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It appeared to be a problem with the food.

In February, dairy cattle in multiple herds in northern Texas were suddenly producing less milk, and what they gave was abnormal and thick.

And the typically voracious eaters had seemingly lost their appetites.

For weeks in March, veterinarian Dr. Barb Petersen sought an answer. She talked to dairy owners and exchanged notes with fellow vets in the panhandle of Texas. She submitted numerous samples to labs that tested for more than 200 potential causes.

“Any fluid you can collect from a live animal, I collected it,” said Petersen, who was raised on a dairy farm near Davenport, Iowa. “As did many others. There were so many of us at the same time texting each other and trying to figure this out.”

She started messaging Dr. Drew Magstadt, who she had studied alongside at Iowa State University years before. He now works at the ISU Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory — a preeminent national animal lab in Ames — and researches infectious disease in cattle.

When the voluminous amount of testing in Texas failed to find any clues, Magstadt and Petersen concluded that a likely cause was ill-made food.

“The affected cattle were very high-producing dairy cows, and they are on a race-car ration,” Magstadt said. “If you mess with that a little bit, it can cause problems.”

Petersen agreed to send Magstadt some samples of the feed and animals for testing.

But then the cats started dying.

Barn cats are common on farms. They kill rodents, provide companionship and need little help to survive.

Some dairy farmers also feed them milk from their cows, and sick cows can shed viruses in their milk.

“A colleague of mine, he told me, ‘You know what’s strange? I went to one of my dairies last week, and all their cats were missing. I couldn’t figure it out — the cats usually come to my vet truck,’ ” Petersen recalled. “And then someone called me and said half of his cats had passed away without warning, and so then all the alarm bells start going off in your head.”

The cats had died from swollen brains, a potential result of influenza. They didn’t have rabies.

Outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza have plagued poultry producers in the United States since early 2022 and have led to the culling of more than 90 million domestic birds in backyard and commercial flocks. It is often transmitted by wild, migrating birds.

The virus had never been known to infect cattle in the country, and so the potential for it to have sickened the Texas cattle seemed highly unlikely, Magstadt thought.

It would be a “zebra,” Petersen said, which in medical parlance can refer to a surprising, exotic diagnosis.

Yet Magstadt immediately tested Petersen’s milk samples for influenza A — which most commonly infects birds — before investigating the feed. He thought the testing would merely rule out bird flu as a potential cause, but instead it confirmed it.

“I was incredibly surprised,” Magstadt said.

Further testing and retesting over days confirmed that the virus is the type that has been driving the poultry outbreaks, with an official confirmation on March 25.

The initial affected herds were in northern Texas and southwest Kansas, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Since then, infected cattle have been discovered in far flung states, including South Dakota, often the result of infected cattle being transported to new herds.

So far, bird flu has been detected in 28 dairy cattle herds in eight states, the USDA said. There is evidence that the virus has transmitted cow-to-cow, an alarming revelation that heightens its threat.

One person who worked closely with infected cattle also contracted the illness.

“There’s plenty of times that we get called in to these types of situations, and sometimes we strike out,” Magstadt said. “The times that we do find something, it’s very rewarding. … Everybody was just stumbling around in the dark, and it’s great to be involved in turning on the light.”

The Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Ames is the largest tester of livestock disease in the country. It conducted about 1.6 million tests last year. The first construction phase for its new facility recently finished and the second part is expected to be complete in 2026, at a total cost of more than $140 million.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct the attribution of a quotation about cat deaths.

Iowa Capital Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: [email protected]. Follow Iowa Capital Dispatch on Facebook and Twitter.

CHICAGO, April 11 (Reuters) - Dairy farmers in the United States are raising their defenses to try to contain the spread of bird flu: banning visitors, cutting down trees to discourage wild birds from landing, and disinfecting vehicles coming onto their land.

North Carolina on Wednesday became the seventh state to report an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a dairy herd, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed infections in Texas, Kansas, Ohio, Michigan, Idaho and New Mexico.

While the first cases appear to have been introduced to herds in Texas and Kansas by wild birds, the USDA said transmission among cattle was also possible. Agricultural officials in Michigan and Ohio said infected herds in those states received cattle from Texas.

Reuters spoke to seven dairy farmers in five states who said they are reinforcing safety and cleaning procedures, with three producers exceeding government recommendations.

"Think of our farm now as a gated community for cows," said Karen Jordan, who raises about 200 dairy cattle in Siler City, North Carolina. "Only the most essential person can get past the gate."

Even before North Carolina's outbreak, Jordan, 64, said she was limiting visitors who could unintentionally carry in contaminated bird droppings on boots or vehicles. She also started chopping down about 40 small trees to avoid attracting wild birds during spring migration.

The first confirmed case in a dairy herd on March 25 and the second human case in two years on April 1 have heightened concerns in the U.S. about the spread of the virus to animals and people. Bird flu has decimated poultry flocks globally since 2022 and infected mammals ranging from seals and foxes to skunks.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the risk to humans remains low, but has asked states for plans to test and treat potentially impacted farm workers.

Reduced milk production

While bird flu is lethal to poultry, cows appear to recover. The outbreaks in dairy herds primarily affect lactating cows, the USDA said, reducing milk production and requiring farmers to isolate sick animals while keeping their milk out of the food supply.

U.S. milk production grew to nearly $60 billion in 2022. Dairy farmers now fear a drop in demand for milk and cheese, after the USDA reported bird flu in unpasteurized milk samples, though agricultural officials say pasteurized milk is safe.

Futures prices for milk DCSK24 dropped as infections expanded last week, before the market rebounded. Beef cattle futures also plunged on fears of reduced demand, although there have been no confirmed cases of the virus in cattle raised for meat.

The USDA has not issued quarantine orders for infected dairy herds but last week recommended minimizing the movement of cattle and testing milk samples from lactating cows if they must be moved. Producers were also urged to monitor livestock for illnesses; isolate newly added cows; and keep wildlife and domestic pets like cats away from farm buildings to reduce the spread of the virus.

The agency advised farmers to pay "special attention to good milking practices, such as equipment disinfection." In interviews with Reuters, animal-health authorities raised the possibility that milking machines may play a role in spreading infections among cows, though that has not been confirmed.

"We cannot rule out other possible modes of HPAI transmission, including equipment," the USDA said in an email to Reuters.

Seven state and industry officials said farmers face challenges because of uncertainty over how the virus is spreading and the exposure of open-aired barns to wild birds.

Idaho, North Carolina and more than a dozen states that have not confirmed cases in cattle imposed additional requirements on shipments to protect their herds.

Nebraska, the second-biggest U.S. cattle producer after Texas, on April 1 began requiring producers to obtain permits to bring breeding dairy cows into the state so officials can better track animal movement.

Texas advised producers to monitor their herds and keep sick animals at home. Kansas recommended limiting the movement of cattle but has not mandated extra restrictions, said Justin Smith, the state's animal health commissioner.

"These dairies have got a lot at stake," Smith said in an interview. "If they have concerns about that movement, they need to reassess it, versus me mandating a reassessment."

Yogurt maker Danone DANO.PA said it is advising suppliers to isolate cattle that may have been exposed to the virus and report any cases to local officials.

Disinfecting tires

In Fort Branch, Indiana, Steve Obert, 61, is requiring drivers to spray truck wheels with disinfectant before he allows them on his farm. He raises about 1,200 cows that produce milk for Dairy Farmers of America, a cooperative of more than 6,000 farms.

Obert, who is also executive director of the industry group Indiana Dairy Producers, said bigger farms face increased risks, in part because they maintain large stocks of feed that attract wild birds that could be carrying the virus.

Big dairies also often ship heifers, or female cows that have not yet given birth, to other states to be impregnated before returning to their home farms for milking, he said.

Obert, who ships cows to Kentucky, said he trusted Indiana's decision not to impose new restrictions on cattle movement, but: "As a producer, you sit at the edge of your seat thinking, 'Gosh, I hope we're not behind.'"

In Rockford, Illinois, 43-year-old farmer Brent Pollard, who supplies milk to cooperative Prairie Farms, is keeping a calf he bought for his daughter from Wisconsin in isolation for 21 days.

No cases have been reported in Wisconsin, but Shelly Mayer, 58, said she is watching for dead birds on her dairy outside Milwaukee and working to keep water tanks clean of bird droppings and other contaminants.

Farmers are also trying to keep wild birds away from feed supplies but it is difficult.

"The dairy farm is like a giant bird feeder," said Jamie Jonker, chief science officer for the National Milk Producers Federation.

(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Additional reporting by P.J. Huffstutter; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Suzanne Goldenberg)

April 2 (Reuters) - Egg producer Cal-Maine Foods CALM.O said on Tuesday it had temporarily halted production at its Texas facility after detecting avian influenza, which has led to the culling of about 1.6 million laying hens.

The move comes amid rising concern over the rapid spread of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in birds and mammals and just a day after Texas reported the second case of the strain in a human in the United States.

The company said it had culled about 3.6% of its total flock as of last month, including 337,000 pullets — or young hens, after its facility in Parmer Country, Texas, tested positive.

Cal-Maine said it was working with government officials and industry groups to mitigate the risk of future outbreaks.

Since 2022, 82 million U.S. chickens, turkeys and other birds have been culled due to a deadly strain of the virus, which has spread to many corners of the world and has even been found in the frozen continent of Antarctica.

Cal-Maine said that no eggs have been recalled as there is no risk related to bird flu associated with eggs. According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the influenza cannot be transmitted through properly cooked eggs.

On Monday, Texas and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a case of bird flu in a person who had contact with dairy cows presumed to be infected with the virus, as the highly pathogenic influenza spreads to new mammals, including dairy cattle.

The USDA said in February the country was about 18 months away from identifying a vaccine for the current strain of bird flu.

The deadly strain has killed wildlife, including a few dolphins, about 50,000 seals and sea lions and about half a million birds in South America since it arrived in the region in 2022.

(Reporting by Juveria Tabassum in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

Today USDA released the second Crop Progress report of the season.

Corn planting progress

USDA says as of April 7, 3% of the 2024 corn crop has been planted in the top 18 corn-growing states. This is up from 2% the week prior and above the five-year average of 2%.

According to the report, planting has begun in seven of the top 18 growing states:

• Illinois: 2% planted
• Kansas: 4% planted
• Kentucky: 5% planted
• Missouri: 7% planted
• North Carolina: 8% planted
• Tennessee: 7% planted
• Texas: 59% planted

Oat crop progress

USDA says across all nine of the top oat-growing states, 34% of the crop has been planted, up from 30% the week prior and ahead of the five-year average of 28%. North Dakota is the only one of the nine states that has not begun planting.

Twenty-six percent of the crop has emerged, up from 25% the week prior and ahead of the five-year average of 23%.

Winter wheat progress

Winter wheat has headed in six of the top 18 growing states. This represents 6% of the crop, up from 4% the week prior and ahead of the five-year average of 5%.

According to the report, the condition of the winter wheat crop in the top growing states currently rates as follows:

Spring wheat progress

USDA says spring wheat planting has begun in four of the top six growing states. Progress is at 3%, up from 1% the week prior and on track with the five-year average.