Irony alert: Florida, where leaders think it's great to get #COVID19 to build up your immunity, is taking emergency actions to prevent cattle from being imported with Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza. Apparently, it's healthy for humans to get infections but not for cows. 🙄 #HPAI#H5N1
"Raw milk enthusiasts are doubling down on the claimed benefits and safety of their favorite elixir, and say the government warnings are nothing more than “fearmongering.”" 🙄 #h5n1#hpai#birdflu#milk
👀 "Mark McAfee, founder of Fresno’s Raw Farm and the Raw Milk Institute, said his phone has been ringing off the hook with “customers asking for H5N1 milk because they want immunity from it.”" #h5n1#hpai#birdflu#milk
You have to read between the lines in this interview with the CDC's flu division director. It's clear that state-level agencies, farmers & agribusinesses are uncooperative on H5N1 monitoring. Undoubtedly they fear mass culling of infected cows, as happens with infected poultry farms, ultimately costing $ billions. They won't willingly cooperate with CDC's need to monitor and collect & analyze data to define the threat & current status of #HPAI#H5N1. https://www.statnews.com/2024/05/03/bird-flu-why-h5n1-keeping-awake-cdc-top-flu-scientist/
"On March 16, cows on a Texas dairy farm began showing symptoms of a mysterious illness now known to be H5N1 bird flu. Their symptoms were nondescript, but their milk production dramatically dropped and turned thick and creamy yellow. The next day, cats on the farm that had consumed some of the raw milk from the sick cows also became ill. While the cows would go on to largely recover, the cats weren't so lucky. They developed depressed mental states, stiff body movements, loss of coordination, circling, copious discharge from their eyes and noses, and blindness. By March 20, over half of the farm's 24 or so cats died from the flu."
FDA: "Today, the FDA received some initial results from its nationally representative commercial milk sampling study. The agency continues to analyze this information; however, the initial results show about 1 in 5 of the retail samples tested are quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)-positive for HPAI viral fragments, with a greater proportion of positive results coming from milk in areas with infected herds. " https://www.fda.gov/food/alerts-advisories-safety-information/updates-highly-pathogenic-avian-influenza-hpai