#18,202
Colorado - with 46 confirmed infected dairy herds - leads the nation in both cattle and human infections with HPAI H5. In the past 10 days at least 7 poultry workers have tested positive for the avian virus, and over the past 30 days they've reported two very large outbreaks in poultry, and 28 new dairy herd infections.
Until now, most testing (excerpt for interstate transport of cattle) in the United States has been voluntary, and limited to symptomatic dairy cows. As a result, we don't have a very good handle of how many herds are infected.
Yesterday, the Colorado Department of Agriculture released the following order for mandatory weekly bulk-tank testing for HPAI. I'll have a bit more after the break.
We've seen calls for expanded testing of cattle (and milk) for months, but until now the dairy farmer has largely controlled whether their cattle would be tested. Since there are negative consequences to having a herd test positive, there has been more than a little resistance to the idea.
The industry's hope, that the virus would `burn itself out' in cattle, has not come to fruition.
While it comes pretty late in the game, the testing requirement ordered in Colorado should help quantify the size of the problem in that state. Hopefully other states will now reconsider their passive approach, and order similar testing programs.
But I'm not going to hold my breath.
