In a bid to contain the spread of bird flu among the nation's dairy cows, the U.S. health and agriculture officials have pledged nearly $200 million. The outbreak, which has affected over 40 herds across nine states, has prompted this significant investment to bolster tracking, testing, and treatment efforts.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has earmarked $101 million of the new funds to continue work on preventing, testing, tracking, and treating animals and humans potentially affected by the H5N1 virus. The Agriculture Department will allocate about $98 million to provide up to $28,000 each to individual farms for cattle testing and biosecurity enhancement.
Dairy farmers will also receive compensation for the loss of milk production from infected cattle, whose supply drops dramatically when they fall ill. Additionally, dairy farmers and farm workers will be paid to participate in a workplace study conducted by the USDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The National Milk Producers Federation, a trade group representing dairy farmers, welcomed the new resources. "Care for farm workers and animals is critical for milk producers, as is protecting against potential human health risks and reassuring the public," the group stated.
Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, who has been monitoring the outbreak, believes the incentives should help increase farmers' willingness to test their herds. "It provides the latitude and capacity to start going in the right direction," he said.
The new spending comes six weeks after the first-ever detection of an avian bird flu virus in dairy cattle. The virus has also infected a Texas dairy worker who developed a mild eye infection and then recovered. The CDC is currently monitoring about 260 people and has tested 33 so far.
Despite the spread of the virus to 42 herds in nine states, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack reassured that the outbreak has not spread more widely. "It's still in the same nine states and that's the most positive thing about where we are," he told reporters.
However, remnants of the virus were found in about 1 in 5 samples of retail milk nationwide, suggesting a more widespread outbreak. The FDA has reiterated warnings against consuming raw, or unpasteurized milk, due to potential risk from the virus.
"The risk to the public from this outbreak remains low," Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said, reassuring the public that pasteurization effectively kills the virus in dairy products.
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