand ($220/person/year), Ireland ($140/person/year), and Denmark ($70/person/year).

The countries with the greatest annual losses overall were India ($12 billion), the United States ($8 billion), and China ($5 billion). These rankings correlate with global milk production ranking by country.

The authors noted that addressing dairy diseases and improving animal health would help improve the global efficiency of dairy production while lessening its environmental toll. They noted the importance of milk and dairy products as nutrient-rich foods that will play a key role in global nutrition and food security, with total global food demand expected to increase by up to 56% between 2010 and 2050.

Want to Boost Your Beef-on-Dairy Calf's Value? Know Their Health Status

Fri, 12 Jul 2024 21:54:24 GMT

It’s no secret that beef-on-dairy calves are worth a pretty penny. In fact, beef-cross calves have fetched astounding vales of more than $1,000 per head in some markets. And while even average crossbred animals are bringing a decent profit, healthy, well-grown calves are worth top dollar.

According to Sandra Stuttgen, associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the best way to add value to beef-on-dairy calves is to communicate their health status with buyers. This entails keeping records of their genetic information, vaccination procedures and any health events the animal incurs.

“Beef cross calves will be on the grill less than 22 months after birth, Stuttgen says. “Marketing wet dairy-beef cross calves with some guarantee of future health and growth performance is an opportunity that no dairy should ignore.”

What to Track

When buyers look for beef-cross calves, the health status of the animals is their top priority. This means buyers may be willing to pay a premium for calves with well-documented health records. Therefore, Stuttgen encourages farmers to track the following information:

Colostrum Receival – Just like traditional dairy calves, it’s essential for beef-on-dairy animals to receive adequate amounts of high-quality colostrum within the first few hours of life. To market the calf’s health status effectively, provide evidence of passive colostrum transfer and share the dam’s vaccination protocol.

“The calf received colostrum; therefore, the calf should have maternal antibodies to the agents covered by the dry cow or close-up heifer vaccine protocol that includes scour-prevention vaccines,” Stuttgen explains.

She suggests using a portable calf scale to measure the calf’s weight before colostrum feeding to ensure accurate colostrum and subsequent feeding. Additionally, validate weekly colostrum management by taking total protein (TP) or Brix measurements of all calves aged between 1 and 7 days.

Vaccines – Sharing an animal’s vaccination records is another way dairy producers can add value to their beef-cross calves. By providing detailed vaccination documentation, buyers feel more assured that they are purchasing healthy, robust calves who were given preventative care measures. Stuttgen recommends documenting all vaccination procedures and working alongside your veterinarian to develop health protocols specifically for crossbred calves.

Weight – According to Stuttgen, calves should double their birthweight by day 56 at 8 weeks of age, which translates into an average daily gain (ADG) of 1.5 lbs. She recommends weighing calves prior to transport and marketing those that have gained weight since their birthday.

“Tracking the animal’s growth (weight and height) allows for accurately feeding them to reach their potential stature. Measure weight and calculate ADG and height at weaning and continue to track weight ADG at subsequent pen or ration changes. Retain calves that haven’t [gained the appropriate amount of weight] and work to identify and correct the reasons why calves.”

Health Events – If an animal becomes ill, it’s important to make note of the event along with any treatments the animal receives. This especially holds true for respiratory problems.

“One or two treatments for respiratory symptoms early in a young calf’s life often causes reduced lung capacity, which raises susceptibility to respiratory disease later in life,” Stuttgen notes. “In the feed lot, this leads to poor weight gain and reduced carcass quality grades.”

Another major concern are calves who are infected with Bovine Viral Diarrhea, or BVD. According to Stuttgen, BVD is a major risk to calf health and persistently infected (BVD-PI) calves should be identified and euthanized. She suggests testing all newborn calves for BVD-PI and only marketing calves who are negative.

Take Advantage of Today’s Prices

With the beef-on-dairy market booming, dairy farmers utilizing a beef-on-dairy program need to seize every opportunity to market their crossbred calves effectively. This means not only ensuring the highest standards of health and nutrition, but also maintaining detailed health and vaccination records. By leveraging these strategies, farmers can maximize the value and appeal of their calves in this competitive market.

HPAI Now Detected on Ohio Dairy: Strange Bird Flu Concerns See Growth

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 19:03:22 GMT

Ohio has become the sixth state where dairy cattle have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), also known as bird flu. A recent news release from the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) reports presumptive positive results from dairy cows in Wood County.

According to officials, the cows arrived in Wood County on March 8 from a dairy in Texas. That dairy later reported a confirmed case of HPAI. The Ohio dairy operation alerted state officials when the livestock began showing signs of illness. State officials are awaiting confirmation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“We have official confirmation that we do have a case at a dairy in Wood County of HPAI, which is an influenza,” says ODA Director Brian Baldridge. “We’ve been working with this in the poultry industry for about the last two-and-a-half years and it has found its way into the dairy industry. We are working diligently with the dairy, with their vets and with our Animal Health division and our state veterinarian, Dr. (Dennis) Summers, on this issue.

According to the USDA, HPAI has now been detected in five other states, including:

Texas
Kansas
New Mexico,
Idaho
Michigan

“Clinically sick dairy cattle from affected herds range from 1% to 20%, with an average of 10% of the milking herd affected. There are no confirmed reports of death loss in dairy cattle directly attributed to these detections. Most sick cows begin recovering within a few days.”

“Federal and state agencies continue to conduct additional testing from sick animals and in unpasteurized clinical milk samples from sick animals, as well as viral genome sequencing, to assess whether HPAI or another unrelated illness may be underlying any symptoms,” the ODA reports.

The agency notes that clinically sick dairy cattle from affected herds range from 1% to 20%, with an average of 10% of the milking herd affected. Currently, there are no confirmed reports of death loss in dairy cattle directly attributed to these detections with most sick cows recovering within a few days.

HPAI symptoms in dairy cattle include:

Sudden drop in milk production.
Some severely impacted cows are producing thicker, more concentrated, colostrum-like milk.
Drop in feed consumption with a simultaneous drop in rumen function, accompanied by loose feces and some fever.
Impacted herds have reported older cows in mid-lactation may be more likely to be severely impacted than younger cows, fresh cows or heifers.
Some herds have reported pneumonia and mastitis.

Officials are strongly advising dairy producers to use all standard biosecurity measures. They note it’s important for producers to clean and disinfect all livestock watering devices and isolate drinking water where it might be contaminated by waterfowl. Farmers are also being asked to notify their herd veterinarian if they suspect any cattle within their herd are displaying symptoms of this condition.

For more on HPAI, read:

HPAI Fails to Impact Dairy Prices So Far - Why Markets Could Actually See Some Growth in the Near Future

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 14:00:00 GMT

The unfortunate discovery of highly pathogenic avian flu (HPAI) in dairy cattle has impacted those herds that have been infected with the loss of milk production for a period. Fortunately, cows have not had to be slaughtered or herds liquidated, but it is a concern for the dairy industry. It also poses no concern for consumers as pasteurization inactivates the bacteria in the commercial milk supply. It is uncertain whether this could become a greater issue as time progresses reducing overall milk production to some degree. HPAI has been confirmed in dairy herds in Michigan, Texas, Kansas, and Idaho with some presumptive positive test results received from a herd in New Mexico. This will require efforts on the part of dairy farms to improve biosecurity measures to avoid this virus.

So far, it has not had an impact on milk futures or the underlying cash prices. Since it was discovered and diagnosed, cheese prices on the spot market have declined, which has put pressure on Class III milk futures sending nearby months to new contract lows. Spring flush is taking place with milk production improving weekly. Demand remains steady leaving sufficient supply for demand. Spot milk in the country varies in price with some noted as much as $6.00 below class. Most of the available spot milk ranged from $3.50 under to even with the class price. This is a good indicator to use for seeing whether supply is tightening.

The milk production report for February showed a decrease in milk production as anticipated, but the increase in cow numbers from January was a surprise. Cow numbers increased by 8,000 head from January for the top 24 states totaling 8.878 million head, down 61,000 head from February 2023. U. S. Cow numbers totaled 9.330 million head, down 89,000 head from a year ago, but up 10,000 head from January. It was anticipated cow numbers would fall as low milk prices continued. It would initially seem that there had been a substantial miscalculation of cow numbers in January. However, USDA revised cow numbers 3,000 head lower in to top 24 states and 5,000 head lower in the U.S. from what was initially recorded last month. Cow numbers in the top 24 states in January declined by 24,000 head from December with U. S. cow numbers 28,000 head from December after the revisions were made to the report. That makes the increase in cow numbers even more impressive for February. Nevertheless, the chart puts the trend of declining cow numbers in perspective and continued low milk prices may keep this trend intact. The continued tightening of replacement heifers will also have an impact on cow numbers and the ability of farms to keep stalls full or to expand the operation.

There seem to be some positive things taking place in the market that may eventually provide support to prices, but it does not seem that prices are ready to move higher. They may not move higher over the next few months unless there is better international and domestic demand or a further tightening of the milk supply. It could be both as the year progresses. In the near term, prices may remain choppy as buyers of dairy products see no reason to become concerned over supply.

For more on HPAI, read:

Robin Schmahl is a commodity broker with AgDairy, the dairy division of John Stewart & Associates Inc. (JSA). JSA is a full-service commodity brokerage firm based out of St. Joseph, MO. Robin’s office is located in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Robin may be reached at 877-256-3253 or through the website www.agdairy.com .

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