Bird Flu Found in Eight Dairy Herds in Utah, 15th State

The first round of mandatory milk testing in northern Utah identified bird flu infections in eight dairy herds, said the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food on Thursday. Utah is the 15th state to report the avian flu virus in dairy cattle since the disease was first identified in herds in Texas in March.

To date, the Centers for Disease Control says the risk to the general public is low because genomic sequencing indicates the H5N1 virus has not evolved to become more infectious or transmissible among humans. There have been 39 human cases of bird flu this year, all but one in dairy and poultry workers.

Utah mandated weekly testing of samples from milk storage tanks in Cache County on Oct. 23, following an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza on an egg farm with 1.85 million laying hens. Cache County is 85 miles north of Salt Lake City, on the Idaho border.

Quarantines were imposed on the infected herds, and farmers were asked to implement biosecurity measures to keep the virus from spreading. “At this time, we don’t anticipate any major impacts on the food supply, and the overall impacts to individual dairies are relatively minimal,” said Utah state veterinarian Daniel Christensen.

On Wednesday, the USDA and Oregon agriculture officials reported the first U.S. case of bird flu in swine on a small backyard farm in Crook County, in the central part of the state.

The Utah outbreaks raise the U.S. total to 411 herds in 15 states. California has the most, 202 herds. Colorado is second, with 64 herds, and Idaho is third, with 35 herds.