The study released Aug. 1 analyzed 14 dairy farms from two different regions in California. At those farms, bird flu was detected in the air inside milking parlours as well as in exhaled breath from cows, which would infect both cattle and workers. The virus was also found in the water used to clean the parlours and milking equipment.

Why it matters: While Canadian dairy cattle have escaped bird flu infections so far, poultry farms in some regions have been hammered by the disease.

Some cattle that showed no symptoms of illness were also carriers of bird flu, the study added. However, mastitis found in cattle did not always correlate with bird flu infections.

A potential vaccine against the H5N1 bird flu strain has tested well in non-human primates.

Novavax released pre-clinical data on Aug. 1, which showed strong immune responses in the test subjects with one and two doses of the vaccine, which was administered by injection and by nasal spray.

“Our findings indicate that a single (intramuscular) dose of (the) vaccine might serve as an effective pandemic vaccine in individuals with pre-existing seasonal influenza immunity from vaccination or infection,” Novavax said in a news release.

Brazil’s agriculture minister Carlos Favaro told reporters on Aug. 4 that Chile will re-open its borders to Brazilian poultry.
Chile becomes part of a growing list of countries that have removed restrictions on poultry imports from Brazil, which were implemented after a commercial farm tested positive in May. However, China, the European Union, Canada, Malaysia, East Timor, North Macedonia and Pakistan are still prohibiting all poultry from the South American country. Sixteen other countries have partial restrictions.

In Canada, there are only five premises currently infected with bird flu, the CFIA reported. No Canadian cattle have been infected with the virus.

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The suspension is another disruption to the nation’s food safety programs after the termination and departure of 20,000 employees of the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the FDA, as part of President Donald Trump’s effort to shrink the federal workforce.

The FDA this month also suspended existing and developing programs that ensured accurate testing for bird flu in milk and cheese and pathogens like the parasite Cyclospora in other food products.

Effective Monday, the agency suspended its proficiency testing program for Grade “A” raw milk and finished products, according to the email sent in the morning from the FDA’s Division of Dairy Safety and addressed to “Network Laboratories.”

Grade “A” milk, or fluid milk, meets the highest sanitary standards.

The testing program was suspended because FDA’s Moffett Center Proficiency Testing Laboratory, part of its division overseeing food safety, “is no longer able to provide laboratory support for proficiency testing and data analysis,” the email said.

HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Trump administration has proposed cutting $40 billion from the agency.

The FDA’s proficiency testing programs ensure consistency and accuracy across the nation’s network of food safety laboratories. Laboratories also rely on those quality control tests to meet standards for accreditation.

“The FDA is actively evaluating alternative approaches for the upcoming fiscal year and will keep all participating laboratories informed as new information becomes available,” the email said.

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The now cancelled study hoped to examine whether beef-on-dairy calves, which are given white DairyTrace tags even if they’re bound for beef, would draw lower prices than calves with yellow beef tags.

The project, developed by University of Saskatchewan researchers for delivery by Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba’s milk boards, hoped to draw data from at least 36 farms across the Prairies. As the Dec. 1 deadline passed, there was little uptake.

In early December, Alberta Milk researcher and project lead Kira Hames said cancellation of the project would “likely indicate to us as the industry that it’s not enough of an issue for the majority of our producers to participate and put in the extra time.”

By Dec. 13, organizers had pulled the pin.

Beef-on-dairy is increasingly popular with dairy producers. As well as digging out space in a new market, beef-on-dairy crosses yield more and are relatively inexpensive to grow compared to straight dairy calves.

Beef genetics often bring lower maintenance energy costs and feed efficiency. They require fewer days to finish and produce greater retail meat yield. Meat from crosses still grades well and consistency is valued by feedlots.

However, the traceability systems for dairy and beef don’t always mix properly. Beef cattle have yellow radio-frequency identification ear tags through the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency.

DairyTrace, Canada’s national traceability program for the industry, uses white tags. With the exception of Quebec, those tags are the official traceability tool for all Canadian dairy operations.

Last year, DairyTrace’s ear tag policies changed. Producers used to have an exception enabling them put yellow button tags on newborn beef-on-dairy calves instead of white DairyTrace tags.

As of Sept. 1 2023, however, all calves born on dairy farms had to have a DairyTrace tag, including those with beef sires. The same change did away with producers’s ability to replace lost tags on cull cows with a yellow button.

System limits

Both CCIA and DairyTrace systems “have information recorded and there is some ability to transfer the information between the two, but essentially, there are some communication issues at the national level between the two programs,” Hames said.

The two-tag system also doesn’t account for crossbreeds, and the white tags risk buyers mistaking beef-on-dairy genetics with lower-value dairy calves.

“Historically, pure Holstein dairy calves are sold for less to slaughter, primarily because they don’t grow as well (as beef calves). They don’t feed as well. They tend to have longer carcasses, which holds up the slaughter line,” said Hames.

“However, now that we have this beef-on-dairy cross animal, the feed-to-gain ratio is way better for these animals, so they are able to grow quite quickly, similar to beef. They’re better carcass quality. They’re better growers. (Producers) should get more money for these crosses than they do for their pure dairy animals.”

One Eastern Canada study by Lactanet did find price differences between white- and yellow-tagged animals, although Hames noted that study did not give special consideration for beef-0n-dairy calf market performance.

“They did collect data, but we had decided that a more in-depth investigation was needed to truly compare if we’re getting price differences for these crosses with either a yellow or white tag,” she said.

Mountain or molehill?

Hames said they embarked on the project after hearing producer concerns on the issue, despite the following lack of volunteers.

At the same time, she said she has heard feedback from producers who don’t think there’s a significant price difference between beef-tagged calves and beef-on-dairy crossbreeds.

“They’re really happy with the price they’re getting from their buyers,” she noted. “The market’s been really, really good for beef-on-dairy right now. Buyers want their animals.”

Some of the disinterest may stem from dairy producers keeping those crosses, backgrounding them and selling directly to customers, bypassing the auction circuit, she added.

Derek Westeringh, a dairy producer from Warman, Sask., near Saskatoon, says market bias against beef-on-dairy calves is a problem. While he sells direct, other producers have said their white-tagged calves get 10 to 15 per cent less than their beef-tagged counterparts.

He and others who run crossbred cattle hope to get DairyTrace to reverse the 2023 changes.

“We’ve addressed this with our boards and we’re really hoping to get this issue or this mandate reversed by the ProAction committee,” he said.

The ProAction program is mandatory for all Canadian dairy farms and was developed to verify the quality and safety of Canadian milk and the health and welfare of dairy animals, among other points of sustainability.

Beef-on-dairy is financially important to a growing number of Canadian farmers, Westeringh noted.

He pointed to trade concessions in deals like the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement that led to introduction of a federal bill, Bill C-282, that would shield supply managed sectors from future trade concessions. As of Dec.12, that bill was in the report stage before the Canadian Senate.

“There’s been no growth,” Westeringh said, adding that dairy prices have not kept up with the cost of living, and beef-on-dairy has provided a valuable revenue stream.

He would like to see more collaboration between beef and dairy traceability programs, “rather than trying to create two different systems.”

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The Canadian Dairy Commission announced Nov. 1, 2024 that a decline in feed prices and the stabilization of other costs on dairy farms across the country means that the benchmark on-farm price for milk will decline by 0.0237 per cent starting in February 2025.

Why it matters: The set price for milk will help dairy producers plan for their business operations in 2025.

An increase in the consumer price index, which determines half of the milk price kept the decline in milk price from being greater.

A part of the supply management system, the Canadian Dairy Commission is the quasi-governmental body which determines farm-gate milk pricing in Canada.

The price that consumers pay at the grocery store for milk is influenced by the farm-gate milk price, but also other costs added by different steps in the supply chain.

The final price that farmers receive for their milk is also affected by regional dairy consumption trends and the world price for milk.

The 2025 farm-gate milk price reflects the lack of exceptional circumstances that have affected the price of milk during and after the COVID pandemic.

The Canadian Dairy Commission has been criticized for its lack of transparency, but a technical briefing held in advance of the announcement was attended by only two trade media journalists and one mainstream journalist from Quebec.

How is milk price determined?
The price for milk at the farm is determined by a cost production survey of 250 farms of different production types across the country. Survey results have a statistical margin of error of two per cent.

The 2023 indexed cost of production was $93.09 per hectolitre. The 2024 price, which takes into account the 2023 survey, and then an indexing of information from three months ending in August, shows a cost of production of $90.36 per hectolitre, a decline of 2.93 per cent, mostly based on the drop in the cost of feed, as global crop prices have declined in 2024.

Trend lines also show a stabilization of production costs in 2024, compared to 2022 and 2023.

The milk price is half based on the indexed cost of production and half on the consumer price index, which has increased 2.89 per cent, leading to a decrease in the farm gate milk price of 0.0237 per cent.

The 2023 cost of production survey results can be found here.

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But my recent field research on dairy farms suggests emissions from slurry, cattle dung mixed with water, could be four to five times greater than the official government estimates.

While most attention is focused on enteric emissions, largely the burps from the animals themselves, my new study with colleagues means that much more attention needs to be paid to how to reduce methane emissions from storing slurry.

Fortunately, new technologies can capture, process and use methane from slurry and turn it into a valuable resource – biomethane. Where there’s muck there’s money, the Victorians used to say, and this is no truer than in the reduction of livestock methane emissions to address the net zero challenge.

The UK government’s national inventory report on greenhouse gas emissions says that methane emissions from dairy cattle comprise 75 per cent enteric emissions and 25 per cent emissions from manure management – that’s the storage and spreading of livestock poo. These calculations are based on a methodology developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, involving a complex formula based on the number of animals, what they are fed, environmental conditions and so on.

Scientists seem comfortable with these existing enteric emissions calculations, but the formula for calculating emissions from manure management is now coming into question as field studies around the world find these emissions are often higher than assumed.

My colleagues and I monitored emissions from the slurry lagoons on two dairy farms in Cornwall for a year. The lagoons, which hold slurry in concrete-lined pits, were installed with airtight covers and the gas released from the slurry was collected and weighed.

On one farm, we found methane emissions were almost four times greater than that were reported by the UK government to the UN (145kg per cow per year, rather than 38kg).

On the second farm, methane emissions were more than five times greater (198kg per cow per year). If these figures are representative – and more research is needed to confirm this – then much more methane is coming from slurry storage than previously thought. The ratio of enteric to manure management could be closer to 50:50, and the total methane emissions from the dairy sector would be around 40% greater than the UK government officially reports.

There has been a lot of attention paid to addressing enteric emissions, but the slurry question has been treated as much less of a priority in comparison.

Approximately two-thirds of dairy cows across a total of 12,500 farms in the UK are on slurry systems.

Technological advances do offer solutions. The biogas industry is developing techniques to capture methane by covering slurry storage facilities. The methane gas is then cleaned and compressed and available as a fuel source.

Tractor manufacturers have developed tractors that run on methane, and businesses and local councils are exploring converting vehicle fleets to run on the gas. Methane captured from slurry storage can heat and power farm buildings.

Some of this technology is already up and running in Cornwall and beyond. Our estimates show that this energy saving could be worth tens of thousands of pounds to dairy farmers with an average-sized herd of milking cows. Biogas from slurry could be of huge value to the UK’s agriculture sector, too – potentially in the order of £400 to £500 million a year, according to our calculations.

So reducing greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture can bring economic opportunities for farmers. The next challenge is to explore how these new supply chains for biomethane can be rapidly developed.

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More than 190 herds have been infected across the U.S. since March, along with 13 dairy and poultry farm workers, according to federal data. No human cases were confirmed in California, and the virus remains a low risk to the general public.

Efforts to prevent the spread of the virus were being seen at state fairs around the U.S., including he use of fake cows for milking demonstrations, increased testing, quarantines and cancelations of events in some states, according to reports.

Meanwhile, the Philippines lifted its ban on importing domesticated and wild birds, including poultry products, from California and South Dakota, Manila’s farm ministry said on Aug. 31. The Philippines imposed the temporary ban on California in January and on South Dakota in November last year after confirmed outbreaks of H5N1 subtype of the highly pathogenic avian influenza, which has killed millions of infected birds and poultry.

In Canada, there have yet to be any confirmed cases of bird flu in dairy cattle with the last outbreak in a commercial poultry flock coming six months ago. However, cases in wild birds continue to be found. In it’s Sep. 4 report the World Organisation for Animal Health revealed cases of bird flu in wild birds in Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Ontario. Only one primary control zone for highly pathogenetic avian influenza (HPAI) remains active in Canada. That zone involves a premises in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, where the presence of HPAI was found in a backyard poultry flock on November 15, 2023.

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Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control said the risk to humans remains low. The CDC noted it’s monitoring more than 500 people with 45 tested for bird flu. As the CDC said the [A}H5N1 strain that killed a dairy farm worker in Texas about three months ago was found to be lethal in ferrets used in experiments that were designed to mimic the disease in humans.

So far, U.S. and state scientists believe bird flu is spread among animals and humans through infected milk, aerosolized milk droplets or exposure to infected birds and poultry. They are planning to research the potential for the disease to be spread by respiratory means among dairy cattle.

Work on vaccines was now underway, with U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announcing 24 companies are involved. However, Vilsack warned their work could take years to develop a viable vaccine.

Internationally, a four-year-old boy in the Indian state of West Bengal contracted H9N2 bird flu, according to the World Health Organization on June 11.

Then on the Farne Islands, located off of the United Kingdom’s North Sea coast, more than 9,600 seabirds have succumbed to bird flu. The islands have been closed to visitors for the next two years.

In Canada, Prince Edward Island reported bird flu found in skunks, racoons and foxes. It’s believed the animals contracted the disease by eating infected dead bird.

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Bird flu has infected 90 dairy herds across 12 states since late March, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Three dairy farm workers also have been infected with the virus, two in Michigan and one in Texas.

A vaccine could curb the risk of bird flu spreading to new species and lessen potential economic losses for dairy farmers, but may take years to develop.

Animal healthcare company Zoetis ZTS.N said it started development of a vaccine for dairy cattle this spring.

Merck MRK.N Animal Health said it is evaluating technologies and strategies that would allow for timely responses to emerging diseases, including bird flu in cattle.

In addition to the two dozen companies working at varying stages of vaccine development, the USDA is conducting its own preliminary research into a vaccine at its laboratory in Ames, Iowa, Vilsack said in an interview.

The agency is looking for a vaccine candidate to test for efficacy, he said.

“That could happen tomorrow, or it could take six months, or it could take a year,” Vilsack said.

The agency’s other efforts on bird flu include research into potential respiratory spread of the virus between cows and providing support to farmers to increase biosecurity on farms.

While wild birds were a major vector for bringing bird flu to poultry farms, the main risks to spread on dairy farms appear to be the movement of people and equipment, he said.

“For dairy cows, it isn’t about migratory birds, it’s about cows moving, it’s about people, vehicles and equipment that may have virus they don’t even realize that they’re carrying,” he said. “That’s why the biosecurity becomes just incredibly, incredibly important.”

A pilot program for bulk milk testing will be rolled out “in the very near future,” Vilsack said. The program is meant to expand testing for the virus while enabling healthy herds to move across state lines without negative tests from each cow.

Michigan and Idaho are among states that have expressed interest in the program, Vilsack said.

– Additional reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago

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Meat from the animals was prevented from entering the nation’s food supply, USDA said.

Agriculture and health officials have scaled up testing of meat and dairy products and livestock, as an outbreak of bird flu has expanded in dairy cattle.

Two U.S. dairy workers have tested positive for bird flu since the virus was first detected in cattle in late March.

Older dairy cows are often processed for hamburger meat. USDA’s testing results come at the start of peak U.S. grilling season around the U.S. Memorial Day weekend.

To date, USDA said it has completed testing on beef tissue from 96 of 109 muscle samples that were collected as part of a meat safety study.

The agency said it collected tissue samples at slaughter facilities from dairy cattle that were condemned for systemic diseases and then analyzed them using PCR testing. The testing does not differentiate between live virus or fragments, USDA said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration previously said it found viral particles in pasteurized milk samples from retail stores, but they did not contain live virus. The FDA has warned against consuming raw unpasteurized milk.

USDA personnel identified signs of illness in the positive cow during a routine post-mortem inspection and prevented its meat from entering the food supply, according to USDA.

“These actions provide further confidence that the food safety system we have in place is working,” the agency said.

USDA has confirmed bird flu in 58 dairy herds across nine states.

It previously reported that no viral particles were found in samples of ground beef collected at retail stores, and that no bird flu virus was found after cooking ground beef to medium to well done, after it was injected with a virus surrogate as part of an experiment.

—Reporting for Reuters by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru and Tom Polansek in Chicago

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This is a serious virus that has infected poultry in 50 American states since 2022. The person infected in April is the second U.S. human case since then. The person was working on a dairy farm where cattle tested positive for AI. The first person to contract AI in 2022 was working with an infected flock.

In poultry, this virus requires full depopulation once diagnosed. Cattle do not normally die from AI, although they can develop secondary infections from respiratory complications and their productive capabilities are affected.

The World Health Organization has posted that over the last 11 years, more than 400 people have died from AI, which is about 50 per cent of the total infections reported in humans globally. The triple threat in the current situation is unusual because the virus moved through three species.

It is not new for a zoonotic disease to cross from one species to another. For example, a dead bird from the wild with avian influenza can infect the resident dogs or cats.

The American Association of Bovine Practitioners has renamed the virus in cattle to Bovine Influenza A Virus. A recent U.S. survey found around 20 per cent of samples contained “particles” of the virus, which suggests the outbreak is more widespread in dairy cattle than previously thought. Further testing using egg inoculation tests, considered most accurate, have shown pasteurization kills the virus.

The trade of dairy cattle between states and territories and some countries has halted and Canada is monitoring the situation. The cause of the pathogenic parade has not been clearly identified. Were there dead birds, either domestic or wild, on the infected dairy farm that also infected dogs and cats and then a human?

Were the cattle fed chicken litter from infected barns? Speculation is currently focused on the latter. In the United States it is legal and common to feed chicken litter to cattle. It is not recommended for lactating cows and there is a withdrawal period in fed cattle to ensure antimicrobials from the litter do not appear in carcasses.

There are no forbidding regulations in any other class of bovine. Poultry litter consists of the manure, bedding and any other shedding found on the barn floor. In the United States, this can be used as feed that is composted, ensiled, made into pellets, sprayed with acid to lower the pH or served ‘as is’ and mixed with or top dressed on the ration.

This is not allowed in Canada. Poultry litter cannot be fed to cattle. With the use of antimicrobials in the average American large production barn and the high incidence of infection in the past two years, it would seem sensible to discontinue or ban the use of poultry litter in cattle feed.

Then traces of antimicrobials and growth promotants, infected feces and body parts would be kept out of meat and milk and would reduce the risk of disease transmission.

At the heart of this is the question of why. It is 2024 and we cannot say we have come a long way when science and research are trumped by an anachronistic practice of feeding manure. With all the advances in feed science and a strong veterinary community, there are other ways of knowing and doing. One drives the other.

There are about 9.5 billion chickens slaughtered in the United States every year that each produce 100 grams of manure each day. That’s a lot of litter. The protein content in the floor scraps is used in the diets of some of the 89 million head of American cattle.

The poultry, milk and beef production, of which dairy cattle are part, feed the population of the United States and their trading partners, including Canada. Therein lies the concern.

Of the beef imported into Canada, 60 per cent comes from the U.S., where feeding protocols are not reciprocal. American milk is now sold in Canada, although it is unlikely that lactating cows are fed poultry litter because this is not recommended. But many herds in different states are now reporting avian influenza, and the common denominator has yet to be proven.

This occurs at a time when U.S. officials have identified a lack of readiness and compliance for the Food Safety Modernization Act and during the ongoing federal antitrust investigation for anticompetitive conduct, bid rigging and price fixing in the broiler chicken industry.

In watching American systems fail, we are reminded how quickly the practice in one industry has potential to damage another and threaten human health.

Though Canada’s food production system is one of the safest in the world, we must remain diligent in improving it. Every day we must endeavour to protect our farm workers, serve our consumers clean and safe food, ensure we have the latest in science and innovation to back up our practices and always put animal well-being first — honouring them in every aspect of their lives for the food they provide.

Brenda Schoepp works as an international mentor and motivational speaker. She can be contacted through her website at www.brendaschoepp.com.

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