Bird flu outbreak impacts dairy farms in California’s Central Valley

By Esteban Reynoso

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    MANTECA, California (KMAX, KOVR) — A bird flu outbreak is impacting California’s dairy production.

In the Central Valley, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) says 34 total dairy farms have had bird flu, otherwise known as H5-N1, infections in their dairy herds, and that number will go up.

Dairy farmers like those at Dutra Farms in Manteca are working to keep the bird flu out. This farm has been affected by the outbreak.

Farmers said their priority is the cows and keeping them healthy.

“These cows work hard for us,” Larry Haworth said. “You got to keep them happy and healthy and give them everything they want.”

Haworth is a third-generation owner of Dutra Farms. His grandfather started it 80 years ago.

So when Haworth found out about the bird flu spreading through Central Valley herds, he grew worried.

“As every other operator in the industry is,” he said.

The outbreak isn’t necessarily fatal to cows but does decrease their milk production.

We asked the CDFA if they could tell us exactly what farms or what counties have detected the bird flu. They would not say and responded with:

“Practicing enhanced biosecurity reduces disease spread, thereby protecting both animal and public health. In some areas, disclosing the county would effectively disclose the location of an affected dairy.”

“It would be nice to know proximity, but as far as who it is, probably not,” Haworth said.

We took a look inside Dutra Farms’ operations, and what they do to keep the cows safe.

During the milking process, the cows are cleaned and their coats are sprayed with a sanitizer to kill any kind of virus that may be there.

Even after they’re milked, Haworth said the cows’ utters are dipped in a sanitizing and moisturizing solution to keep them from having any problems.

If his farm was to become infected, Haworth is keeping a positive attitude.

“It is treatable and curable,” he said.

According to University of Nebraska Medicine, companies have started working on a vaccine for cows. It is still very early on, but if one is found effective, it could treat the 13 million cows in the United States.

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