27 Feb Expert warns of rural impacts from bird flu
While Wisconsin still has yet to see any cases of bird flu in dairy cattle, the head of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory warns the impact of the virus could hit rural communities hardest.
Wisconsin in December identified multiple H5N1 cases in commercial and backyard poultry flocks, but has yet to find any bird flu in dairy cattle. Keith Poulsen, director of the WVDL, says the cost of infection on farms primarily impacts producers.
“The burden is on the farmer,” he said this week during an interview on WisconsinEye. “You’re going to see milk drop, you’ll also see loss of production bonuses due to … milk quality, fat, protein, volume. They’re also going to see about 50% of turnover for animals that are affected.”
He emphasized the expense of restoring those herds, noting the cost of replacing a dairy cow is up to three times as high as it was just a year ago.
“That becomes really untenable to a lot of farms,” he said. “And because those replacement animal costs are even higher, we could see more farms actually selling out, if they’re getting to that point where maybe the kids are gone and there’s no one to take over … we might see fewer Wisconsin farms, which is a challenge for all of our rural communities.”