Dairy cattle in Nevada have been infected with a new type of bird flu that's different from the version that has spread in herds since last year. U.S.

Dairy cattle in Nevada have been infected with a new type of bird flu that’s different from the version that has spread in U.S. herds since last year, Agriculture Department officials said Wednesday.

The detection indicates that distinct forms of the virus known as Type A H5N1 have spilled over from wild birds into cattle at least twice. Experts said it raises new questions about wider spread and the difficulty of controlling infections in animals and the people who work closely with them.

“I always thought one bird-to-cow transmission was a very rare event. Seems that may not be the case,” said Richard Webby, an influenza expert at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

  • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
    1·
    8 hours ago

    I have seen estimates of one to several years but its possible the one is rounding up. As I said before the big stat is basically pounds of cow created on grass vs pounds created by feed. The reason the cow is moved to the feedlot is they reached the age where they can pack on the pounds.

    • NSRXN@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      1·
      8 hours ago

      dairy cattle live about 5 years, and then become beef, but a beef operation doesn’t keep the animals that long because there’s no point if they can graze them for a year and put em in a lot for 6 months.

      • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
        1·
        7 hours ago

        regardless the point is its pounds on one feed or another so maybe dairy beef ends up being a bit better but I think its pretty irrelevant in the long run for what we are talking about.