Scientists have managed to generate a full genetic sequence of #H5N1 #birdflu from store-bought milk, suggesting commercial milk products could be a way to monitor the outbreak in cows, given the lack of cooperation from dairy farmers. https://www.statnews.com/2024/05/21/bird-flu-virus-spread-scientists-monitor-h5n1-in-store-bought-milk/
@HelenBranswell@scicomm.xyz Mandating cooperation from dairy farmers instead of asking could be another way if there was anything resembling a government or public health left.
I also wish there were a way to make this possible, but, the sheer scale alone makes it near impossible. There's over 30,000 dairy farms in the US, and cattle take up ~27% of the land mass at ~614 million acres. Monitoring them all would take massive public investment and buy-in from a lot of ranchers who don't want federal government employees on their property, and may be willing to violently oppose it.
Monitoring it after dairy farms, and before human consumption would be a far more achievable goal in the short term.
Farmers are reluctant to cooperate bc they are concerned about the possibility of a cull and the financial impact that could have on their operations.
‘Mandating cooperation’ means: making the consequences of failing to cooperate obviously worse than downstream effects of a detected outbreak, and supporting affected farmers to mitigate those downstream effects, with support contingent on a history of cooperation.
@DavidM_yeg @HelenBranswell @driusan
Separately, it's not all economic anxiety. Some is, for sure, but, a lot of it's coming from people flying Trump, MAGA and Don't Tread On Me flags, like the dairy farm down the road from me. Ostensibly, the Bundy standoff was about cattle, too.
