Episode 226 - Commercial milk supply safe, USDA issues federal order requiring premovement testing for lactating dairy cattle moving across state lines
What is up, everybody? This is doctor Joe Armstrong. It is 9:45 PM on April 25, 2024. Big stuff has happened since we talked last. Big stuff.
Dr. Joe Armstrong:There's a couple of things that happened that I didn't bother making an episode on because it really didn't change much. But since we're here, we're gonna talk about it anyway. And then we have some big things that have happened and big changes that are coming that we absolutely need to talk about. So first, let's talk about an issue that came out on Tuesday evening, 23rd. FDA announced that they had found PCR positives in grocery store milk.
Dr. Joe Armstrong:Now I didn't immediately report on that because it really didn't change anything. PCR testing is an incredibly valuable tool, but it has very important limitations. Traditional PCR testing, like was done on these milk samples from the grocery store, can be positive even if what you're searching for is dead. So you cannot make any comments about viability or infectivity based solely on PCR testing. So in this case, most likely, pasteurization worked like it was supposed to.
Dr. Joe Armstrong:It eliminated all of the virus, but PCR testing is still positive because there's fragments of the virus that are of no danger to anyone still present in the milk after pasteurization inactivated that virus. So to make a comment about what's going on, you need additional testing. That additional testing usually comes in the form of virus isolation and egg inoculation tests. Those are being done by FDA, and they are going to report on those results as soon as they have them. The exact statement from FDA on April 25th today was that early work by NIH funded investigators indicates an absence of infectious virus in their studies of retail milk.
Dr. Joe Armstrong:To date, the retail milk studies have shown no results that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe. Epidemiological signals from our CDC partners continue to show no uptick of human cases of flu and no cases of h5n1, specifically beyond the one known case related to direct contact with infected cattle. These important efforts are ongoing and we are to sharing results from both the qPCR and egg inoculation tests as soon as possible. So bottom line, overall, there is no concern at this time about the safety of the commercial milk supply. Alright.
Dr. Joe Armstrong:Let's move on to the next topic. So the big topic tonight is that USDA issued a federal order requiring the pre movement testing of lactating dairy cattle moving across state lines. That order was issued on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, and the order will take effect Monday, April 29, 2024. So not only will the order require pre movement testing for lactating dairy cattle crossing state lines, It also makes nonnegative PCR and serology reportable to USDA APHIS. Why am I getting to this topic a day late?
Dr. Joe Armstrong:Well, I'm getting to this topic because I was told that there would be an additional guidance document from APHIS that would come out today so that we could have all the information before we had this discussion. That document, clearly it's almost 10 o'clock now, did not come out. All sorts of reasons for that. If we're gonna have this thing take effect on Monday, it'd be nice to have the guidance document that actually tells us what we're going to have to do in our hands before we hit the weekend. So I expect that guidance document to drop tomorrow, 4/26/24.
Dr. Joe Armstrong:So expecting that, I am not going to go into a ton of detail about this order. It is available to read. USDA also today, 425, put out a FAQ document about the order that answers some of the questions that come to my mind right away. So I think when we read this FAQ document and we read it closely, there are some nuggets of information in there that I find valuable and potentially new information as well or at least confirming things that we thought we knew that USDA had not admitted to yet. So I'm gonna read you a paragraph in here, and we'll pick it apart just a little bit.
Dr. Joe Armstrong:H5n1 is a contagious viral disease of domestic poultry and wild birds. HPAI, high path avian influenza, is deadly to domestic poultry and can wipe out entire flocks within a matter of days. HPAI is a threat to the poultry industry, animal health, trade, and the economy. While HPAI causes less severe illness in cattle than in poultry, the disease remains of concern for all livestock and also for humans who come into contact with infected animals. So there's no real new information in there, but we have essentially what I would consider the first admission by USDA in this entire process that the virus causes the disease.
Dr. Joe Armstrong:Alright. Let's move on in the interest of time. Why was the decision made now? That's a big question, and their explanation is really about the impact to the dairy industry and the poultry industry. They say in the document, USDA researchers have determined that the virus has continued to spread between cows and affected herds and spread between herds as cattle are moved.
Dr. Joe Armstrong:They go on to say, the virus that was first detected in cattle has recently been found in poultry, indicating that affected dairy herds may pose a risk to poultry farms. Now we gotta stop here for a second and have a very important discussion. Within agriculture, we cannot afford to fight. We cannot have egg fighting egg. We have enough problems to deal with.
Dr. Joe Armstrong:We cannot have poultry and dairy clashing. This is a group effort that impacts everybody, and we have to make it a team effort to solve the problem. Pointing fingers, placing blame does no one any good. Both industries have enough issues. We do not have to fight each other in this process.
Dr. Joe Armstrong:For both industries, these are our neighbors. They're our friends. They're our community. Within agriculture, we cannot afford to turn on each other. It's a team effort.
Dr. Joe Armstrong:We solve it together. Now that being said, because this is a team effort, early identification, responsible control of the virus on a dairy farm is critical so that we limit our impact to our neighbors, whether that is other dairies or poultry. This has massive implications to poultry flocks. It may not be as big a deal to the dairy community because our animals are not dying. But if there is potential that our animals, being positive and having the virus, poses a risk to our neighbors who, if they do get it, have to depopulate all of their animals, all their turkeys, all their chickens.
Dr. Joe Armstrong:Gone. We have to think about how that would feel. And that's devastating, not only from an economic standpoint, but an emotional and mental standpoint as well. We need to keep that in mind in this whole process. We can't afford to impact our neighbors.
Dr. Joe Armstrong:We can't afford to be poor members of the community by not thinking of the impact we might have on others. Alright. That's enough soapboxing. Let's move on in this document. One of the big questions I had right away was, well, what's the definition of a lactating dairy cow?
Dr. Joe Armstrong:There's several definitions out there and I was a little concerned until I saw this document where it says that USDA is defining a lactating dairy cow for pre movement testing as a cow that is producing milk regardless of the volume of milk she is producing. This does not include dairy calves, pregnant heifers, or dairy cows that are dry or no longer producing milk. So that's the definition they're gonna use in this guidance document. Hopefully, there's not a whole lot of changes to that. That's what they put out today.
Dr. Joe Armstrong:The other question that I had that came up right away is what about terminal movements? So if I have a cull cow that needs to go to market, if she goes straight to the packing plant, does she still need a test? Big question. That's probably one of our biggest movements. Oftentimes, they're within the state, especially in Minnesota, we have that ability, but for many states, that's not the case.
Dr. Joe Armstrong:So what about those cows? Sometimes those cows really do need to move promptly because it's an animal welfare issue having to hang on to them for too long. If we've decided they're a cull and they need to go, they need to go. So the word in this document in the answer to that question is very vague, and we don't have any details. It just says that they're working on a concurrent detailed guidance specifically for those animals.
Dr. Joe Armstrong:So we'll wait and see what we get tomorrow. As far as the details of testing, we'll get more tomorrow. But because this is required testing, USDA will be paying for the testing. They will not be, at this time, paying for anything additional related to the need to test, including veterinary service, additional labor you might need, all of those things are not going to be paid for. The other big question is, can they handle the volume?
Dr. Joe Armstrong:Because samples will need to go to a NAHLN lab or a National Animal Health Laboratory Network lab. And I'm not as concerned about that as a lot of people might be. Most of the samples are going to be PCR testing. It's gonna go pretty fast. I'm not super worried about the volume at this time.
Dr. Joe Armstrong:Timeline wise, they're reporting that Nuln Labs will get you samples usually back within 1 to 3 days. And then if there is a non negative, it needs to go to AIMS to be confirmed, and that takes an additional 1 to 2 days. Alright. That answers a decent amount of questions right out of the gate. We will talk more once I have the actual guidance that tells me exactly what's going on.
Dr. Joe Armstrong:I'm hoping there's a lot of extra information in there related to what are we doing about control and what specifically happens if we do have a positive test because the only thing in this FAQ document that says anything about that is that if you have a positive test on an animal, they must wait 30 days and then retest again and be negative. It doesn't say anything about what's going to happen to that premise in terms of stop movement, and if there is something that happens, it doesn't tell us anything about how you resume movement and go back to normal business. I hope that's all coming tomorrow. I'll keep you guys updated. Questions, comments, scathing rebuttals, those go to themoosroom@umn.edu.
Dr. Joe Armstrong:You can call me, 612-624-3610. Find us on the web, extension.umn.edu. I will talk to you guys soon. Thank you for listening. Bye.
