Bird flu is spreading among dairy cattle, birds in U.S. What does that mean for New Mexico?

Juan Corral, Alamogordo Daily News
·3 min read

New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich questioned Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf on May 8 on what progress has been made to counter the avian influenza after Califf warned that the virus is mutating and there is a possibility of its spread to human populations.

The FDA said as the spread among dairy cows is being managed, and populations of commercial and backyard flocks are being found infected it was important to

Here's what we know about the spread of bird flu among cows and work toward a human vaccine.

Milk from dairy cow herds infected with bird flu is being tested

Califf said the FDA's jurisdiction extends to the ensuring the safety of milk for consumers and the agency launched a testing program to that end.

"Knowing that there were likely more infected herds than we initially knew. In fact, that's what we found. When we looked at just milk before pasteurization, that is raw milk coming into the tanks, about 20% of a national sample turned out to have fragments of virus in it. The question then was is this infectious virus or is it essentially fragments of dead virus taken care of pasteurization," Califf said.

"We had good reason to believe pasteurization would work because of 100 years of pasteurized milk and in fact it did. We found no evidence of live virus."

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Human vaccines among options explored

USA TODAY reported that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would spend $93 million to expand testing and monitoring of the virus among those exposed not only to infected dairy animals but birds.

Califf testified that work toward testing an anti-viral and creating a vaccine was ongoing.

"What used to be a mystery ―how do you make a vaccine? ― by the old method that would take many months. Now we can do it in a few weeks to a couple of months," Califf said.

He said viruses are simple to understand compared to other organisms.

"Coming up with a matching vaccine with the exact genetic makeup of the virus is entirely possibly on a very short period of time," he said.

Read past coverage on the bird flu to stay up to date here:

Bird flu spreads in the U.S.

The bird flu has infected one person in Texas as of April 2024 according to the CDC. The CDC monitored people exposed to infected cattle for 10 days after exposure. Since March 2024, the CDC has monitored 260 people and tested 33 people for the bird flu.

The virus has been found among commercial and private flocks in 29 states and in wild birds in 34 states.

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As of May 7, there has been 90,891,636 poultry infected and 36 herds of cattle infected across the United States, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported.

Dairy cattle in 10 states, including New Mexico, Texas and Colorado have tested positive for bird flu.

The current public health risk is low, according to the CDC.

Juan Corral can be reached at JCorral@gannett.com or on twitter at @Juan36Corr.

This article originally appeared on Alamogordo Daily News: Bird flu spreading among dairy cattle, birds; Scientists work on human vaccine