Avian influenza or bird flu outbreaks now have the poultry industry, the dairy industry and consumers on high alert.
Over the past two weeks, one of the country鈥檚 largest egg producers killed nearly two million chickens at its plant in the Texas Panhandle after the flock tested positive for bird flu; cows in six states have now caught the virus for what appears to be the first time ever; and a person has tested positive for the disease.
But Texas agriculture experts say there鈥檚 no need to worry about widespread infections or soaring egg prices that have .
鈥淭his is not going to be a problem,鈥� Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said in an interview with 四虎影院. 鈥淭he eggs are safe, milk's safe. There's not going to be a spike in the prices of eggs or milk. To my farmers and ranchers, you know, we'll get through this.鈥�
Cal-Maine Foods being is indeed a big deal, Miller said. But that was only 3.6% of Cal-Maine鈥檚 poultry supply, according to a press release 鈥� and Miller said it鈥檚 probably an even smaller percentage of the entire country鈥檚 poultry population.
Cal-Maine said none of those eggs has reached the market and the plant has paused production.
Even one bird that tests positive can endanger the entire flock. Miller said he doesn鈥檛 know exactly how the Cal-Maine chickens were killed, but the company would be required to follow for depopulation, which recommend that euthanizing poultry should be done 鈥渁s safely, quickly, efficiently, and humanely as possible.鈥�
Domesticated birds like chickens, turkeys and ducks may contract bird flu through infected waterfowl or other infected poultry, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But once the migratory season ends for wild birds soon, bird flu will hopefully spread less.
鈥淲e'll be out of the woods,鈥� Miller said. 鈥淲e won't have to worry about this until next year. That'll give us, you know, basically 10 or 12 months to research this and figure out what happened. And hopefully by then, we'll be able to prevent it.鈥�
A human by the state Department of Agriculture as a dairy worker also tested positive for bird flu earlier this week, Texas . His only symptom so far was pink eye, which Miller said the man got over fairly quickly.
It's rare that bird flu spreads to humans and the health risk is low, according to the CDC. Miller said even if there were a bird flu outbreak in humans, the CDC has vaccines on hand that can be administered.
Seeing cows test positive for bird flu is likely a , however. USDA officials have it has been spread via milk droplets on dairy workers鈥� clothing and tools.
Bird flu symptoms in infected cows include fever, thick discolored milk and a 10- to 30-pound drop in milk production per cow, according to a Texas Department of Agriculture last week.
There are still a lot of unknowns when it comes to bird flu in cattle, but so far infections have been confined to older, lactating cattle 鈥� which Miller said is puzzling because they usually have stronger immune systems. But he said cow herds likely won鈥檛 have to be euthanized.
鈥淭he only thing I would caution is, you know, I would lay off the raw milk and unpasteurized dairy products, maybe, until we figure out what we're dealing with,鈥� he said.
David Anderson, professor and extension economist with Texas A&M AgriLife, speculated the flu may have been spread when infected birds got into cows鈥� feed.
In addition to pasteurization, Anderson said there are multiple steps in the dairy production process that prevents diseased products from ever entering the food chain. Any infected cows are milked in a separate pen and the infected milk is dumped out. Every batch of milk is tested for disease.
鈥淚 don't anticipate much in the way of, say, milk price changes because of this,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here's not a lot of cases to date. We have plenty of milk. In fact, dairy farmers have been struggling with very low prices because of how much milk there is.鈥�
It鈥檚 been a difficult year for cattle ranchers in Texas, specifically in the Panhandle. It鈥檚 estimated in the Smokehouse Creek Fire, the largest recorded wildfire in Texas history. Even if bird flu has little effect on the dairy or beef industries, Anderson said those Texas ranchers still have to worry about the costs of rebuilding.
鈥淲e have a lot of milk production in the Texas Panhandle,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey've really been hit by low prices over the last year or so and struggled with that. So, you know, there's two segments of agriculture that have really struggled, whether it's low prices, weather events, things like that.鈥�
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