• griefreeze@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    Yeah that all makes total sense, common sense, even lol, thank you. I was moreso wondering about any preventative measures or practices you could take to protect your cows from contracting the virus. I understand it spreads like any other virus, so I suppose there really isn’t much else you could feasibly do. I appreciate your insight

    • Podunk@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      Ah i understand. No problem.

      The current vector that is infecting dairies is from infected wild bird populations. We cant stop that. Blackbirds pigeons starlings finches. Theres too much bird food around everywhere. Cow to cow transmittion from one location to another is not really a factor. Its wild birds.

      My dairy has implemented extra tracking in the form of, well, its basically a fitbit for cows. And with the data we collect, we can detect sick cows when they are still subclinical. It gives us a huge heads up and improves the health of the herd because we can start supportive treatment sooner. But it is not preventative.

      What we need is vaccinations. The poultry industry had vaccinations for decades for bird flu. They didnt use it. We could have a cow vaccine spun up in 6 weeks, but for some reason we couldnt get usda approval in the last year before trump. The likelihood of us getting that cow vaccine approved now… its not looking too good in my opinion.