by Michael
Are we are on the verge of the worst public health crisis that any of us have ever witnessed? I just read a report from the Los Angeles Times that chilled me to the core. I knew that H5N1 avian flu was infecting dairy cows all over the nation, but I had no idea that things had gotten so bad. California produces more dairy than any other state, and so prices for milk, cheese and other dairy products will inevitably go up as herd after herd gets devastated by this insidious disease. More importantly, if H5N1 avian flu starts spreading among humans on a widespread basis, the panic that we will see will be off the charts.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
We were told that even though millions of birds were dying, H5N1 avian flu would not start spreading widely among mammals.
But now it is.
At this moment, dead cows are “stacked along roadsides rotting in the heat” in some areas of California…
A dystopian scene is emerging in California as dairy farmers battle a ruthless disease.
Dead cows and calves stacked along roadsides rotting in the heat surrounded by crows, vultures and thick swarms of black flies.
After wiping out tens of millions of birds worldwide, the H5N1 avian flu is tearing through dairy farms in the US.
I know that everyone wants to talk about the presidential election right now, but this is important.
Cows are dropping dead in large numbers, and there is no end to this crisis in sight.
According to the Los Angeles Times, things are particularly bad in Tulare County…
There’s a sickness hovering over Tulare County‘s dairy industry.
On a recent 98-degree afternoon, dead cows and calves were piled up along the roadside. Thick swarms of black flies hummed and knocked against the windows of an idling car, while crows and vultures waited nearby — eyeballing the taut and bloated carcasses roasting in the October heat.
So far, 124 dairy herds have been hit in the state of California alone.
The San Joaquin Valley seems to be the current epicenter of this crisis. According to one industry insider, his drivers “picked up 20 to 30 animals at one farm in one day”…
A similar observation was made by Jimmy Andreoli II, spokesman for Baker Commodities, a rendering company with facilities in Southern California. He said his workers are picking up a surge of dead cows throughout the San Joaquin Valley.
“There’s definitely been an increased number of fallen animals lately, and some of that has got to be attributed to the long, hot summer we’ve had. And some of it, you know, certainly is attributed to the H5N1 virus,” he said, noting that one of his drivers picked up 20 to 30 animals at one farm in one day.
Andreoli said that at some farms the cows are intentionally being left on the roadside to reduce contamination — preventing further inter-farm spread. At others, the animals are left on-site — but away from live animals and people.
When dead cows are picked up, they are transported to a rendering site for processing…
Infected carcasses are being brought to a rendering site – a facility that processes animal remains – to be turned into ‘high protein’ animal feed and fertilizer, or liquids used into used in fuels, paints, varnishes, lubricants and other industrial products.
Removing and processing these carcasses eliminates the risk of them passing bird flu onto other animals or humans.
California is the nation’s largest dairy producer, and this state currently holds the record for the most bird flu-infected cattle herds in a single state, in addition to a high number of cases among dairy workers.
If this disease continues to spread like wildfire in California, it is going to have enormous implications for all of us.
Because if dairy prices go through the roof there, they are going to go through the roof everywhere.
And it doesn’t appear that much is being done to prevent this disease from spreading.
For example, one California veterinarian says that she has seen sick and healthy cows right next to one another…
In a video posted on X, California-based veterinarian Crystal Health shows a cattle pen that appears to contain both sick and healthy cows, with a ‘questionable’ number of them lying down.
‘The sick cows are supposed to be separated from the healthy ones,’ she wrote.
‘Not sure what’s happening here but a lot of the cows were laying down, and some flat out. The rendering truck did come to this facility in the morning, but no dead pile was visible from the road.’
I don’t know why the dairy industry is not taking this outbreak more seriously.
What is going to happen if half of the dairy cows in the state of California get infected?
And what is going to happen if H5N1 avian flu starts passing from human to human on a widespread basis?
According to one local resident in Tipton, California a “lot of people” have gotten infected in her area…
“A lot of people have it,” said a woman working behind the cash register at Tipton’s Dollar General, one of the few stores in this small, agricultural community right off Highway 99.
The woman declined to provide her name, explaining her husband is a dairy worker in the country illegally in Tulare County; she said his job is not protected or secure, and she was fearful of retribution.
“So far the symptoms seem pretty mild,” she said. “People can keep working.”
Of course it isn’t just dairy workers in California that are getting infected.
In fact, we just learned that four dairy workers in Washington state “have preliminarily tested positive for bird flu”…
Four agricultural workers in southeast Washington have preliminarily tested positive for bird flu after working around an infected poultry flock at a commercial egg farm.
The cases, if confirmed, would be the first time people in Washington have contracted the virus since officials began tracking a notable rise of it in birds and other animals starting in the U.S. around 2022. Since then, upward of two dozen human cases have been detected across five other states — all but one tied to contact with infected animals.
Health officials emphasized that the four positive cases in Washington are “presumptive,” pending confirmation and analysis by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
So far, there is no evidence that H5N1 avian flu is passing from person to person on a widespread basis.
But if that changes, we could be facing a nightmare.
According to the CDC, more than half of the humans that have been infected with H5N1 avian flu since January 1st, 2003 have ended up dead.
I don’t know if H5N1 avian flu will become the next great global pandemic, but without a doubt we live at a time when great pestilences will kill vast numbers of people.
So let’s watch this story very closely.
If the same thing that is happening to dairy cows in California starts happening to people, the level of panic that will erupt will be absolutely frightening to behold.