North Carolina has become the seventh state to report H5N1 in dairy cattle, joining Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, Michigan, Idaho and Ohio, the state’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services reported April 10.
The announcement said the National Veterinary Services Laboratory (NVSL) has detected the virus in a dairy herd.
“This is an evolving situation, and we are waiting for more diagnostics from NVSL and will work collaboratively with our federal partners and dairy farmers in North Carolina,” said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. “We have spent years developing methods to handle HPAI in poultry, but this is new and we are working with our state and federal partners to develop protocols to handle this situation.”
Movement of cattle from affected herds in other states to North Carolina has been suspended. This week, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) said restrictions on the movement of healthy cattle and their products are not generally recommended. It said that, based on information available, movement restrictions are not recommended unless justified by an import risk analysis conducted according to the WOAH Terrestrial Animal Health Code Chapter 2.1. Several other states, including Nebraska and Tennessee – which have not reported H5N1 in cattle – have issued movement restrictions.
Federal agencies are working with state and industry partners to encourage farmers and veterinarians to report cattle illnesses quickly so they can monitor potential additional cases and minimize the impact and risk to farmers, farmworkers, consumers and other animals. Producers are urged to work with their veterinarian to report cattle illnesses quickly and practice enhanced biosecurity measures.
