As farmland owners and investors worry about what avian influenza could do to their flocks, herds, workforce, and their bottom line, they may find some optimism in a new federal commitment from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC announced that it would spend $10 million to protect agricultural workers. Half the money would fund educational efforts to protect themselves from bird flu. The other $5 million would provide seasonal flu shots for farm employees.
RELATED: Greg Tyler, President and Chief Executive Officer of the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council told American Farmland Owner in June why he is optimistic that the agricultural community in the United States will overcome the challenges of avian influenza. Watch that conversation here.
August began with 13 states reporting confirmed outbreaks in dairy cattle, impacting 172 herds from across the country. Colorado is the hardest hit state so far with many of the most recent cases.
Other states with confirmed cases include Idaho, Texas, Minnesota, Iowa, Wyoming, Michigan, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Kansas, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Ohio.
The CDC has reported that 13 agricultural workers have been diagnosed with confirmed cases of bird flu since April. The most recent cases involved three workers at a Colorado poultry farm. All “were working directly with infected poultry at a commercial egg layer operation that had reported an outbreak of H5 bird flu among poultry,” the CDC reported.
The CDC reported that most reported cases occurred in workers who were not wearing the recommended personal protective equipment to minimize the flu’s infection.
Here are two additional recommendations from the CDC:
“People should avoid unprotected exposures to sick or dead animals, including wild birds, poultry, other domesticated birds, and other wild or domesticated animals (including cows).
People should also avoid unprotected exposures to animal feces (poop), bedding (litter), unpasteurized (“raw”) milk, or materials that have been touched by, or close to, birds or other animals with suspected or confirmed A(H5N1) virus.”
Some of the Colorado workers may have become infected in conditions exacerbated by extreme heat. Temperatures soared to nearly 100 degrees, necessitating the use of giant fans. But those fans could have also circulated virus-laden bird feathers.
RELATED: The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports on what happened to Colorado poultry workers who got sick from avian influenza, how high temperatures added to the difficulties, and how workers go through the laborious task of culling a flock of 1.8 million chickens at the facility. Read that here.
The CDC’s $5 million allocation on how to protect workers from bird flu infection will go to organizations like the National Center for Farmworker Health, a Texas-based non-profit that provides services impacting the health of farmworkers families, including migrants. Access information from the National Center for Farmworkers Health here.
The $5 million for vaccinations would help the CDC reach its goal of vaccinating 200,000 livestock workers this year, according to Reuters.
