Bird Flu Found In Wisconsin Dairy Herd For First Time

By Steph Conquest-Ware

Officials said they have found bird flu in a Wisconsin dairy herd for the first time.

Tests of cow’s milk from a Dodge County farm were positive for the highly contagious virus, officials with the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection announced Sunday.

The Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostics Laboratory on Thursday found the first milk sample to test positive for the virus. That was followed by a second positive test on Friday in milk from the same farm. The National Veterinary Services Laboratory confirmed both results.

The farm had previously been sampled five times with negative results. DATCP has been working with the farmers, industry partners and the state to test dairy farms since May.

Wisconsin State Veterinarian Dr. Darlene Konkle said no animals had moved onto the farm recently, and the herd was not showing signs of the illness.

“The farmer did not have a reason to suspect highly pathogenic avian influenza on the farm,” Konkle said. “There’s really no appreciable increase in morbidity, which is cow sickness, or mortality, which is death.”

Bird flu or avian flu are names for the H5N1 virus. It is potentially deadly to humans and can be spread as a result of close contact with infected animals, but so far it has not been spread from human to human, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.