There is a disease hanging over Tulare County's dairy industry.
On a recent 98-degree afternoon, dead cows and calves were piled up along the road. Thick swarms of black flies buzzed and tapped on the windows of a stopped car, while crows and vultures waited nearby, watching the tense, bloated corpses roasting in the October heat.
Since the H5N1 bird flu virus was first reported in California in early August, 124 dairy herds and 13 people (all dairy workers) have been infected.
And according to dairy experts, the spread of the virus has not yet slowed.
Two dead cows lie outside a dairy farm in Tipton, California.
“I'm surprised there are so few reports,” said Anja Raudabaugh, CEO of Western United Dairies, a California dairy trade organization, after being told the latest case number was 105. “This is not slowing down. “.
Jimmy Andreoli II, a spokesman for Baker Commodities, a recycling company with facilities in Southern California, made a similar observation, saying his workers are seeing a surge of dead cows across the San Joaquin Valley.
“There have definitely been a higher number of downed animals lately, and part of that has to be attributed to the long, hot summer we've had. And some of that, you know, is certainly attributed to the H5N1 virus,” he said, noting that one of his drivers picked up 20 to 30 animals on a farm in one day.
He said on some farms cows are intentionally left on the side of the road to reduce pollution, preventing further spread between farms. In others, the animals are left in place, but away from live animals and people.
Central Valley dairy farms have been recovering from H5N1 bird flu outbreaks in recent weeks. The mortality rate among infected cows has been higher than expected, industry experts say.
The diseased carcasses are taken to Baker's processing site in Kerman, where the bodies are “recycled” and turned into “protein-rich” animal feed and fertilizer, or transformed into liquids that are then used in fuels, paints, varnishes, lubricants “and all kinds of different industrial products.”
He said the Kerman plant is operating normally with no interruption in service, even with the large influx of sick cattle. Although due to the large volume of dead animals and “the additional time required for disinfection procedures,” in some areas, collections have moved from daily schedules to every other day.”
“All of our customers are receiving effective service,” he said.
Despite the gruesome scene along Tipton Highway, John Korslund, a retired veterinary epidemiologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said there was probably very little risk to public health from crowding the animals, even if they were pecked and consumed by vultures, crows and flies.
“Upon death, virus replication stops and rot and heat begin to neutralize the live virus,” he said. “The virus will survive on the surface of the corpse, not for long at 100 degrees, but temperature and acidification neutralize it quite quickly in the corpse, at least the influenza viruses.”
Raudabaugh said that although she and the dairy farmers she represents had been reading about the virus for months before it emerged, no one was prepared for the devastation and inequity with which the virus has affected California's dairy herds.
He said that on some farms the cows appear virtually unaffected, despite being infected. While in others animals die en masse. He said he knows of a farm where almost half of the animals died.
He also said some breeds are affected more than others. For example, Holsteins seem to suffer more than Jerseys.
“The reason is that Holsteins produce more milk. So they have more volume for the virus to enjoy,” he said, highlighting research showing the virus's affinity for breast tissue.
When asked if the disease was killing them, or if farmers were making difficult decisions and culling animals that looked particularly sick with bacterial pneumonia, mastitis or bloat, he said it was the former.
Continued H5N1 outbreaks in California dairy herds and reduced milk productivity among recovered cows are causing growing concern among dairy operators.
He said most of the animals that are succumbing to the virus are young: they are going through their second lactation cycle. (He said most dairy cows will have five or six lactation cycles before being taken out of production and converted to beef or processed.)
As a result, farmers are doing everything they can to keep these young animals alive “given the extreme breeding and fair expenses involved in raising these animals,” he said. “There is hope that, once the virus is over, they will return to producing in a sustainable way for the farmer. So it's definitely a last resort if they're being euthanized.”
It is unclear whether infected dairy cows will regain their full production when they enter a new lactation cycle. Observations suggest that production falls significantly in the current cycle, often by as much as 60% or 70%.
He said depression is becoming a growing problem for dairy farmers struggling with high mortality rates in their cattle herds, as well as the financial burden of the disease.
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1. Brandon Mendonsa, 37, a third-generation dairy farmer in Tipton, has lost 28 head of dairy cattle to the H5N1 virus, which he called cow covid. There is no cure for the virus which causes flu-like symptoms in livestock and has caused several livestock deaths. A Holstein dairy cow at auction fetches $2,200.00, which would bring Mendonsa's losses to $60,000. 2. Healthy dairy cattle enjoy the morning light on the Mendonsa Farms property in Tipton, CA.
If the cows do not return to full production, this could bankrupt many farmers, he said.
“There is a real fear,” he said.
The United States Department of Agriculture has a program to reimburse farmers for lost production due to the virus. The program covers the three weeks of lost production by a cow when she is removed from the milking herd to recover, as well as the seven days afterward when production is still low.
But there is currently no program to pay farmers or dairy workers affected by the virus, which is a concern for infectious disease experts as well as farm worker advocates who say there is no incentive for workers to pay. dairy workers to report symptoms and isolate for 10 days (current guidance).
“The majority of dairy workers in California have no protection. Most of them are immigrants. And I would say at least half of them are undocumented,” said Elizabeth Strater, national vice president and director of strategic campaigns for the United Farm Workers.
“These are people who have no particular relationship of trust with state and federal government officials.”
He said immigrants covet dairy work (it's not seasonal like crop work) and few Americans are hungry for the dangerous, backbreaking work the jobs require: two milkings a day (often 15 hours apart) and moving animals. big and unpredictable.
“These workers are on the front lines of an infectious outbreak, and if they somehow get tested and come back positive, then they're going to be faced with something that will be a financial disaster,” he said. “Most people in America don't want to lose two weeks of pay, right? Not to mention these people who are already… some of the poorest and least protected people. “No safety net.”
He said his organization and others are trying to inform as many workers as possible.
“We're sharing so much information about how important it is for workers to get the seasonal flu vaccine this year, even if they don't always do it,” she said. “But the thing is, the seasonal flu vaccine doesn't protect that worker, right? Protects me. Protects you. It protects the rest of the public from a situation in which someone who is co-infected with two types of influenza exchanges that material” with another person.
Recombination of H5N1 with a human flu virus, in which the two viruses mix to potentially become a more contagious or harmful virus, is a major concern for public health officials.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the current public health risk from H5N1 is low, but the agency said it was working with states to monitor people exposed to animals.
The morning sun rises over cows on a dairy farm in Tipton, California.
Although the number of workers reportedly infected with H5N1 remains low so far, conversations with Tipton residents suggested it is likely higher than has been reported.
“A lot of people have it,” said a woman who works behind the register at Tipton's Dollar General, one of the few stores in this small farming community just off Highway 99.
The woman declined to provide her name, explaining that her husband is a dairy worker who is in Tulare County illegally; He said his job is not protected or safe and he feared retaliation.
“So far the symptoms seem pretty mild,” he said. “People can continue working.”
