
While it is natural for sick animals to get more attention than healthy ones during disease outbreaks, emphasis still needs to be given to those that did not get sick, said Dr. Barbara Peterson, owner of Sunrise Veterinary Service, Amarillo, Texas.
Peterson said as the dairy and animal health industries are still learning about the new phenomenon of cattle being infected with H5N1 – a virus strain previously thought of as primarily a poultry industry concern – it is very important to understand why it is affecting some cattle and not others.
“I think the question we should be asking is what about healthy cows. We’re spending a lot of time focusing on sick cows, and by our nature, that’s kind of where veterinarians have a lot of questions and we love to investigate, but the non-clinical cows that were exposed, we’ve also got to learn why they didn’t get sick,” she said.
Peterson, while participating in the virtual H5N1 Real World Roundtable on October 24, said that it is important to know what the cattle that remained healthy had in common.
“The unpredictable variable isn’t necessarily what we understand about the virus. It’s what we fail to understand about the variability in the immune system and the immune response in populations,” she said.
She stressed the need for a One Health approach, as H5N1, has infected both birds and mammals, including humans. And with that, she called for animal and human health agencies to increase their levels of cooperation.
“It’s all in and it’s all hands on deck, and we want to help,” Peterson said.
She also pointed out that because H5N1 in dairy cattle is an outbreak that’s unique to the United States, the more that is learned, the less difficult it will be should the situation reach other countries.
“This is unfortunately a dress rehearsal for a foreign animal disease, and the world is watching us respond right now,” Peterson said.